Kim Hodges’ latest book is ‘Girl Over the Edge,’ detailing her experience of living with mental illness. Ms Hodges will speak about what happens in a mental health hospital and what an episode of severe depression feels like, as well as how and why she chose to write her memoir. 

Her “raw, honest and at times, confronting talk”  aims to give insight and challenge beliefs, attitudes, and reduce the stigma in society around mental illness. 

“The black dog of depression corrodes identity, compromises the capacity to see colours in life, limits the capacity to love and to work, and takes the sufferer into a wasteland without hope,” Professor Gordon Parker of the Black Dog Institute said. 

Her personal account details how her mood disorder stripped her bare and articulates what has kept her going. 

The talk will be held at Crookwell Library July 5 from 12.30pm to 1.30pm and at Gunning Library on July 5 from 3pm to 4pm.