SUNSHINE IN MY VEINS

A rare insight into what it's like to live with a mental illness - a wild ride towards a good life.

Those who know Kate Richards as a patient in the many psych wards she's occupied over the years would be shocked to find out she is a doctor. Those who know her as a doctor working in medical research at one of Melbourne's biggest private hospitals would be equally taken aback to discover that for the best part of twenty years, Kate has lived with acute psychosis, a mental illness that involves multiple personalities whose voices have been her constant companions. This is Kate's story of juggling periods of extreme madness with reasonable sanity and learning how to live in a high-functioning manner. Kate brings a doctor's detachment to her own experience of living in two worlds, swinging between the extremes of neglect and self-harm to periods of 'dull reality' the daily grind, as we know it. She takes us right inside her world and out the other side. Kate's story offers hope to those affected by mental illness. Kate Richards presents as a very ordinary woman in her mid-thirties. When you talk to her, you find an astute person who doesn't waste her words, with a wry sense of humour. Kate is a trained doctor, currently working full time in medical research at one of Melbourne's largest private hospitals. For the past twenty or so years, she has lived with acute psychosis, a mental illness that involves multiple personalities. She has juggled periods of madness and sanity and has learned how to live with it in a way most of us would consider to be high functioning.