‘LA Bella Figura’ – presenting well – is part of the Italian psyche.
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The desire to impress has been a source of positive energy for Maree Tambasco-Roche, at times.
But there have been others when the mentality has not worked in her favour.
Maree has bipolar disorder, and has experienced firsthand the stigma associated with the mental health condition.
“I’m not going to live in shame, is something I’ve decided,” the Fryerstown woman said.
“I’m going to own my story.”
Last year, the mental health advocate became a facilitator at the Mind Recovery College Bendigo Campus.
The Mind Australia Initiative gave Maree opportunities to share what she had learned with other people experiencing mental health conditions.
In addition to facilitating, she is now involved in a research program and online service for people with bipolar.
The ORBIT initiative was designed by Swinburne University researchers to help people better cope with the condition.
It targets people who have experienced numerous episodes of illness.
“Research has shown that many people with late stage bipolar don’t respond as well to common therapies used in treatment,” the project’s chief investigator, Professor Greg Murray, said.
The project offers participants a variety of online self-help tools including videos, exercises, forums and access to an online coach.
Maree features in videos available to ORBIT participants.
She described her account of life with bipolar disorder as “authentic”.
“There’s no pretense to it,” Maree said.
“It’s about embracing the light and the dark and working with it instead of dragging it behind you.”
Maree has had her share of both light and dark in her time with bipolar disorder, including her decision to be open about the condition.
“I lost family over it. I lost friends over it,” she said.
“Good health is a status symbol.”
At her lowest point, Maree said it felt like there was no way out.
“When you work and work past it you kind of get to own your own life,” she said.
“If you don’t own it, you lose it.”
She last year told the Bendigo Advertiser the diagnosis came after a medical procedure “unexpectedly flipped a switch in my brain.”
The former academic and qualified teacher quit her job after finding out she had bipolar disorder.
These days, she works as a visual artist, inclusive education researcher, writer, teacher and speaker.
In addition to sharing her experiences for the videos used in the program, Maree helped trial ORBIT in its early stages.
Her impressions of the program were positive.
“It validates and authentically acknowledges the challenges people with bipolar face, without addressing them as less than,” Maree said.
She appreciated the self-directed nature of the program.
“You get to contribute as much or as little as you want,” Maree said.
“You’re very much in the driver’s seat, and that’s empowering.”
Being online, Maree said ORBIT offered convenience and privacy for participants.
“It is non-judgemental, which I think is one of the keys to success,” she said
The interventions were designed as brief self-help programs, to be completed online while participants continued with their usual mental health treatment plans.
An international team of researchers, clinicians and consumers was involved in the development process.
From a research perspective, the program is enabling Professor Murray and his team to compare two different types of online interventions.
Both are intended to be used intensively over a period of five weeks.
Participants are randomly allocated a resource, which they have access to for six months.
During that time, they are be asked to complete a number of assessments in the form of online questionnaires and phone calls.
Up to 300 participants will be involved in the research.
ORBIT is now being rolled out in Australia and abroad.
The project received more than $1 million in funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council in November 2015.
ORBIT was based on a pilot study at Swinburne in 2013, results from which were published the following year.
Professor Murray and his colleagues described bipolar disorder at the time as a condition characterised by abnormal highs and lows in mood, which could be disabling.
They noted that it was a highly stigmatised condition.
Up to one person in 50 will develop bipolar disorder at some time in their lives, according to SANE Australia.
The condition is more likely to develop in a person’s teens or twenties, and tends to affect more women than men.
Headspace lists bipolar disorder as the ninth leading contributor to the burden of disease and injury in Australian females aged 15-24 years, and the tenth leading contributor for males of the same age.
A variety of emotional, cognitive, physical and behavioural changes are associated with the condition. Symptoms include phases of mania and depression.
ORBIT researchers have invited people aged 18 – 65 who have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder to participate in the project.
For more information, or to be involved, visit www.orbitonline.org/
If you, or someone you know, is in need of help phone Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au