Kate Webber, Wine Director And Co-Owner In The Webber Restaurant Group, Massachusetts (USA)

Years in the Industry:
Sixteen. My family owns a 600-acre farm in Massachusetts, and in 2004 my two brothers, my sister-in-law and I opened up our first restaurant, a 200-seat steakhouse. We were first-generation business owners. None of us had any experience, but we’d done feasibility studies and we’re business people. Since then we’ve opened four more restaurants, a catering company, a function facility and a farm with vegetables, sheep and pigs.

About a year and a half into owning the restaurant, we realized that one of us needed to focus on the wine and beverage side of the business. As soon as I started in the wine industry, I realized that it spoke to me. That’s what I focused all my time on: International Sommelier Guild, Court of Master Sommeliers, WSET Diploma, CSW and CSS. I was in the MW program when we were in the middle of a restaurant-opening phase. We opened a 300-seat steakhouse ten days before I sat the MW exam for the first time, and that’s when I realized I had to step out of the program.

My Biggest Challenge To Wellness:
Some people wake up and they have to have their morning coffee. I wake up and I have to take stock of myself and literally ask how I’m feeling today. It sounds corny, but every day I have to make sure I have a very secure sense of where my head is and how I’m feeling, mentally, emotionally and even physically.

It’s become cool to say we’re all okay with mental illness, but there’s still a lot of stigma around admitting it. That’s why this is the first time I’ve ever publicly said that I was diagnosed 14 years ago as bipolar.

When you’re diagnosed with mental illness, you manage it. You learn the things you need to do in order to stay balanced. It isn’t fair to say that the wine industry is harder than other industries, because we don’t know anyone else’s monsters. But having mental illness has some triggers. One of them is drinking, and another is not sleeping enough. In the restaurant industry, that’s your life.

So I wake up every day and ask myself how I am feeling. Then I know how to handle myself.

How I Keep It Together To Stay Well:
Four things are like the pillars of safety for me. They’re things that anyone can do to maintain balance but if I don’t do them, it will throw me over the edge.

I have to sleep. That’s a non-starter. It’s hard to decide that I’m not going out or stay up and watch a movie, but I have to sleep. If I have a day off, I have to nap if I haven’t slept for the last five days.

I have to exercise, because my body needs to keep doing something. That’s why I run. I did not want to go for a run this morning, for example, but I knew I had to.

I have to drink water, and I have to eat throughout the day.

I believe in meditation and walking outside, and I know that walking through a flower shop helps me. But doing those four things – sleep, exercise, water, food – every day is what’s changed my life.

I’m one of many people out there who are diagnosed as bipolar and lead a normal day-to-day life. As long as we balance ourselves, get help and take stock, we’re perfectly fine.

You can connect with Kate on Instagram at @katie_a_w.