When I was first diagnosed, my world kind of came crashing down. At the age of 20, in my first month of university on the other side of the world to my family, I had been living with depression and anxiety for 6 years. I had always hoped to get over the depression and live a normal life. When I found out that I was going to have to struggle with depression on and off for the rest of my life, it was kind of heart breaking. Seven months down the track, I’m on new medication,  don’t drink if I’m depressed or manic and have absolutely learnt to know my limits when it comes to pushing myself stress-wise. I see a psychiatrist and a counsellor.

Having the disorder does not mean I can’t accomplish anything I want, it just means I have to go at a slower pace, not party every night and  occasionally cancel a plan to spend some time recuperating. My family have not seen me since I was diagnosed but my Mum seems to think I’m a lot better. As far as I’m concerned, bipolar just causes me to feel things more deeply and become more passionate about small things; it’s not a bad thing. The main point for my article is to raise awareness of the disorder. If you come across someone with bipolar, chances are you won’t realise unless you live with them or they tell you and when you do find out. It shouldn’t change your opinion of them. On the other hand, if you suspect you might have bipolar disorder or any mental illness, don’t be afraid to go to a doctor and find out. It is much better to know and get treatment than to live undiagnosed for the rest of your life.

I grew up in the Midlands in England and have dual British/Australian nationality. I have always said I wanted to live there. So do you know what I did? I bloody well moved there, and thought I’d share some of the subtler differences about the place.

1. Everyone is just friendlier. For example, if I wanted to ask someone for directions in England, I’d struggle to find someone I’d feel happy asking. In Australia, someone will probably come and ask if I’m ok and need some help. My theory is; because the weather is better, everyone’s in less of a hurry to get out of the cold or rain.

2. Food packaging has kilojoules on it rather than calories, which confused the heck out of me seeing as I didn’t know for a good few months how many of those I’m supposed to have a day. (Not that I’m a calorie counter, it’s more out of interest) It’s apparently about 8000Kj a day, the more you know hey. (Putting hey at the end of sentences is a Queensland thing, which I have definitely picked up!)

3. Getting into university is a much simpler process than in England. First off, the New Year starts in February and I applied in September, a mere 5 months beforehand, and all I had to do was provide my school grades. That was it! No personal statements planned a year in advance!

4. Everyone’s pretty half naked all the time due to the awesome weather over here,  (except when it occasionally drops below 20 degrees and we put on jeans and jumpers, yeah, even me) and people wear flip flops. I have taken to this love of non-footwear with one qualm; they call them thongs. I will never forget the day when I was on a holiday over here at about the age of 10 when my Mum said “Oh look Darling, they sell thongs in that shop”. For a split second I thought my Mother was encouraging me to wear dental floss for underwear pre-adolescence, when in reality she was encouraging me to embrace my inner Aussie, and I’ve fucking done that. (They swear a lot, using the C-word to describe their friends.“He’s a sick C**T” translates to “He’s a jolly good fellow”. I will not be picking that trait up.)

5. There’s a very apparent divide here between the Indigenous Australian and the white Australians. The indigenous get benefits just for being indigenous and there are quite a few feuds about the settlers (white Australians) taking their land, which have been going on for generations.

6. All Australians seem to have more pride in their country however - they sing their national anthem at school at least once a week. I don’t even know what the English National Anthem is. Call me ignorant, but I’ve never had to sing it.

7. You have to pay to get money out of any ATM that doesn’t belong to your bank. (A useful fact for anyone planning to spend a few months or so over here.) You quite often end up walking a good few hundred metres past other ATMs to get to your specific hole in the wall to get out money. It’s a bit of a pain in my arse. Oh and they don’t have NHS, I have to pay to go to a doctor (even with the benefits of being an Australian citizen).

8. My final difference is the craziest in my opinion. Rabbits are illegal in Queensland. Even as pets I believe. They eat the crops and I’m sure they’re just about the right size for snakes to prey on etc. but they are just so darn cute. They even have rabbit proof fences; they’re serious about keeping the adorable fuckers out.

There are plenty more differences that I could write about all day, but I don’t have all day (especially due to the time difference) and I bet you don’t either. But what I’m trying to say is that travelling is awesome; it lets you find out all those differences about living in different countries that you’d never find out by just watching movies. If I can do it, you can do it.