Our biggest obstacle to mental health is something we can change together

This is the full-text of a speech I gave to a Workshop on Mental Health and Neurodiversity held by the Sydney Alliance. The Sydney Alliance has been on a remarkable journey, and is now committed to lead change on the public dimensions of mental health (for more on that journey see a speech I gave in December 2019).

When I started the Sydney Alliance I faced a conundrum. The reason why I was working so hard to set the Alliance up was too secret to share.

When I was 19 I had a psychosis. I was hospitalised and locked in a psychiatric ward for 2 months. As I recovered from that crisis I abandoned my plan of becoming a lawyer, and committed myself to a more meaningful life working for social change.

But I couldn’t imagine explaining THAT to anyone. I mean, too many people thought that the idea of the Sydney Alliance was crazy enough!

After a few trusted conversations I found a safer way to tell my story. I would explain that at age 19 I had a terrible health crisis, and that doctors told my parents that I might not recover. But having experienced the fragility of life, I wanted to make the most of what I had and that’s why I work for social change. It was still my story, just told in a way that I felt comfortable to express in public.

Slowly over many years and hundreds of conversations with Sydney Alliance leaders I found the words to talk more directly about my experience of bipolar…