Chances are you've either personally struggled with anxiety or know someone who has. That's because anxiety affects one in seven Australians.
For international best-selling author of I Quit Sugar, Sarah Wilson, there's no sugar-coating mental illness.
Anxiety is something Sarah has lived with for most of her life. To the outside world, however, it would seem she has it all: a New York Times bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, and twice-ranked as one of the top 200 most influential authors in the world.
Diagnosed with insomnia and anxiety at age 12, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in her teens, bipolar disorder in her 20s, and a debilitating immunological disease in her 30s, Sarah's search for solutions has taken her on a creative and courageous journey.
In her book First, We Make the Beast Beautiful, Sarah gives an unflinchingly honest account of her struggles with mental illness, and how anxiety doesn't have to be a negative force in your life.
"One of the reasons I wrote First, We Make the Beast Beautiful was to start a conversation about anxiety. Every chat we have about anxiety - with loved ones, friends, colleagues, strangers - brings us in closer, making us feel less lonely, which, as I explain in The Beast, allows us to do anxiety once rather than getting anxious about being anxious about being anxious…and all the bad spiral stuff," she says.
Sarah questions whether we can unravel the notion that anxiety (the beast) is something to be medicated and eradicated, or whether there is a way we can live with it, understand it, and possibly even thrive with our anxiety.
Join Sarah for a free one-hour online presentation as she talks candidly about her struggles with anxiety, loneliness and her strategies for keeping them at bay.
The event is being hosted by Maroondah City Council in partnership with Eastern Regional Libraries, EACH and Neami National.
