Neil has been at Vitality for a year and a half, focusing on property, commercial and employment law as well as the more niche area of pharmacy. She also does freelance work as a Koala vet on the Sunshine Coast, which involves locating and attending to sick koalas and conducting research to help the koala population.

“I’ve worked as a wildlife nurse for over 10 years, and as it was, part of me even getting into law was my passion for wildlife and animals. And just seeing from a veterinary point of view, there’s so much that could be better in terms of the prevention of what happens to our wildlife, in terms of trauma and ill health and being able to be involved in their care, given they’re such a vulnerable species or threatened species, especially in South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales,” she said.

“It’s really important to me to have some involvement in that, but also to go down the track, get some more involvement from a legal perspective and look at the angles from there so that we can look at the prevention as opposed to the aftereffects and how to fix it from that point of view.”

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Neil came into law as a mature-age student – and said that her desire to enter the legal profession came from having a slightly more “unorthodox” upbringing.

“I was raised in a high-control religion, so there was a lot of control into who you associated with. We stayed within a certain circle, and as part of that, we weren’t able to pursue higher education. I actually was pulled out of school at the end of year 10 and went into a traineeship and worked from there, then worked my way into vet nursing,” she explained.

“I really wanted to do something that could advocate more for people who feel quite vulnerable. But when I was 16, I would never have dreamed that I could start essentially a new life or a new career, but it is possible. And for me, that was possible because I had a network of friends that I’d developed initially. When I left my whole high-control situation, I lost all my friends. I had to essentially start again, make new friends through work. And I went out to team events, sport events, and learned that and developed friendships from there.

“And my husband has been a wonderful support as well, and my colleagues and team now. So, it is possible to be able to start again. You don’t have to be just out of school. You don’t have to be, ‘oh, I’ve already got one career’. If you’ve got that drive and you’ve got a passion, there are avenues to do that.”

While Neil had done well during school, it was cut short – and she said that developing the confidence to go into law and additional study was overwhelming to begin with.

“Fear was a big issue for me. Being in this high-control situation where fear is the driver behind everything that you do, first of all, to leave was extremely daunting and fearful. And I went through quite a significant mental health process of trying to process losing my marriage at the time, my friends, and having, to a degree, a slightly estranged family relationship as well, and having to go out and find new friends, find somewhere else to live,” she added.

“And for a few years, it was extremely overwhelming. And depression, anxiety was quite severe. But over time, I learned that there are people who want you to succeed, they want you to be happy. And I just met some amazing people who literally took me into their house and had somewhere [for me] to sleep that really only knew me for a small amount of time. I learned to go from not trusting people to being able to be more open and become a more confident, stronger and trusting person.”

For Neil, being in a “bubble” environment led to extreme anxiety and depression, forcing her to eventually break herself out of her situation.

“It started with just small steps by step, just a few people I spoke to at work who were able to help me out with an accommodation to live at and just being open with what I was going through. But I definitely had back and forth because of the fear. And when you’re in something so controlling, the best way I can describe it is you’ve been told your whole life that the sky is pink and then suddenly you realise it’s blue. It’s just mind-blowing to suddenly have all these thoughts and beliefs be shattered. So, I had help [from] doctors, friends, therapists, talking it through,” she said.

“I really don’t think in some ways I’d be here without a lot of that support, but also I gave myself that goal of, I can do something else in my life. I knew I wanted to do something else with my skills, and what I’ve learned and having that goal and sticking with it despite the hard times has got me through.”

Support for those experiencing mental illness can be found through organisations such as Lifeline, Beyond Blue and Head to Health. Each law society and bar association also has resources available on their respective websites.

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Michelle Neil, click below: