Welcome to Thought Food.
My name is Anita.
I am a writer, author, small animal veterinarian, a mental health advocate, and I belong to a family that includes my husband, two children (who are now young people), two Burmese cats, two budgerigars, and a Stimson’s python.
I live with Bipolar 1 Disorder, which first presented as postnatal psychosis within days of my first child’s birth in 2006.
When I created Thought Food in 2017, first person accounts of severe, complex mental illnesses in the mainstream media were rare and usually highly stigmatising.
Thought Food began as my response to endless media articles demonising people living with severe symptoms, such as psychosis, and as a way of commenting on too many people in need of high-quality mental health care falling through the spider web of our mental health system.
By painting a picture of my lived experience with words I aim to remind the world that whether I am between episodes of illness or I am obliterated by my symptoms, I am still me.
Most of my blog posts to date reflect my experiences of mental wellness and severe mental illness. I also write about general life experiences, including topics such as parenting and veterinary content.
However you have arrived at Thought Food, I invite you to spend time reading, and hope you come away with some optimism, comfort, gently provoked thoughts, and the knowledge that you are not alone.
My memoir, Abductions From My Beautiful Life, which describes my life before, during, and after my initial episodes of illness was first published in 2021.
You can find an excerpt and details of where to find it if you go to Book.
Acknowledgement of Country
I would like to acknowledge that the land Thought Food was conceived and written on is Aboriginal land. I show respect and give thanks to the Turrbal and Yuggera people of Meanjin for thousands of years of protection of these lands. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
I wish to acknowledge that this land was never ceded, but stolen, and pay tribute to those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives taken, and acknowledge the great trauma and pain still caused by that theft.
I appreciate I have much to learn about the oldest continuous living culture. I am listening, seeing and learning. I am honoured and thankful to travel safely across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands.
Thought Food 