Depression
One in five is a ratio that gets bandied around a lot when we talk about mental illness. It refers to a fifth of our population who experience it within a 12-month period.
When you stack that up it means almost half us between 16 and 85 encounter some kind of a mental disorder within our lifetime.
With those kinds of numbers it is impossible not to be touched by it in some way. It may not be obvious. It may be as subtle as the depressed friend who took stress leave from work or that drunk relative hiding something deeper.
Continue reading "Depression ain’t the only mental illness in town" »
One of the lowest points of my life came when I was a 17 year old runaway scratching out a heavily eyelined living as a waitress in Sydney.
Thanks to a Great Dane-sized bout of black dog depression, I’d gone from being a straight-A student to a high school drop-out in a few short months.
In 1987, I was writing three-unit English essays on Jane Austen and dreaming of becoming some sort of millionaire adventurer balloon-ess.
Continue reading "Don’t let that Black Dog howl so loud it drives you mad" »
Latest 2 of 41 comments
View all comments-
Nobody really gives a stuff says:
Thanks for sharing Emma. Depression in men manifests itself a little differently than in women. I’ve often tried to anaylse and rationalise the feeling but with the onset of the fog it’s difficult. The best way I can describe the onset of an episode are lyrics from a Metallica song… Read more »
-
Gardener says:
Nicely put…. Read more »
There’s been a long-standing, slightly confused and often-broken taboo on reporting suicides. Many believe – perhaps without basis – that just talking about suicide could lead to ‘copycats’. But all the important players agree that it should be discussed, and today the Australian Press Council has released new standards for media coverage of suicides. The Punch spoke to Press Council chair Julian Disney about the changes and what he hopes they’ll achieve.
Q. What’s changed?
A. There was a Senate inquiry that gathered evidence from a number of perspectives and found the Mindframe guidelines should be reviewed – and we thought we should review ours as well. In particular that related to whether there was a feeling in the media that discussion of suicide was taboo. Our guidelines never said that (it should be taboo), and the Mindframe ones didn’t either.
Continue reading "Punch Q & A: When is it OK for the media to discuss suicide?" »
Latest 2 of 126 comments
View all comments-
NitsPactsit says:
Hello everyone, I’m fairly new to here, therefore Hi! Read more »
-
Affinains says:
Choosing the right technology, the construction of a spiritless diet is one of the most respected decisions that will look the arrival and character of the house. In the action of log homes (domy z bali), upland and outside walls can be left in its real construction, as artistically… Read more »
The recent Federal budget has underlined the fact that mental ill-health is the major health issue facing Australians in the early part of the 21st century.
Responding to the reality that Australians now regard mental health among the top three national concerns, just behind the economy and climate change, all sides of politics now support substantial growth in investment in mental health care.
The Gillard Government allocated $2.2 billion as a decent down payment in a tight budget on mental health reform, crucially beginning to build strength in early intervention models for young people, who bear the main burden of onset for the major mental disorders of adult life.
Continue reading "The Government’s thrown the black dog a bone" »
Latest 2 of 26 comments
View all comments-
Jordan Rastrick says:
“with the poor people addicted to prescription drugs” Most prescribed substances used to treat mental illness are not addictive. “without any improvement” Scientific controlled studies indicate otherwise, with the possible exception of drugs being used to treat mild cases of depression and anxiety, which may indeed be indistinguishable from placebo.… Read more »
-
Jordan Rastrick says:
Only when most seriously depressed. I’m not saying cures are impossible in theory, nor that some people don’t recover more or less completely and permanently from mental ill health. And you certainly don’t need to be cured for your life to be worth living. But it is a simple fact… Read more »
Many people in Australia live with a mental illness, and unfortunately, many think about suicide.
I know from personal experience.
I have depression and attempted suicide in 2005. I thank God every day that I did not complete my attempt, but I know exactly how real the risk of suicide is.
Continue reading "Suicide is a very real problem. I know. I tried it." »
Latest 2 of 106 comments
View all comments-
Julie says:
There is a program now funded through the government called “a mental health care plan”. Anyone can see their GP and they will assess your suitability for this and it is funded through Medicare. Good luck to you Dan. I too am seeing a psychologist for ways on how to… Read more »
-
True Believer says:
@Judas Thank you for your post. I should have been more careful in my response. I know the behaviour of a few does not reflect the whole population of atheists/unbelievers. Having been one of the latter for many years I know what it is to have no knowledge or understanding… Read more »
For a blubbering, lonely, unlucky-in-love, toxic politician with a ‘hit-me’ sign on his back, SA Police Minister and former Treasurer Kevin Foley sure has risen in my estimations.
