Todays guest on Join Up Dots is a lady with a fascinating but harrowing tale that could affect most of us during our lives. She is a lady who has been forced to deal with an illness that is unseen, hard to diagnose for the majority of people, not least the patient, and one that can bring a family to their knees …..Mental Illness. When our guest was a young lady at high school, she watched her mother's dreams disintegrate around her, and unable to cope with the disappointment, her Mother picked up the bottle and descended into alcoholism, whilst she descended into her first bout with depression. I suppose that is acceptable, and a perfectly reasonable response to seeing a love one in such distress and unable to reach out and help them as much as you would like. However these feelings got worse and worse, until a few years later things got so bad that she couldn't see a future and attempted suicide. Fortunately, it didn't work, and no matter how hard she battled to get her life back together, but attending and then dropping out of University, it was a battle that looked like she wasn't going to win. It wasn't until after she married her husband Wade, that her problems escalated to a point where she stopped going out, stopped eating, started throwing out the groceries, and stopped showering. Danger seemed to lurk everywhere and strangers in the shadows seemed to pose a threat. Her husband did everything he could to prevent potential break-ins and to ease her fears. She says in her own words "At that time I didn't know I was sick. It is a scary thought that I was so sick but I was completely unaware. " Now as a speaker, author and owner of her own company bringing to the fore the subject of Mental Illness and Recovery, she is a lady on a mission. And a mission that many fail to grasp they are in need of until hearing her powerful story first hand. So how did she find a path that is so inspiring, from a position of total despair. And, did she find the writing of her book Being Mentally Healthy (in spite of a mental iIlness) a challenge or a cathartic experience? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Elizabeth Anderson.