SUE ANDERSON

After being withdrawn from a language scholarship at high school, serving a printing apprenticeship, attending night school to qualify for university, waiting tables and cleaning houses to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts (Industrial Relations / Philosophy), Sue Anderson shows the most interesting lives wander a scenic route rather than barrel straight down a highway.
 
And as we all are, Sue is also informed by ancestry and childhood. The middle child of a shot-gun union, ‘help’ for her mother’s post-natal depression came from doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals, and addiction resulted. Her dad had inherited bipolar and an addiction to exercise.
 
Sue’s own symptoms of bipolar manifested at high school and yet was not diagnosed until 35, after cycling through 20 years of highs and lows, with only the briefest of respites in between.
 
But bipolar is not a life-sentence and Sue is not a victim.
 
Just as the symptoms of a bad back come and go, so too does good mental health wax and wane. Through applying insight, acceptance, acknowledgement, humour and with help, mental ill-health events can be minimised.
 
With a backpack full of skills as a writer, public speaker, facilitator and advocate, the legacy Sue wishes to leave to the world are her insights, knowledge and experiences on how to live a life better when faced with a mental health challenge.