Suddenly it dawns on you that you’re heading in the wrong direction – slightly lost. The kids have just started to antagonise each other, the GPS has failed and from out of the blue, it happens. That momentary experience of losing control and you feel trapped cannot get out and the frustrations overtake and come boiling to the surface.
How many times has this happened to you when you least expect it? When the smallest problems are often tragically magnified affecting those immediately around you. They too, unfortunately, tend to be the ones closest to you.
Often it can also be our work colleagues, automatically labelling you or even saying, “Here we go again, just another angry outburst”. But why is this so? It’s often for reasons only partially understood by those affected with this debilitating and sometimes crippling illness they call Depression and/or Post Traumatic Stress and certainly has minimal understanding from the general public.
But be rest assured the support available from many people can be amazing, whether they are family members, friends or work colleagues. We have come so far in recent times with still a distance to go. Although, some would like to think there are only minor smatterings of a stigma from a bygone era there still lingers doubt. But a problem shared with family, colleagues and professionals is a problem well on the way to a solution. If we spent the energy we use hiding the problem on having the problem solved we would be on the mend much sooner.
Trepidation still remains, that seeking help will adversely affect a career, so that makes the raising of one’s hand less inviting. What is clear are the many events that can trigger someone to reach out and seek help. Regardless there are more people reaching out seeking assistance than ever before and hopefully with many more in the not too distant future.
What we can be certain about is that mental health issues do not discriminate regardless of your age, education or even job category. It may strike anywhere at any time and when you least expect it. The beauty of seeking early intervention in the journey to recovery is that now you’re able to identify when it does strike and act quickly to curtail it.
To influence someone’s actions positively by just having a conversation and perhaps mentioning depression or post-traumatic stress can prove invaluable for them.
To be told that you would be the last person they thought of to have depression, reinforces the previous points – you may never know the person next to you is suffering in silence or is even on the road to recovery.
To normalise the symptoms of such an illness can make people more comfortable so they’re able to ask their own questions. It has also been firmly suggested that mental illness should be given the same status as those who’ve received physical injuries.
Put more simply your physical and mental fitness should have an equal priority. Chances are that someone is currently looking for what you are – help or somebody else to talk too.
With National Mental Health Week and National Veterans Weeks just around the corner let’s start to think of ways that you can make a difference in our community. You do not have to be a medical practitioner to help someone out there – simply listening is all you may ever need to do to change someone’s life.
Need someone to talk to now call:
VVCS – Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service 1800 011 046
Beyond Blue 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 1300 22 4636
Shaun McGill Chairman Young Veterans Forum NSW RSL Currently serving with the Royal Australian Air Force
