I live on a 404-hectare farm at Tullamore, 125 kilometres south-west of Dubbo in central-western New South Wales. My husband Steve and I moved here from the Snowy Mountains in 2002 to escape the cold winters.

My husband works as an electrician and I look after our two children, as well as help run the farm. We have a girl Emily aged 10 and a boy Andrew who's seven. My daughter Sammie from my previous marriage is 19 and in the Navy.

We are growing wheat and are anxiously hoping this crop will come through. We run 100- or so head of sheep (which is less than we used to have!) It's a small farm compared to some of the others out here.

I've been living with Bipolar Disorder since being diagnosed at the age of 14. My mother also has the condition.

I grew up in Sydney and was a typically difficult teenager. I used to have deep bouts of depression and my mother and I didn't have a good relationship. She took me to her psychiatrist and I continued to have the same doctor as her for my treatment for a long time. I get along much better with my mum since I moved out of home at 18. I didn't tell anyone about my condition back then because that's not what you did.

I've tried a number of different medications. It has always been a challenge to manage my Bipolar, to stay in the middle of the see-saw. I had to wean myself off one older medication, the side effects were so bad.

I try and have a healthy lifestyle but it's very hard at times. I try not to get too hyper. When I get together with family and there's alcohol around, I can be very hyper, although I know I shouldn't.

It's also a struggle getting enough structured exercise when you become a parent, I know I should but I never seem to get the time. With my first marriage, we moved to the Snowy Mountains and I was more or less a fulltime mum. When my first marriage broke down it was very difficult, the depression really hit hard and I felt 'lost' for quite some time. But luckily I found a wonderful caring man whom I married a few years later.

It's the co-morbid conditions that go with my Bipolar that add a new challenge. Headaches and migraines fall into that area. When you have a co-morbid condition like that, it can really add to the depression. I have intracranial hypertension, which is basically too much fluid around the brain, and that was giving me daily headaches, punctuated with migraines, until we got it a bit more under control.

One of the therapies that help me to cope is oil painting. I took it up four years ago, mainly do landscapes. The sky is so big out here and the sunrises and sunsets are amazing. I also like to paint the red earth colours. They're very inspirational.

I've been part of group shows but had my first solo exhibition recently in the Hunter Valley. I sold eight paintings on opening night - and then it rained for three weeks straight so no-one else came! It really does so much for your self-esteem when people like what you create so much that they want to buy it. Some of my works are still on display in the window of the newsagent in our town.

In 2003, I took the step of going public about my condition. I was on a chat site about depression called BlueBoard. We were all anonymous people, talking about depression. I thought: 'No-one knows my real name - why the hell not?' So I told my story to the Rural Women's News newsletter, The Country Web. That resulted in the same article being reprinted in my local paper.

The reaction was great. People told me I was being so brave. One lady I knew from the local area came up and said she had Bipolar Dis order too.

I was also asked to be part of a book called Daring to Dream which is about inspirational rural women. I'm not that inspirational compared to the other women in that book! Funnily enough, two of them turned out to be members of the same artist's group that I'm a part of.

The thing I'm about to be involved in is speaking at a women's health day, being organised as part of drought relief. I'll be talking about Bipolar Disorder and really jumping in with two feet! My doctor thinks it will be good for me.

It's always difficult accessing health services in the bush but I'm luckier than many people as we're only 15km from town. I have a GP and there's a psychologist who comes through every fortnight, by arrangement with the local doctor. I'm seeing her about once a month.

I think GPs do have a role to play in dealing with mental health issues, but they have it particularly hard in the bush compared to the city doctors. They have to know more about everything. My GP has to go away when he takes holidays rather than stay here, otherwise he'd be on-call at home 24 hours a day.

I'm very into researching health issues on the Internet. Sometimes my GP asks me for the websites I'm quoting so he can check them out himself.

I feel a lot more in control of my Bipolar these days. I have great support around me. I used to have incredible mood swings; very deep lows and then highs. As I get older, I seem to manage better. These days, my swings are less a tidal wave than a series of ripples. I know when I'm "up there" that I'm going to come down. I look back and wish that when I was young, I knew what I know now.