Thirteen and Underwater: One mum's heart-warming journey

Thirteen and Underwater is an emotionally-charged true story, based on a young man’s dark journey of anxiety.

Told with a mother’s insight, Thirteen and Underwater divulges a life full of love and laughter and reveals the tiny claws of anguish that turn into sharp talons of despair, as her beloved son grows from childhood, into a defeated teenager, grasping at the reins of uncontrollable anger and isolation. As his mother, fighting to do what society expects of her while facing the incalculable loss of her son’s sense of self, the writer questions herself constantly, with the emotionally draining barrage of, ’What am I doing wrong?’ Yet she tells their story with characteristic candour and humour.

This is the story of one family’s survival, reflecting billions in a worldwide epidemic. It explores how anxiety can severely affect not just a little boy trying to fight the unseen predator that is mental illness, but the entire family. Their journey together shows them from their happiest times, to their very bleakest. It is an inspirational story of one family’s refusal to give in to the nightmare caused by anxiety.