Demons to Champions - How I fell in love with my neurodivergent maverick mind - Chapter 17

Wooden Pig

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If you want to read Chapter 16 go here -

Wooden pig

Pleaser has always looked for heroes to look up to, people with whom I could share my discoveries. Childish, but it remains a lifelong compulsion, one I doubt I’ll ever grow out of, springing from a need to be loved and valued.

By 1988 I was a temporary lecturer in Biochemistry at Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School, advancing my professional life but struggling mentally. Oscillating from feeling in command to diving into depression, there was a kind of dynamic balance, but the peaks and troughs were tough to take.

Excited and fearful of my new responsibility, I looked for mentors. Professor Roger Mason understood leadership viscerally and intellectually. He’d head-hunted me at the end of my postdoctoral fellowship. I guess he saw potential; I saw my new hero.

I’m fragile when my world feels uncertain. I thrive on change but only if I’m the one controlling it. This period in my life was riven with uncertainty. On the one hand I’d landed a good job but on the other I’d no idea what I was doing. Roger took me under his wing and into his research group. All went well for a year or so.