Watch: Young PL Candidate Shares How She Rejected Psychiatric Advice To Give Up On O Levels
A new Birgu local council candidate stole the show at yesterday’s PL conference with a candid personal story about her mental health problems and some questionable medical advice she received along the way.
Rianne Cini, a 20-year-old nursing student, said she was diagnosed with PTSD, hallucinations, depression and general anxiety when she was 15 years old and spent some time at a children’s mental hospital.
Although she was getting ready to sit for her O Levels at the time, Rianne said that psychiatrists advised her that it wasn’t even worth the bother.
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“Many doctors told me that sitting for my O Levels would be pointless because I had burned too many brain cells and I wasn’t capable of concentrating,” she said.
“Those words remain etched in my mind till this day but I was always a determined person and decided to ignore them and sit for my O Levels anyway.”
“It wasn’t easy, I didn’t get all my O Levels and I didn’t get the best marks in them, but I did well enough to enter Higher Secondary.”
Rianne, the daughter of renowned TV presenter Keith Demicoli, dipped her own toes into public life when she enrolled into the PL’s LEAD training program for female politicians.
She had nothing but praise for LEAD and its founder Miriam Dalli for building her self-confidence.
“If some people think politics is all bad, then they are badly mistaken, because it helped me get to where I am, sharing my experiences with you all.”
She also made it clear that she wasn’t seeking some kind of pity vote.
“I’m not speaking like this to gain your pity or your sympathy… in fact, I am not a miskina. I’m here to tell other people passing through mental health problems that they shouldn’t be afraid, that they’re no longer taboo and that they should seek help.”
Would you like to see Rianne Cini get elected to the Birgu local council?
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