By Lorraine Blackburn ISBN: 9781847471130 Published: 2007 Pages: 86 Key Themes: self-harm, mental health services, recovery Description This book gives an interesting account of her life which involved going into hospital, self-harming, etc. It portrays the uncertainty she felt and how she tried to understand herself. The aim of this book is to make lay people and professionals more aware of this issue and to let other patients know that they are not alone. It gives you hope and sees people with poor mental health as survivors rather than sufferers About the Author Lorraine Blackburn is 35 years of age and has clinical depression. She was wrongly diagnosed for 18 years with bi-polar disorder. She has now overcome her condition and wants people to know that they are not alone Book Extract Right that's it - I'm starting now, this minute, second even. Don't ask me why, I'm unsure of everything in my life at the moment. The only thing I do know, if I don't start writing now my brain along with the rest of my body will explode. There are only so many times you can go around the hospital grounds trying to march it off. If you have never suffered with mental illness, or even stress and anxiety, I guess you will be wondering what I am talking about. It's a long story but hopefully you will have found the answer to at least this, if nothing else, by the end of this book. I'm 34 years old and have been told that I have experienced ten lives into my one. I know I have journeyed through thousands of experiences; many bad, some ok, others good and a few life changing, most of which I shall try to share with you. I have lived with poor mental health or bad mental illness whichever way you'd like to view it, since a teenager. I've had many diagnoses; nightmares/overactive mind as a child, bad premenstrual syndrome as an early teenager, anxiety and depression in my later teens and early twenties, closely followed by post-natal depression in the remainder of my twenties.