If we are going to talk about self care and work — we need to talk about mental illness.

This speech was given at a zoom workshop held by the Sydney Policy Lab about self care and work, featuring Elizabeth Broderick. This speech was delivered by Amanda Tattersall.

I am a white, middle-class woman. I helped found GetUp and the Sydney Alliance. I have a PhD and I have written a book. I have two primary school kids and I am married. You’d look at me and call me “normal”.

But I have also been detained in a psychiatric hospital for 2 months. I was sacked from a nonprofit because of my mental health. My bipolar disorder means that I live with bouts of mania and depression that bring a lot of pain and difficulty to all that I do, and repeatedly I have been undermined by others because of my mental illness. I am not normal.

If we are going to talk about self care — we need to talk about mental illness.

When I was 19 I was hospitalised with a psychosis. It changed my life. I had planned to be a lawyer, but after that I felt compelled to change the world.

So a few years later I was running to become President of the National Union of Students. But my so-called ultra-progressive opponent decided to go around and tell everyone that I was unstable. I was still elected, but I was shaken. I…