High Functioning Mental Illness

We feature many articles on the Healthy Life Essex blog about mental health, but there is still often assumptions made about what certain disorders ‘should’ look like and how people are expected to behave if they are psychologically struggling.

And yet there are many people who are outwardly successful and confident and yet that underneath the façade they are often struggling to cope and keep it all together.

Sadie Hopson is a global trainer and strategy consultant specialising in the field of occupational health psychology.  We have worked closely with Sadie for many years as she is founder of two companies focusing on wellbeing in the workplace, both of which are members of one of our other businesses, the Organisation for Responsible Businesses. 

Sadie is one of those people who are outwardly successful and confident: she can happily present to hundreds of people at large conferences and is often met with cynicism, doubt, shock and a raised eyebrow when people discover that she experiences quite crippling anxiety, panic attacks and has to actively manage her mental health to cope.

Sadie and her colleague Abbie Norbury, a media, health and wellbeing professional with a varied background, have launched Black Dog, White Swan to empower and inspire others who know what it’s like to live like a white swan with the black dog looming