How to go from Surviving to Thriving with Sabrina — Podcast Shownotes

Trigger Warning: Mentions of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. 

Today, Sabrina is the CEO and Co-Founder of Calm Collective Asia, advocating to break the stigma against mental health. But before she got to this point, she once found herself contemplating death at the edge of a building. However, there was a moment when she realised that she could not take her own life and had to figure out a way to continue living. 

Now she’s almost 6 years into her recovery journey with bipolar disorder and is thankfully here to share her story. In this podcast episode, as Sabrina looks back on her mental health journey with Alyssa, she details her lowest points and how recovery looks like for her today. 

Podcast Excerpts 

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Alyssa: Where are you now on your recovery journey?

Sabrina: It’s been 5, nearly 6 years of my recovery journey. I would say that I’ve recovered. For a long time, I had the belief that I would never recover from Bipolar Disorder because I believed that this is a condition that I have to manage for life and therefore, I’m always going to be a sick person for the rest of my life. 

But, in the podcast episode that we did with Dr Pearlene, she introduced this concept of personal recovery which is defined by the individual, based on what they feel is important. So for me, my recovery is to be able to have positive and healthy relationships with my friends, family and romantically as well. 

The other thing I want is to be able to get myself to a point where I can contribute to society or be functional in a job that enables me to grow. So, that’s my concept of being well and I would say since two years ago, I’ve managed to achieve that. 

Alyssa: How do you manage your mental well being regularly? 

Sabrina: So the first thing is always about sleep. I have to make sure that I sleep enough and regularly. I get 8-9 hours of sleep so typically I sleep by around 11 pm and I’m up by about 7 am. Sleep is an indicator of how well I’m doing as well. If I'm not sleeping enough, it means that maybe I’m in a hypomanic state. If I’m sleeping too much, I might be a bit depressed. 

The other thing would be to reduce or keep stimulants that I take to a minimum. So I’ve cut out coffee and alcohol in my life. Now I just drink tea. It’s been really helpful to keep my moods steady. 

Therapy and medication are also still part of it. I also do a lot of journaling and I do that very regularly. I have morning check-ins and check-out with myself as much as I can. Every couple of weeks, I just sit and write — kind of like a brain dump of everything that’s been on my mind and all my feelings. 

Meditation has also been really helpful in letting go of any stress or anxieties that I’m carrying. It helps me in being a lot more present, focused, clear and calm

Alyssa: How do you help your loved ones navigate your mental health?

Sabrina: I think this is a nerdy way of doing it but how I helped my loved ones is by having a Trello board. This is a tool where I have different lists to help them navigate through my mental support system. I have a list that says, “What does it look like when Sabrina is depressed?”, and another one that says “What does it mean when she’s hypomanic?”. I list out all the different behaviours and recently I added a new list that says “What does it look like when she’s feeling good and stable?” which is a huge accomplishment. I also include information about my therapy and medication. 

I update the Trello board every few months with my changes in mood as well as changes to my medication if any. I also add in other things to support my well being and that can be food to avoid, things to do, what I enjoy and people I can count on. I audit this list when I find new friends who come along that I can count, I’ll put their names there. If my mom is looking at this list, and if something happens, she knows who to reach out to. I pretty much have all this information on this table and if any of my loved ones ever need to come in to support me, they will know immediately what to do. 

Alyssa: What is it like, when you find yourself taking steps back in your recovery?

Sabrina: First of all, it's very frustrating, because I'm like, ‘Oh, my gosh, not this again.’

The thing about this whole recovery journey and mental health or life, in general, is that there's no smooth trajectory upwards. It's just ups and downs and all around. Life is a mess that we have to navigate through. So, what I do immediately would always be to go seek professional help. I would step up on therapy and check in with my psychiatrist, as well. What usually happens is that we would have to titrate the medication and introduce antidepressants to get me through that low phase.

Alyssa: Mental health advocacy has become your full-time job and a big part of who you are. How do you see yourself outside of your mental health condition and are you able to separate that identity?

Sabrina: In my journey of advocacy, I found it interesting because I’ve met a lot of other advocates as well and oftentimes, they get pigeonholed into this person who talks about what they are advocating for. Thankfully, I haven’t found myself in this kind of situation. While I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and I’ve talked about mental health a lot, I see it as just one part of who I am. I’m still Sabrina, who has friends and family. I have other interests like music and DJ-ing. 

What has helped me in this journey is that I constantly reset myself, whether it’s through meditation, therapy or coaching sessions. I reset and allow myself to detach from whatever identity I seem to have taken on. 

At the end of the day, we’re all just regular people. As I reset myself and let go of the things that I do, I try to come home to myself and recognize that I’m just someone who’s doing my best to make this world a better place. It just so happens that right now, I’m trying to help other people with their mental health and to live a happier, healthier life. 

Calm Conversations is a podcast series launched and facilitated by Calm Collective Asia. As a means of sharing personal experiences, lessons, and advice, we speak to people from all walks of life about topics that are universally relevant yet often still taboo in the hope of normalising conversations about mental health. 

Available on Spotify, Google, and Apple, you can tune in whenever and wherever. We hope that by listening in, you feel less alone, learn something new, and find the courage to continue these conversations with the people around you. Stay calm!