I am Collette, known as Letty. I am 40-year-old female who has 3 children 18,16 and 4 years
old. I have a loving husband which I have been with for nearly 12 years. I am the youngest of 3 sisters and I love them dearly.
I have a diagnosis of Bipolar, which was diagnosed when I was 34 years old but lived with Cyclothymia all my life, which I wasn’t aware of.
I have been a Mechanical Engineer in Aeronautics for 6 years, Primary school teacher for 12 years and now a highly successful Project Manager. Bet you are thinking what? Why all the changes and as my son would say ‘when life throws you lemons, chuck them at someone’.
So, in a way if I feel that this runs true in my life, when someone doesn’t show me my self-worth and then I throw the lemons and back and change my path.
At an early age, change was going to be a big part of my life. My dad left when I was 3 and my mum had to stand on her own and raise 3 children and as a child having a single parent, kids could be cruel. When I was 7, my family was made homeless where we stayed in hostels for 2 years, we had no money, but had the most amazing grandparents that would help, support and make sure we were well cared for. This was tough being the child that only had paste sandwiches and the banana sandwiches (who would think that was even a thing!) to eat.
Between the ages of 13 – 18 I was always in trouble, police, drinking, anger issues, mood
swings. You would say, that’s just being a teenager, but this was different. What I did wasn’t
reasonable and was out of control. Within this time I suffered with Anorexia episodes several
times in my life, now have body dysmorphia, I had to be admitted a few times.
I went through life as everybody did and developed my several careers, married my first
husband at 22, divorced by 28 and a single mum.
I met my husband and life was great for years, then started trying for our little one. This is where our life was turned upside down, had my first ectopic pregnancy in 2017 and one tube removed.
We were then granted the opportunity to go through IVF, then fell pregnant naturally, this is
where things got rough, I nearly lost my life due to the tube bursting point. The tube then got
removed. I now have no tubes. I had a breakdown and was diagnosed with bipolar.
As you can see this has been a chain of events over the course of my life and I have always
lacked confidence in my abilities and always make apologies for everything I do, even when I
wasn’t me that needed to say sorry. My body confidence always lacks and is a massive trigger.
To overcome this:
I concentrate on my exercise and nutrition. I must keep myself in check, make sure I have time for myself. Self-preservation is key. I remind myself everyday what my actions have done to my family in the past and want to support them the best way I know how.
The true success to the way I manage my world has made us very lucky people and we now have a lovely 4 year old, under IVF and my older 2 are just purely amazing and I am so proud of them all.
I am so much stronger to do what I do, I am more confident, I have seen that I can do things
and not blame myself for other actions. Just be myself and take every opportunity I come
across. Don’t be hard one yourself and remind myself everyday what I can achieve.
Remember:
Never judge a moment, always think there are 2 sides of the coin and the side you
are on, may not be the same at that time and moment for other people.
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