KIM GARTHWAITE

I am the Founder of Don’t Ever Think All Is Lost (DETAIL).

I trained as a Registered Nurse, and worked in Mental Health for many years after I graduated, until the arrival of my children. I don’t have to tell you the challenges one faces with being in charge of brand new humans, but muddle through we did, figuring it out as we went along.

Until about two weeks after my child’s birthday party, when my brain decided the unresolved trauma I had been ignoring could no longer be dismissed.

I was admitted into a Psychiatric facility for a short stay so the staff could figure out a treatment plan, stabilise my mood, and then get me back to my family. This proved to be an almost impossible task, short term hospitalisation turned into nearly a year of inpatient care. Deemed treatment resistive by the Psychiatrists, my family was informed that recovery was unlikely and a return to my previous life was unthinkable.

Home visits resulted in readmission to the hospital, and being committed by the judge on numerous occasions when I refused treatment. I was taking 18 pharmaceutical drugs daily, facing my 34th ECT (shock treatment), along with ongoing therapy that had no end in sight. I was trying to survive a battle that Doctors told me I would lose, which was now becoming an eight year war. There was no hope. 

I desperately needed hope; I wanted to talk to those that had been in my situation, who had against all odds, made it through. I wanted to learn how they fought, how they won, and what tools they used in battle. I couldn’t find them.

I had to do this for myself, so little by little I began to research multiple ways to support my mental health. This led me down the path of nutrition, exercise, talk therapy, yoga, & mindfulness.

Then something began to shift. 

I went on to gain qualifications in Clinical Nutrition, Herbal Therapy, Personal Training, and Yoga, and have been a speaker with Beyond Blue since 2015. Publishing my memoir “Potatoes & Other Criteria” in 2023, means I can now add Author to that list.

When I’m not writing, public speaking, running events, or teaching, you can find me singing badly to very loud music, reading, bush walking, bird watching, dog patting, or kettlebell training.