I can’t believe he’s still standing. I can’t believe he hasn’t packed his bags (no, not just for his latest overseas jaunt) and signed a lucrative deal for his own guts-spilling talkback radio show.
I can’t believe he only slightly teared up at his press conference last Monday. I’d have been pulling my hair out, frothing at the mouth and howling with sheer exasperation. Not least because of the double standards that have applied to him and Premier Mike Rann in the past 18 months.
Continue reading "Labor’s woes will not end with this man" »
Latest 2 of 25 comments
View all comments-
hot tub political machine says:
We probably still know them here though, in our kind of - everyone knows everything in a country town, we only have 2 degrees of seperation way. Read more »
-
Tony of Poorakistan says:
Hot Tub we can’t even submit the stories and scandals for publication on here. They won’t get printed. Even when most of the population believe them to be true. Read more »
On Monday, yet another young driver appeared in yet another court room to be punished for his role in the death of yet another innocent teenager. The victim in this case was 16 year old T.J. Hutchesson of Bathurst.
The name of the accused can’t be reported. In a sense the names don’t matter: for those of us looking on, this is just another episode in a long and tragic storybook of life destroyed far too young.
In a statement appearing in The Sydney Morning Herald, mother Rachael Hutchesson did not shy away from identifying the problem: boredom and booze. This is a known issue in regional Australia, and yet there is a real paucity of frankness when it comes to solutions.
Latest 2 of 133 comments
View all comments-
Flip says:
Ah, i see. Well that’s not too tcirky at all!” Read more »
-
Michael Kozoil says:
I think it obvious this guy grew up in the city Read more »
Our mental health priorities are seriously out of whack.
Australia’s mental health system is a shambles. It’s under-funded and plagued by bureaucracy and a lack of political will.
People in desperate need of help are slipping through the cracks, as bed numbers dive and community support fails to reel in the slack.
Continue reading "We need to keep the bigger issues in mind" »
Latest 2 of 124 comments
View all comments-
Andre says:
I’m not sure that the 8 or 9 hours of sleep is aabainttle when I’m on clinical rotations instead of research, though I keep striving for it:) And doing little things to get outside while it’s still warm is a great idea.The eating and exercise pieces are so hard… I… Read more »
-
Luke says:
“It’s difficult to have a serious debate on the over-prescription of drugs. Part of this is because Scientology has ripped much credibility out of the argument with their rigid opposition to any sort of medication” Scientology has acted as champions to those who risk thier careers speaking against mind altering… Read more »
On the eve of his appearance at Sydney’s World Happiness Conference last week, Edward de Bono was asked what type of people he thought would attend the annual two-day series.
“I don’t know,” he replied. ‘‘I do know, however, that people are becoming more interested in happiness. Happiness as an industry is becoming more visible.”
A kind of warming observation on the surface, but dig a little deeper and I think you’ll also find that our “pursuit of happiness’ is beginning to resemble more of a crazed quest. But it won’t get us anywhere until we accept that feelings of sadness, bewilderment and loss are also a completely normal part of the full experience of life.
Latest 2 of 53 comments
View all comments-
DM says:
Peter - ah but when we laugh we feel happiness, it is fleeting but there and as no one can be truely happy all day everyday then it’s the little moments that count the most to quote a TV show “nothing we do matters, so all that matters is what… Read more »
-
Luke says:
“community awareness” of depression is what is causing a decline in it? I think community ignoreance of it is what causes the decline… I think the more attention you give “bad feelings” the more they control you… Read more »
Let me tell you the story of Shane Dolan.
I met him two decades ago, when I was in Ethiopia for Four Corners, filming “The Forgotten Famine”, which I wrote about in this space a month ago.
Shane was an aid worker. Not the kind who hands out food at emergency relief centres, but the kind who works for the long term.
