Tag: depression
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Honey, I’m home! (reconnecting with myself)
It’s been almost two years since I last wrote a column, and loads of cool and some difficult stuff has happened. I’m excited to be writing again and to share how I’m living as a heartful and hopeful human. Last year I came to realise that despite all of the work I’d been doing to…
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“I have hope now”: interviewing Sarah Lungu
Sarah Lungu shares her mental health struggles with JC Clapham Sitting down to a conversation with Sarah Lungu, one gets a sense she knows her delicacies very well, yet also wields a steely determination. Even on Zoom during Victoria’s most recent lockdown, Sarah’s resolve is evident – almost tangible. But as Sarah herself shares with…
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Lonely, I’m Mr Lonely
I’ve necessarily pushed people away over the past five years. Self-preservation was my goal, and the sense of being a broken burden that a major depressive feels only compounded that. But now I’m through the other side and experiencing some great joys, much optimism and kicking quite a few goals, I find myself with very…
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Dear parents, please don’t choose to die…
*** Content warning: Suicidal themes *** Dear dad or mum to a child or children, Firstly, let me declare I’m one of you. I have children of my own and hopefully like you and yours, my kids are the best part of my life and I’d do anything – anything at all – to see…
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Looking forward, looking back. I’ve come a long way down the track
Five years is a brilliant achievement for a printed publication, these days. Let alone one that is community-focused and produced largely by volunteers. FIVE. YEARS! Let’s all pause for a moment (or five) to acknowledge that in a period of time when printed newspapers are thinning in both quantity and genuinely-local content, The Westsider is…
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An appreciation of the winding road.
Yes, I’ve had multiple periods of time where my mental health was quite bad. Yes, I have hit the very bottom more than once. Yes, I have struggled to manage it in the past. Yes, I have had to take medication for a number of years, and I may need to for many more.It is…
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Running for mental health
It’s been six years since I did a run of any note. Six years… and during that time I’ve reached the end of the rope and managed to pull myself back, to once again smile. But not everyone is that lucky… Imagine a growing number of men, trained in mental health first aid, who can…
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Like father, like son? No. Not at all.
27 March this year was the last ‘coming-of-age’ milestone of my father’s suicide. He took his own life twenty-one years ago, in 1998. Ordinarily I’m overcome with a sense of dread in the weeks before this annual milestone, but this year, I wasn’t.
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It’s about time all Aussie Dads were screened for depression, too
In announcing an expansion of its mental health program, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) said the men “will be automatically offered a comprehensive mental health assessment and sign-posted to professional support if needed.” Australia should go even further.
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How my father’s suicide helped me to become a ‘real man’
It was Saturday, March 28, 1998, when I received the news that would cast a shadow over the rest of my life. I was 16 years old, and nothing would ever be ‘normal’ as I knew it, again. My dad had killed himself and now, 20 years on, I still have a father-shaped hole in…