I'm Fine (and other lies)
With her career down the toilet, a husband who was never home, a baby screaming non-stop and her cries for help falling on deaf ears, Megan Blandford spent years saying, “I’m fine”. Like many who say that, she wasn’t fine. Megan sank into postnatal depression and anxiety. The story covers the challenges of parenthood, high functioning and invisible depression, the value of self-compassion in recovery, the stigma around asking for help, and the inner battle so many of us deal with daily.
Megan’s story is one of raw honesty, humour and hope. It’s a story that speaks to the three million Australians who are living with depression or anxiety, and the one in seven women who experience postnatal depression and anxiety.
“There are surprisingly few stories told about what postnatal depression is really like. This only feeds the stigma and shame that surrounds it – so it’s time to talk more openly about this experience that affects so many,” Megan says. “I really hope that, in sharing my story, I can help to break down the walls of that stigma a little more, so that others feel less lonely and more able to ask for help.”
With her career down the toilet, a husband who was never home, a baby screaming non-stop and her cries for help falling on deaf ears, Megan Blandford spent years saying, “I’m fine”. Like many who say that, she wasn’t fine. Megan sank into postnatal depression and anxiety. The story covers the challenges of parenthood, high functioning and invisible depression, the value of self-compassion in recovery, the stigma around asking for help, and the inner battle so many of us deal with daily.
Megan’s story is one of raw honesty, humour and hope. It’s a story that speaks to the three million Australians who are living with depression or anxiety, and the one in seven women who experience postnatal depression and anxiety.
“There are surprisingly few stories told about what postnatal depression is really like. This only feeds the stigma and shame that surrounds it – so it’s time to talk more openly about this experience that affects so many,” Megan says. “I really hope that, in sharing my story, I can help to break down the walls of that stigma a little more, so that others feel less lonely and more able to ask for help.”
With her career down the toilet, a husband who was never home, a baby screaming non-stop and her cries for help falling on deaf ears, Megan Blandford spent years saying, “I’m fine”. Like many who say that, she wasn’t fine. Megan sank into postnatal depression and anxiety. The story covers the challenges of parenthood, high functioning and invisible depression, the value of self-compassion in recovery, the stigma around asking for help, and the inner battle so many of us deal with daily.
Megan’s story is one of raw honesty, humour and hope. It’s a story that speaks to the three million Australians who are living with depression or anxiety, and the one in seven women who experience postnatal depression and anxiety.
“There are surprisingly few stories told about what postnatal depression is really like. This only feeds the stigma and shame that surrounds it – so it’s time to talk more openly about this experience that affects so many,” Megan says. “I really hope that, in sharing my story, I can help to break down the walls of that stigma a little more, so that others feel less lonely and more able to ask for help.”
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2019 | 9780648349877 | 136 pages | Paperback | 234 x 154 mm | Memoir
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Post Natal Depression, mental health, anxiety, health, motherhood, uplifting
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Praise for I’m Fine (and other lies)
I’m Fine (and other lies) is a testament to the power of individual stories in breaking down the stigma that persists, for some, around postnatal depression and mental illness.
— Georgie Harman, CEO, Beyond Blue
‘Megan is the voice of countless women as she captures the motherhood quandary of our age: the secret struggle with darkness while trying to keep it all together.’
—Jacinta Tynan, author and journalist
‘An intensely personal and heartfelt story of one woman's journey through depression to find herself - she like so many women, was so critical of herself as she transitioned into motherhood and struggled to ask for help and be heard. I hope this helps other women free themselves of their own negative internal voice long enough to get help.’
—Anne Buist, psychiatrist and author
‘Megan Blandford has penned a raw and visceral account of living with depression, told with powerful honesty and beautifully crafted words that will linger long after you turn the final page.’
—Valerie Khoo, CEO Australian Writers' Centre
‘Megan gifts us a story of pregnancy, birth and the impact of mental health that is authentic, moving and relatable. Becoming a parent changes everything and Megan speaks directly to each of us who have lived the profound joy and hidden angst of parenting, sharing her journey with warmth, humour and raw honesty.’
— Dr Vijay Roach, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist
‘This is a wonderful account of Megan’s personal story of becoming a mother, and highlights the many unknown realities that many mums face on the journey into motherhood. Beautifully written, elements of her story will certainly resonate with other mothers, and importantly remind them that they are not alone in what can often be a lonely and challenging time.’
— Dr Nicole Highet, Founder/Executive Director. Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE)
‘I could kiss this book. This brilliant and incredibly candid book woke me up, making me reappraise all the mothers in my life and wonder how many struggle to cope and how they could have been helped. This is not a dry book offering self-help and useless facts, but a memoir of a harrowing experience described with honesty and humour. [Blandford] delivers a spectacularly frank book that lets sunlight into all the dark places. As she describes her depression she tells it as a dialogue, her depressed doubting self heckling down every moment of positive help or chance. Therein lies some of the best writing on depression that I’ve ever encountered. In this book there is no fat narrative padding, no indulgent pain-porn or wallowing in the suffering. I’m Fine (and other lies) leaves you with this thought: the secret to coping is to not hide. As a testament to the strength and fragility of mothers (and the burdens they carry in plain sight that we choose not to see), perhaps I’m Fine is the Mother’s Day read we all owe ourselves. Beautifully written, moving and powerful, it is a challenge to the stigma of not just postnatal depression, but all mental illness.’
— Robert O’Hearn, non-fiction specialist, Booktopia
I’m Fine (and other lies) is one woman’s story from inside postnatal depression. Megan’s story is one of raw honesty, humour and hope. It’s a story that speaks to the three million Australians who are living with depression or anxiety, and the one in seven women who experience postnatal depression and anxiety.
“Motherhood is hard. Read this book. It will help. And if you still need more help, please please ask. It’s out there.”
Megan Blandford is an author and prolific freelance writer. As a well-respected voice on mental health and parenting, Megan writes for Sunday Life, Essential Baby, Kidspot, SBS, Whimn, Daily Life, Body+Soul and Headspace. Megan lives in country Victoria with her husband, two children and far too many animals. She is, currently, actually fine. Read more.