Grace’s Story

Dancing her way to health and happiness.

When I was 19 years old, I experienced the onset of some severe mental illness symptoms (psychosis with some hallucinations), and I was originally diagnosed as bipolar disorder, but the diagnosis was later changed to schizoaffective disorder.

During this period in my life, I was hospitalised 3 times due to my symptoms, with one stay lasting for a few months and being slightly lengthier than the other stays.

After being played on psychiatric medications for the first time and experiencing severe depression because of coming to terms with my diagnosis of mental illness and the subsequent hospitalisations, I experienced a toll on my physical health which resulted in weight gain of 25-30kg. I was originally 55-60kg. For this first time in my adult life, I was experiencing obesity.

Grace share my story image

These days I am still trying to lose some weight, but I have come further in my personal mental health journey, and I know that most important thing is to be happy, healthy and active.

I used to go to the gym regularly but have had some changes to my fitness routine and now do a lot of fitness from home as I have and exercise bike and treadmill and an online fitness program that I can stream through a smart TV. I still have a basic gym membership but actually don’t go to gym as much but do enjoy doing the odd dance class on the weekend when it doesn’t clash with my retail volunteering work. I haven’t cancelled my membership yet because my goal is still to do 2-3 classes a week when I can as sometimes it is more of a strenuous workout at gym because there is a bigger space.

I also volunteer in retail and work in business administration from home. I’ve found that my retail work in particular has kept me active in the community and I have made some nice connections.