Tales from a Bruised Mind

I’m only 26 years old, but I’ve got quite the story to tell.

In my book, A Ballad from a Bruised Brain, I touched on some of my family life, my childhood and more, but I thought this blog post may answer some questions you may have!

Let me break this up into a couple of core chapters: childhood, high school, university and working life so far. Here we go!

Childhood

I was born on the 1 April 1998 in the suburb of South Brisbane. My Mum’s name is Paula and my Dad is Christopher, or Chris as he prefers! I have one brother called Ben. He’s seven years older than me and although we are not blood related (he’s adopted, more on this later!), we share a lot of the same traits. I must say Mum and Dad raised us pretty good, I reckon!

Ben and I grew up in an awesome household in the suburb of Holland Park West. It was (and still is) a pretty leafy suburb and great for families. We had a lot of fun over the years.

In 2003, I started preschool and went to a little school pretty close to our house. I made a lot of brilliant friends there, some of which I am still close with to this day. In 2004, I began grade one at Marshall Road State School, a pretty small school but I remember I had a lot of fun and had great teachers!

I did the first four years of schooling at MRSS, but then moved schools to a Roman Catholic private boys school, Villanova College, and started there in grade five. As Villanova was a grade five to 12 school, I did junior, middle and senior school all in the one place!

Like my brother, I was big into the music scene and played cello from grade three right through to grade 12 and beyond. I loved music. Not just listening to it, but also getting to play in big orchestras with some big names in the industry, like the Ten Tenors, famous Aussie trumpeter James Morrison and more!

High school

As I got into high school, things got a little bit more tricky for me. I started to struggle a lot with my mental health from about grade 10 onwards. My home life was great but clicky groups at school, some bullying and relationship debacles made it a very challenging time for me.

Despite these challenges, I loved doing my humanities subjects, including English, English Extension, Modern History and even Legal Studies. I worked pretty hard at school and was pushed to do well thanks to my lovely parents. I also did well in music and performed occasionally on stage (I had a lot of anxiety and stage fright by this stage).

I was able to travel with school to places such as the USA and Tasmania with music which are still very special memories for me. I was fortunate enough to record at Disneyland Studios and later sing solo on stage at Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth!

Through Years 11 and 12, my mental health deteriorated quite drastically. I lost a lot of weight because I had issues with anxiety and eating, as well as dealing with just the general stresses of life for a high school student (high school can be hard for a lot of kids, no joke!).

During this time, I had a pretty serious (or what I thought was serious) relationship with my girlfriend. I thought I was in love and really appreciated her a lot. But the truth is she treated me like dirt and made me feel tiny. It was an awful thing to experience.

I began to think that all relationships would be like this and it got me pretty worried and worked up. I broke up with her in Year 12 and have fortunately not seen her since!

When the end of Year 12 and graduation came around, I was happy to see school finished.

University

Between Grade 12 and university, I just took some time to stay well and work out what I wanted to do. I always wanted to be a motoring writer and presenter, but a lot of people tried to push me away from that dream. A lot of people said it was impossible or that it wouldn’t be worth the struggle!

Regardless of that fact, I got the OP (student score) I needed to get into a Bachelor of Journalism degree at QUT. I was absolutely over the moon about it!

From 2016 to 2018, I completed my bachelor’s degree, doing practical work with TV, radio and working in a newsroom. I love the practical nature of the degree. It made a huge difference , and as cliche as it is to say, prepared me for the real world!

Around the start of 2017, I met a girl who changed my life forever. She was gorgeous, beautiful and very intelligent. We immediately hit it off. We just had that amazing connection from the get-go. We understood one another and bonded quickly. Each and every day, I had to blink to check I wasn’t dreaming – I had the girl of my dreams and I was studying in my dream field.

I guess if I had’ve looked at myself at that time from when I was a kid, I would have been pretty chuffed with myself. My girlfriend and I dated for quite a long time and we got pretty serious. We even moved out together at one stage. A lot like my own parents, we spent every single minute with each other and loved it very much.

As our relationship intensified, my university grades began to drop a bit. I was spending more time with my girlfriend than writing my work! But I was really happy, so I thought that justified things.

It was cool that my girlfriend and I graduated university with the same degree on the same day. It was one of those awesome life moments that I’ll just never be able to forget.

But that’s where I have to press pause a bit on the happiness…

Working life, mind unravels

When my girlfriend and I finished our degrees, one of the hardest parts of life moving forward was actually finding a bloody job! By October/November 2018, we had finished our degrees and I was working at Nike selling shoe after shoe.

But in March 2019, my life changed forever. I had a big mental meltdown and suffered a serious psychotic episode. I was sent to hospital and spent two weeks in a locked psychiatric facility at the Logan Hospital. I thought my life was well and truly in the bin.

My girlfriend stuck by me through that whole ordeal, as did my family and friends. When I came home, I went into a period of recovery. I had a big 21st birthday party to celebrate, well, my birthday, but also living through one of the hardest events of my life so far. I spent nearly a year in therapy and rehabilitation. I spent countless hours at the doctors, I went on new medications and I even helped give a bit of my brain to research. I mostly just tried to get my life back in order and to learn from the past. Basically learning how to prevent a relapse.

