Hi. I'm glad that I can be part of this community. I am a graduated doctor and currently doing my Masters in Reproductive Medicine. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression for 3 years now and counting. I am still seeing a psychiatrist every 2 months just to have someone to talk to as preparing for the AMC board exam can be stressful while trying to cope with my Masters syllabus. I had always hoped that someone would understand my condition and not just blame it on others or my inability to stand up for myself. I had very low self esteem at one point of my life while doing my degree as I felt I was stupid as compared to my classmates. I am glad I had friends and a support system back then to keep me sane as I was thousands of miles away from home and my family.

I am from a broken family and I had been moving around for a while before settling here in Australia with my partner. I know how it feels coming from a broken family and the stress of being stuck in between two families and the stigma of divorce especially among the Asians. I had friends who took separation in a very negative way and I had friends who took it as a challenge to do better and be a better person. I chose to be the latter too. I hope to help teenagers who are having a hard time with this and try to lend my support in order to keep them in the right path. 

For your information, I had been away since I was 13, staying in a boarding school then going to college then university and now finally migrated to overseas. I was never really home for a long time. Therefore, I did experience some bullying back then. I was also forced to excel back in school and I totally understand the stress of having to pass the exams at one attempt or having to be the top in your class. 

While I was in medical school, I did took up a course with the Australia Psychological Society in APS certificate in sleep psychology which I completed a year ago. Although I am not a sleep specialist but with this course and my medical degree, I might be able to give some opinion regarding sleep problems. My partner is also suffering from sleep disorders and I had been helping her to get it diagnosed recently. I will not be prescribing medicine but I can try to give guidelines on proper sleep hygience and what may be affecting your sleep. I know sleep is important and it is horrible not being able to get a good quality sleep.

On the other hand, I am a lesbian and I had experiece having difficultiies coming out to my family and friends. I had been through discrimination by some of my family members while others accepted me for who I am. It had put me in a very bad situation and I feel into severe depression and I thought I was sick or abnormal till I went for therapy and I read more about LGBT. So, I went through the denial phase, depression then self-acceptance and finally coming out. Thus, one of my aim here is to help the LGBTQ+ community in respect to self acceptance and coping with the discrimnation. 

It may seem like I had been through a lot but these are the stuffs that I think gave me an advantage as a listener as I might be able to understand some of you easier as I had been through those phases that you might be working on now. 

I do try to reply as soon as I got your message but sometimes I might be stuck in one chat and I prefer not to do multiple chats at once. I can recommed another listener is one is available when the situation pops up. However, please bear in mind I am also studying for my board exams and Masters at the same time therefore my time here can be limited. I may spend 1 hour a day here during the weekdays at night for the time being but I might not be available during the weekends as I would like to spend time with my partner. If you do not mind a slow reply, you can always drop me a message and I will reply when I am free which usually do not take more than 48 hours. 

I am looking forward to lend my ears to people who needs someone to listen to them. I prefer to help teenagers and young adults as I am a young adult myself with no kids. So I can't help much if the problem is regarding your children or marriage as I have no experience in those areas and I am not qualified. Do bear in mind I am a fresh graduate doctor and not a therapist or psychologist. So please do not take the chat session with me as a therapy session as I am only here as an active listener and I am not qualified to offer any therapy sessions. I can't prescribe medicines or suggest any as it is against medical ethics and the law. But I can suggest other ways of dealing with them based on what I learnt.

Lastly, I can't promise that my help would be the best or even good and I do not mind if you go for a second opinion or I might even refer you to a senior listener myself. I am still young myself and learning the art of life. Looking forward to meeting others here and feel free to chat with me if you just need someone to talk to.