[WendyAussie]

Gidday, I am new to the site so thought I would introduce myself specifically in the Sleep Group as it is a major part of my complex problems.

I am an Australian woman with Bipolar II, panic and anxiety disorders and I am also an 11 years sober alcoholic in AA. I post on other mental health sites, but have been looking for a new one - this site looks great.

Some dodgy genes and an horrific childhood left me with these illnesses. I pulled out all stops to get a life for myself, did three tertiary qualifications and had a wonderful career in PR and Communications, which of course was made much more difficult due to addiction and mental illness. I had begun blackout drinking at 14 and drank to 32 when I started in AA. I was undiagnosed with mental illness until I was 35 and I now know I had Early Onset Mental illness.

Unfortunatley once I started with psychiatrists at 35, I was to commence a period of horror, loss and devastation as a result of being mis-medicated with SSRI's for 6/7 years (I know that many Bipolars NEED those meds, but they are contraindicated for me). This period and it follow-up was so much worse than the worst of my drinking - and I had been a blackout drinker for 18 years, with all that goes with it. I lost my career, my house, my friends and family (who aren't prepared to learn about Bipolar - they just want to judge).

I moved from the city to a town in mid 2008, three months after I nearly lost my life and a psychiatrist here soon established that I should NEVER have been on SSRI's. I am still living with the consequences, but the slow, one step froward two steps back path to recovery has moved forward ever so slowly, but I am still fighting the good fight.

I would LOVE to chat.

Wendy