Continue reading "How a black cloud was lifted in an impoverished land" »
Latest 2 of 6 comments
View all comments-
Mr Subramanian says:
Fabulous. I hope articles like this encourage people to increase their giving towards charitable organisations as much as ones about others’ poor experiences with charities discourage them from doing so. Because it’s all really about how effective such aid is, rather than one’s own personal willingness to give, isn’t it? Read more »
-
Chuck says:
Mark, what Eric said is true. We rarely comment on your stories, but keep them going. Each one is a great read Read more »
Sunday mornings are usually a fairly quiet affair in my apartment until around 11am when my swollen bladder, thumping headache and noisy neighbours force me from the safety of my bed.
Last Sunday however was special as I managed the truly Olympic effort of making it downstairs to the couch by the crack of 10am. However seconds after collapsing victoriously onto the couch to enjoy this small victory I was assailed by suggestions for ‘fun things to do’ from my ever perky med-student ‘houseguest’.
Ms Gen Y was absolutely bursting with energy after her 3 hours of sleep, I on the other hand felt like Amy Winehouses’ liver, so I politely declined her invitation. She insisted. I more forcefully declined. She begged. I told her to leave me alone and flee the country - and that’s when she told me I had SCTD.
Latest 2 of 32 comments
View all comments-
Anjuli says:
Then are doctors who tell you that it is all in the mind, then you are rushed to hospital with a kidney infection Read more »
-
Kate says:
You make a good point, and most doctors worth their salt will try to make that distinction. Depression is usually categorised into a few groups - there’s situational or reactive depression, which pretty much describes what you mentioned - someone experiencing depression because of unemployment, bereavement, isolation etc. Then there’s… Read more »
In April 1995 my father, Barry Larkin, took his own life. He had been the major influence in my life and his death was completely devastating. I honestly felt like I was broken and I would never (could never) be “fixed”.
I experienced, first hand, the collateral damage of suicide; something at least 1900 Australian families experience every year. The ABS is currently revising how it categorises death by suicide and estimates the actual total could be as high as 3500.
In the aftermath of a suicide, friends and family often end up on a massive emotional roller coaster, which can seem never ending. You can be despairing, sad, confused, betrayed, guilty, angry, sentimental and grief stricken all in the space of a minute. Yet each of those emotions can be so complete and so raw that you feel more alive but less in control, than you’ve ever felt before.
Continue reading "R U OK? I can tell you I’m not, about suicide" »
Latest 2 of 9 comments
View all comments-
keith says:
I just saw a documentary of you and I cannot express how much admiration I have for you. It takes a man of great bravery to plow through with this initiative even as you are met with disaster in life, and your initiative will have such a positive impact on… Read more »
-
Suzi says:
As a 40yo woman, who has lived with (I hate the way people say “dealt with”) depression and been medicated on and off since I was 8, I have thought many many times how easy it would be to not wake up. I know the world couldn’t care less if… Read more »
Note: For the background to this piece read SA Treasurer Kevin Foley’s unprompted tell-all interview here.
Regardless of whether you think Kevin Foley is a good bloke and a talented treasurer, or a boofhead and an economic incompetent, only the most flint-hearted observer could watch his unravelling this week and not feel some empathy for the man.
In order to succeed in the often horrible business of politics, politicians must almost dehumanise themselves – that is, they must think through everything they do, what they say, how they dress, who they are friends with, how they choose to spend their limited free time, because everything they do has potential political ramifications.
Right down to the level of getting your partner and kids to put on their glad rags for the glossy mailout you send out to 20,000-odd households once every four years, projecting yourself as the very epitome of domestic bliss.
Continue reading "The politician mugged by his own humanity" »
Latest 2 of 36 comments
View all comments-
Taperoo High boy says:
I always thought he was a Royal Park High boy… Read more »
-
Paul says:
@steven no mate, you need to get out more. I was raised in the Catholic Church and I’ve never met such a bunch of well meaning, two- faced, control-freaks , ‘Sunday -Christians’—who seriously and criminally damaged two of my mates lives. The small-minded Labor folks come close. Read more »
Geelong wears its heart on its sleeve.
This past week and a half, the city has had a spring in its step as high as the centre bounce at the MCG as we bask in the glory and triumph of our football team.
The euphoria is plain to see in the flags across town, the streamers still hanging off car aerials and the little kids refusing to take off their increasingly grubby blue and white jumpers.
