I was born in Port Lincoln, and I have a brother and a sister and a Mum and Dad. My Grandma is a big support as is my Mum. She helps me a lot. I've got two good mentors, Brad Cooper and Sean Tosold. They help me a lot. I have a few school friends, not many. A lot of my friends are online. I've got a few friends in town that I have a strong connection with. I make video calls and text with my online friends on a regular basis. Just talking about anything. It's nice.

Funnily, I've had two types of eating disorders. I had one where I had a fear of swallowing food. Looking back, we didn't realise that it was an eating disorder. But anorexia took place. I did not even know what anorexia was to be honest. It wasn't until I went off food for nearly a month, we saw something wasn't right. I was living off a small up and go a day thinking that's enough to live off. That was my only source of fluid and nutrients. It got to the point where I went into hospital. I got a blood test that said my kidneys were going and I went by Royal Flying Doctors to Adelaide.

I was there for two weeks doing what all of us call the rehab program, which is absolute hell. You are pretty much eating more food than what a fully grown man would eat. You must eat a certain number of calories and try different stuff. You had 30 minutes for main meals. Then 20 minutes for snacks. If you didn't do that you got fortisip, which is the meal replacement. If you don't drink that you get the gastric tube. The fortisip came in a huge cup. Basically, whatever you don't eat is how much fortisip you get and it’s hell. You could choose between chocolate and vanilla, but it was the crappiest texture. Like chalk. It was better than getting that gastric tube.

The first time I went in, I didn't get the gastric tube because I was doing well surprisingly. I was able to come home after two weeks. I went in a backward spiral because the doctor told me my weight. I stopped eating again. This time I ended up with a gastric tube. It is hell when that thing gets put in. It goes through your nose, down your throat into your tummy. They count 3,2,1 and you've got to drink water as they stick it down your throat. You can't turn your neck or sleep properly. It was not good. I get why they must do it, but I would not wish the gastric tube on my worst enemy.

From my anorexia I've developed POTS. Which is low blood pressure, high heart rate. My heart rate is around 98. POTS is another thing that really affects me. I can't get up quick as I feel weak and dizzy.

When you get diagnosed with anorexia, you must go on a good acceptance journey. It's a real mental strain. It's not going to go anywhere. Your brain convinces you that foods are dangerous and cause problems to your body. You've got to learn how to cope with it and you've got to eventually get brave enough to just talk about it openly. You've got it for the rest of your life.

I call my anorexia Rex. It's easier to talk like that. Rex convinces you that no food is good. Now after a few months, I've changed Rex's voice to Daffy Duck. Whenever Rex is talking to me, I just change it to Daffy Duck. And you hear that voice instead. Which takes the seriousness of it and that's working well.

I was in hospital for four weeks. I haven't been back in three months. I've been doing hypnotherapy with Brad Cooper. If it wasn't for him, I would have had more trips back to Adelaide. I'm in a good mental space. I am eating more different varieties of food. Anything Italian is my favourite. When in the hospital, you weren't allowed to talk about food, but we all want to be baristas and chefs, and we all have eating disorders, and it's quite amusing.

Life now is a lot better. I'm still struggling with body image. I've got a lot of piercings, that's how I cope with my body image. When I was anorexic, my logic was I get piercings, and people look at my piercings and not my body. So that was my coping mechanism. But I'm starting to get better. I wear baggy clothes sometimes because if you have a bad body image that day, it helps.

It took 16 years, and I've now been diagnosed with autism and ADHD. It would have helped me at school because I was out of control. Looking back, we see from a young age that it was ADHD. Having a diagnosis means when I do something that's a little out of the odd, I can say that I have ADHD, and it basically helps me to describe my behavior.

With ADHD and autism, I can't read body language. I can't read if people are happy, sad or angry. I can't read my own emotions and I don't know how to regulate them. It's interesting as I worked with somebody with dementia, and he passed away. People were like, “I'm sorry for your loss”. In my head. I took it that you didn't kill him so why are you apologising? It's how my brain takes it. It wasn't until I had a chat to mum, she said it's something that neurotypicals do. Neurotypicals are people that don't have ADHD or autism etcetera. People with those are neurodivergent. I didn't realise that neurotypicals did that, apologising, for a loss.

I'm living with it: it's really like a roller coaster. You get you really good days, you get your average days and then get your shit days that you just feel like giving up. But most of the time, it's pretty good. You learn to live with it.