As COVID-19 reached Australia toward the end of 2019, I was working at my uncles rope business and I had also gained a Cadetship for six-months with the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland, better known as RACQ. I worked with the editorial team there and wrote loads of interesting motoring content. As my six months came to an end, at almost the exact same time, COVID-19 lockdowns in Brisbane began.

I remember I spent most of the time at home reading book after book and going to the park to throw the frisbee with my girlfriend. It was a terribly boring time as we couldn’t go more than five kilometres from home. Eventually, I got another job with an insurance company based in West End, near the Brisbane city.

But I wasn’t there too long, as my mental health began to deteriorate further.

In December 2020, I unfortunately relapsed and spend close to three weeks in psychiatric care.

When I came out the other side, my girlfriend broke up with me and called it a day on what I thought was the most amazing relationship. We had been together close to four years. I was devastated and heartbroken and it put me in a very dark place. Once again, I thought my life, my great life, was over.

But despite having a terrible dose of psychosis and many, many hours of care, I bounced back again and moved forward with my life, no matter how hard it seemed to be at the time.

Now, I live in Sydney and work as a motoring journalist and presenter for a company called Chasing Cars. It’s my dream job and I’m so happy to have it. It was bloody hard to get, so it means the world to me to be able to experience this career just as I always imagined it.

I’ve just clicked over three years with the company and can’t wait for the next three. I have come a long way since high school, that’s absolutely certain. Let’s dive into a few key facts you may not know about me!

Some fast facts about me, Zakary Emmett Adkins

City of origin: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Place of birth: Mater Mothers Hospital in South Brisbane

Date of birth: 1 April 1998 at 10:04am

Childhood home: Holland Park West, in Brisbane

Primary School: Marshall Road State School

Secondary/ high school: Villanova College, Coorparoo

Favourite high school subject: English (of course), Modern History and Music

Choice of musical instrument: Cello

Gap year? Nope, straight to university!

What did I study? Bachelor of Journalism

Where did I study? The Queensland University of Technology at Kelvin Grove, Brisbane

Favourite university subject: Newswriting, something I now do almost every day!

Most common topic researched at uni: cars (of course)

Graduation certificate? Yep! Journalism with a minor in Advanced Journalism and Public Relations

Best internship? That would definitely be with the now sadly defunct MOTOR Magazine in Melbourne. I spent four weeks down south with the MOTOR team and learnt a lot. A core memory is going to the Yarra Valley with a V8 Ford Mustang!

First paid motoring role: That was at RACQ where I was mentored by journalists Barry Green, Deb Ecclestone and Ged Bulmer. A really great six months. I wish it went for longer!

First ever road test: That was with Barry Green for a comparison between two of the very first electric cars, a BMW i3 and a Nissan Leaf. I had to pinch myself that I got to do this! I remember how hard it was to find an electric vehicle charger in 2019!

First mental episode: A Sunday in March 2019. Not my finest hour

First time in hospital? March 2019, I had a long stay in Logan Hospital

What caused the episode? The doctors said it was stress induced.

First job post episode? Working at my family business with my uncle, then with Shannon Insurance as an underwriter

Motoring Zak facts

First motoring job post episode? I remember going to coffee with Alborz Fallah (founder of the CarAdvice and Carexpert motoring sites) and he brought me on as a contributor. I worked at home through COVID and did lots of news writing for CarExpert. I learnt a lot!

First full-time motoring position: That would be my current role with Chasing Cars. I started at the head office in Toowong, Brisbane and later relocated to Sydney to join the team. And I’m still here!

First press car driven: Subaru Outback

First written road test: I can’t even remember! Possibly the Suzuki Ignis, which I’ll happily say was not very good!

First video on YouTube: My Kia Picanto GT long term video

First car launch: Previous-generation Mini Cooper Electric in Sydney

First road trip for work: Driving three utes to the outback (Broken Hill) in February 2022

First interstate trip for work: Isuzu D-Max and MU-X in Queensland, December 2022

Favourite car driven: 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (in an awesome bright yellow colour!)

First-ever international trip: Travelled to the IAA Mobility show in Munich, Germany with BMW and Mini!

Favourite personal accomplishment/video: Hard to say, but likely to be producing the most recent Car of the Year and EV of the Year. Lots of hard work went into making it an awesome couple of events!

Mental health facts

First bout of anxiety: probably when I was a very little kid

Childhood fears: claustrophobia and flying

First time seeing a psychologist: Grade 12, 2015

First time on medication for MH: 2016, Sertraline (anti-depressant)

First episode: March 2019

Second Episode: December 2020

Third Episode: June 2022 in Sydney

Fourth Episode: November 2023 in Sydney

How do I feel now? Best I have been in many years!

Okay, so I’ve gone a bit overboard here, but this aims to set things straight about what I’ve been doing in this life so far.

Thanks,

Zak