Let me set the scene. In March 2019, I was in a pretty bad way. I had involuntarily been locked up in a psychiatric ward at the Logan Hospital, south of Brisbane. I spent roughly two weeks there, and hated every.single.minute. When I was able to be released and sent home to be with my very loving family, I was left with a lot of medical leave and not much else to occupy my time.
I recall vividly sitting by my Macbook laptop one morning and it sort of just clicked inside my head: right there and there I was going to write a book about the whole ordeal.
I did not ever plan to write a book, or even remotely have a story worth being told. I was just a regular guy, you see. Nothing too exciting about that!
I started writing because I think that what had happened to me was a rare thing. It was so strange and weird, and an experience I had never heard of before. Sure, the terms ‘psycho’ and ‘crazy’ and ‘nutter’ get thrown around from time to time, but I never thought it would personally impact me. I guess you never think of it until it happens to you, you know?
Because I had only just come out of hospital, it was still so fresh in my mind. So I did what I could to take notes and starting writing it down for real. Significant mind traumas can do a lot of harm to your memory, so I did what I could to reduce that.
With the help of my parents and my girlfriend at the time, I was able to piece things together one bit at a time… and that’s how it began.
The story to now
Flash way, way forward to 2014, and I’m about to have a book launch for the very piece of writing that I started all that time ago. I called it A Ballad From a Bruised Brain, because, well, it is what it is.
The book revolves around me living day to day with bipolar and schizoaffective disorders. It’s about the good days and the bad days and everything in between. It’s an honest portrayal of what living with a mental illness is really like. It’s about my lived experience and how I got through it all, one day at a time.
Some of the topics I talk about include:
- starting on and taking prescription medication
- surviving mental health wards
- therapy and rehabilitation
- mental health in the workplace
- dealing with loss and relationship breakups
- dealing with my mind
I have been as honest as I can be with this book, and hope that it inspires someone out there to get support or help to better understand themselves and the lives they live.
It’ll be hard and confronting for a lot of people to read this story, but I promise that it’s for a reason.
I hope you enjoy it.
Love,
Zak
Tales from a Bruised Mind 
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