Coffee and caffeine have the opposite effect on me, and it chills me out. So, I drink quite a bit of caffeine. It takes the chill. It's something with ADHD; caffeine stimulants have the opposite effect.

I have a little flip book that I carry around with all eating disorder quotes that helps. My favorite quote is from Keanu Reeves; "if you've been brutally broken, but still have the courage to be gentle to another living being you have the heart of an angel”.

I have a mixture of music I like. I go to rap, to metal, hip hop, to anything that catches my attention. I have a whole bunch of different varieties of music on my playlist. If I'm hyperactive, due to my ADHD, my songs are upbeat, so I can feed off them.

Every doctor I had suggested getting a dog, but we couldn't because it was very expensive, but I was lucky. We ended up getting Tikki from Danielle Crosby. We chose her from the videos, there was something about her. We had her not even for a day and she could pick up on my moods. She could pick up when I was going to have a meltdown or at the time I was a self-harmer. She just knew when I was going to do something. She can pick up on it three, four hours before something's going to happen. She just knows something changes. She bops her nose on my leg or just comes and sits next to me and demands cuddles. Our cat does the same. Our cat had nothing to do with me until I got diagnosed with Tourette's. The cat can also pick up on my needs. Whether I'll have a rage attack, which a lot of us with Tourette's have it. It's where you're suppressing, all the built up rage comes out. And a few times, it's gotten so bad that I've had to go to hospital and spend the night in there because you just don't come down.

When I'm having a crap time I go do stuff with Tiki, listen to music, meditate, garden or go to water plants. I enjoy a lot of time to myself. Our whole front yard is pretty much me - so when I get bored, I go water for a few hours, and then I'll come back. I like photography and taking pictures of sunsets and animals. I turned to photography as a distraction. I literally just walked on the show grounds and took heaps of pictures of sunsets. That became my coping mechanism.

Most people are pretty good when I'm out and about. It's more if you see someone that's ticcing or swearing, you’ve got to think that they might not necessarily be drunk or on drugs. When you're ticcing and swearing, or yell at the sky, you roll your eyes back into your head and look like you're out of it, but really you’re fully functional. Your body has just got a mind of its own. It's important to be understanding. Especially towards anyone with a disability. Don't go off at them if they're slower or need more time to process what's going on. Another thing to note is when we tic something, don't think that it's our opinion. It's not. It's just our Tourette's.

I suppress here and there because I don't like going out in public, especially when there's people of different cultures and your Tourette's will say some pretty nasty stuff. It's a lot better in Cummins because everyone knows me. When I go to Lincoln, I have like half a dozen lanyards on. In case I have an altercation with someone. I've got a few Tourette lanyards with fidgets and information, then I have a sunflower one. If you ever see someone with a sunflower lanyard it means they have a hidden disability, something that you can't physically see.

I left school three years ago. When I was at school, I was also going through medication changes. Tourette's medication is very addictive. I had to be very careful because your body literally craves it. I wasn't in a good place; I was going through withdrawal and my mental health was deteriorating because I kept changing medications every six weeks until we found the right one. I had one medication, and it's forever messed with my brain. I don't know what it's done. It causes me to hallucinate, which is interesting. I'm pleased we have finally found a medication that works.

I'm on two mediations now. Compared to when I used to take five different tablets all at once. I take tablets morning and night for different reasons. I am feeling a lot better now.

I'm looking forward to more photography. By the end of this year, they're estimating I'll be able to finish school and get my SACE points to graduate. Then I'm going to take a year off just to get everything under control before I start looking for a job. I'm going to take a mental health year just to accept what I have been through because it's been one hell of a journey, and take it slow for a bit.

I'm going to eventually step up more in the Tourette's community, I want to become an ambassador. I want to mentor the young people with Tourette's. And I might look into becoming an SSO. I want to work especially with kids with ADHD because I have an understanding and know how brains work.

Eventually I want to do public speaking to raise awareness about what I live with. I like one on one conversations, but I need to get more used to group talking. I'm going to do a write up on Tourette's. I don't know where it will lead. I'm pretty open about all of it, because you have to be.

It continues to be a very interesting journey. I’ll be 18 in September. I'm looking forward to being able to get a bit more independence slowly. I don't see myself living by myself for a while because it's not going to work out. But for now, I'm just happy. I'm starting to cook a bit more for myself. Starting to eat different varieties of food. It's been a hell of a journey compared to where I was, at the beginning of last year. I’ve changed a lot. I’ve mentally matured a lot. Every day is a mental battle. You've got to do it.