Continue reading "Ask someone you care about, are you OK today?" »
Latest 2 of 3 comments
View all comments-
Ben says:
Hey Richard. What do you reckon? Two comments typical of people’s profound lack of interest in discussion of mental illness? Give them a Hey Hey revival, a boofy FM radio host or even a gay rights issue every time! Read more »
-
Karalee says:
Thanks Richard and The Punch for highlighting this important day. headspace: The National Youth Mental Health Foundation, and particularly our headspace Barwon centre, is working hard to promote youth mental health issues to the community. It is important to get the word out to our young people that it is… Read more »
Channel Nine’s decision yesterday to cave in to the bullying of the Victorian Government and Beyond Blue is deeply depressing. No doubt the network could see it was in a lose-lose situation.
Even if it were to win in the courts and have the injunction lifted which prevented it from broadcasting a 60 Minutes piece on the suicides of four teenagers in Geelong, it would be forever hostage to the accusation it had blood on its hands if any others from the school were to take the final solution.
Continue reading "60 Minutes should have run the suicide story" »
Latest 2 of 20 comments
View all comments-
Benji says:
After the revelations on Media Watch on Monday night regarding 60 minutes harrassment of the parents who didn’t take part in an attempt to bully them into it, not to mention the fact that pictures of the deceased children were used in promos without the parent’s approval, I personally think… Read more »
-
Dan says:
“When do-gooders and governments start asking courts to ban programmes they haven’t seen because they discuss matters they would prefer left alone we are entering dangerous waters” except beyond Blue HAVE seen it. We don’t have unlimited freedom of speech, and if there’s a reasonable possibility that running a story… Read more »
The yellow bumper sticker on his suitcase says “I’d rather die like a dog” and if anyone knows how dogs die it’s Dr Philip Nitschke, who slit one’s throat when he was a teenager.
It’s a story which Nitschke wishes would go away. But in the context of his latest snappy euthanasia slogan, plastered over his luggage as he was questioned in Heathrow this weekend, it’s one that is worth re-telling.
Nitschke has told it a few times in media profiles - reluctantly, because he is aware his critics regard it as a pointer to adult instability, rather than the isolated act of a homesick 15-year-old boarder sent to live in Adelaide with an abusive landlord whose barking dog was driving him mad.
“It got so grim there…you feel like killing the people involved and you know you can’t do that and you end up killing the dog,” Nitschke told Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope in 2007.
Continue reading "Let’s throw another pensioner on the barbie" »
Latest 2 of 3 comments
View all comments-
Kris says:
Ignoring the rather large bump, Penbo stated fairly clearly in his article that he is “personally inclined to think that the chronically ill should be entitled to hasten their death”. That hardly classifies him as pro-life does it? Read more »
-
George Cooley says:
I’m sick of the Pro-Life propaganda. You guys worry how I want to end MY life, how someone want to have an abortion. Yet you are watching thousands of babies and adults die of hunger and sickness everyday in the third world countries. Go and channel your energy into birth… Read more »
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
ICB: If I could offer you only one tip for the future…
Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit, an irregular regular column on calumny and codswallop.…
Six prominent Aussies with a case of the dreaded “yips”
The yips. It’s an old golf term which refers to golfers who lose the ability to putt. They stand…
The humourless hysteria of the holier-than-thou
In I Spit On Your Grave, a young woman is gang raped in a remote woodland. She is beaten and tortured…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: Punch on: Open thread 09/02/2012
marley says:
I'm one of the older ones, so I've certainly seen a few changes in my time. When I started school I learned to write with a nib pen, dipped in an inkwell (no, I'm not kidding). My mother became a dab hand at getting inkstains out of my clothes. Flicking ink at one another in the classroom was an essential… [read more]From: I’d rather have a piece of toast than listen to crap lyrics
Erick says:
Led Zeppelin are responsible for my all-time favourite mixed metaphor: "There you sit, sit and stare, like a book on a shelf rusting." (Misty Mountain Hop) I laugh every time I hear it. Hmmm, I believe I've decided what to play on the way to work today. [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
No wuckin forries. These nuckin futs are tuckin fops
Well, puck me with a fitchfork. The F-word is apparently an acceptable part of Australian speech. That’s… Read more
Latest 2 of 40 comments
View all commentsAdd your comment