After leaving school at 16 I trained as a secretary and went on to work for a local solicitor, then to a bank as a secretary.  In the past I have been involved with voluntary work with local Mencap, including committee work and fundraising and also befriending through Mencap. I have also been a volunteer, driving elderly people to hospital appointments. I also worked for Social Services as a Home Carer.

 When my daughter was born, after an extremely traumatic birth, I did not return to work, and suffered post natal depression, followed by periods of other depression, culminating in my first manic episode in 1997 – Ironically it was on Red Nose Day – but it was no joke!

After returning back to part time work, when my daughter was a little older, I joined the NHS. My first job with the NHS was a Health Care Assistant in an Operating Theatre. I then became a support worker, working in an Elderly Mental Health Assessment Day Hospital. I was then seconded by the NHS trust to do nurse training - mental health branch. I completed the first foundation year, and part way through my second year I became unwell again and reluctantly resigned from the course and NHS. Unfortunately, my bipolar disorder was not stable at the time, probably due to the fact that I was not taking lithium! 

As part of my recovery process I have managed to write and get published a book – “From Heights to Depths and Somewhere in Between”.  It’s a potted history of life events including my first bipolar event in 1997 up until 2008.  Details of my book can be found on the Recovery In-Sight website publication section, or from the publisher’s website – www.chipmunkapublishing.co.uk. 

I am a member of the newly formed Central Herts Recovery In-Sight Bipolar support group, based in Stevenage.  I also produce a quarterly newsletter for the Recovery In-Sight Group which gets a Hertfordshire wide coverage, as well as being posted on the Group’s website www.recoveryin-sight.com.  I hope that sometime in the not too distant future other support groups can emerge, perhaps one more local to me. I am also keen to help with research and education into issues surrounding bipolar disorder and the treatments available. Just recently I was invited to join a local practice governance committee with the NHS mental health trust, as a service user representative, which will help forge links and communication between the service users and professionals. My current topic with them is lithium monitoring.

I have gradually become more aware of how to manage my bipolar and to accept it! Also, to accept advice from family and health professionals.  Medication - for me, lithium, certainly controls the bipolar well, but also learning as much as you can about the illness and how it affects you and the medications also helps. I am currently following the In-Sight Recovery course, which is proving to be an extremely useful and practical course – it teaches you to help recognise and re-adjust changes in mood – to keep an even balance.  This is essential, as even in times of remission, bipolar disorder is always underlying – just one spark can set things off!  In the future I hope to train as a Recovery In-Sight trainer, where I can pass on what I have learned from the course, and combine it with the life experiences I have had so far in my life.