My Recovery Journey
Depression really hit me back in the 90s.
I wish I knew then what I know now. When you understand your condition it makes it easier to cope with it. I now understand what my triggers are so I have strategies that I can use to manage it.
I had depression and anxiety for years, but when I had a relapse in November 2010 I spent two weeks in hospital. After that I was discharged into a supported residential services (SRS) site. My marriage had broken down and I needed somewhere to live – but I wasn’t ready to get my own place.
As part of my recovery I knew I wanted to get back into work- but I had sold up my farm and knew I needed to do something different. I talked to my case manager at St Vincent’s about this, and she talked to someone from Mental Illness Fellowship Victoria’s recruitment team. I started by getting a shift of cleaning work at Mental Illness Fellowship Victoria (MI Fellowship) with their MI Cleaning social enterprise, and then the next day I was given an offer of permanent work. I now work around 35 hours a week, but back then I started on 15 hours.
Working at MI Fellowship’s offices I got to see all the pamphlets and information about their services.
I am currently doing the MI Recovery course, which is a program for people with mental illness, run by someone who has been there, that helps you manage your condition and make positive changes in your life.
I’ve also found a new psychiatrist to help me focus on strategies to help me recognise the warning signs so I don’t get ill again. I now put these into place to help me manage. I make sure I get exercise; I go swimming during the day. I also make sure I get out and visit my sister or brother rather than sitting at home. I talk to people at my work.
I thought there wasn’t anywhere for someone like me to go. But through MI Fellowship I have learnt so much.
By doing the Speakers Bureau course I have found out a lot about myself. Speakers Bureau is a great program where people with experience of mental illness are trained in how to write and give presentations on their experience of mental illness. Just the other day I talked about my personal experience with a donor who was interested in funding some of MI Fellowship’s work.
I’m also doing a computer course. I’m really enjoying that. I like doing the homework and also it’s good to do stuff that is not just about mental well-being. Next up I am planning on doing a cookery course.
When I was living at a local supported residential service (SRS) it was bearable at first.
But then the SRS changed ownership and with that the number and type of residents changed. There were many more young people there, mostly with drug or forensic histories. I know the SRS can help some people, but to me it wasn’t what I needed
I started looking for somewhere else to live, including trying to find a flat to rent. But I didn’t have any luck. Things at the SRS were getting worse. Living there made me feel isolated because of my mental illness. I didn’t tell people where I lived and I didn’t want to make friends because I didn’t want anyone to know where I lived. Also being there wasn’t helping me. I couldn’t choose my own meals, had to do my laundry only on the rostered days and didn’t have to shop for food.
I talked to my manager at MI Cleaning about my problems with housing, and he put me in contact with MI Fellowship’s Doorway housing project. The support I got through Doorway was so important. I couldn’t have gone house hunting by myself at that stage. My Doorway worker led me through it all, and she helped me with my application and accessing government support to get the bond together.
But I’ve since moved out of the unit I got through Doorway into another rental property that I got on my own. It felt really good doing it all on my own. I am now like everybody else. I have my place, on equal terms, an equal footing. I have an address. I have a home to go to in the evening. I can cook my own meals, I’m not different.