How To Approach The Subject Of Mental Health

There are many facets to mental health in this episode I talk about the area I suffer from and have a better understanding of depression and anxiety.

This is the first step is to understand if you are ready to help someone if you believe someone is struggling, there is a difference between struggling and someone suffering from depression or anxiety, which is the main global mental health problem.

We all get it that sometimes were get down for a little while and that is normal, when this becomes weeks and months of behaviour change then we have a problem.

I am not saying to become an expert what I am indicating is how to identify changes in patterns of people that you may notice and then want to have access to the tools that will hold you in good stead to assist someone you love or care about.

There are three areas where you can see people with a change in mood and that is

1. Family Friends and Community
2. Work
3. At Play Sports, Community Groups

So let's break them down.

1. Let's make it simple and call it home. This is the most commonplace as family members we can see changes in behaviour that quickly become abnormal for the person concerned. They can become withdrawn from activities, and start to isolate themselves from day to day activities.

2. Work - We spend a large part of the day at work and when things start to go wrong here we need to understand the reasoning it is still behaviour change, however, it will be different than at home. At work it could be mood swings, drinking a lot at lunches or just not stepping up to the plate-like they use to. Normally this is a manifestation of something that has been going on for a long time.

3. Play - Sports is the great leveller of people there are the elite sportspeople and we have seen many especially young men take time away from their chosen sport due to mental health reasons. Everyday superstars at your club can still have the same problems mainly around expectations, but also can be just life has got them down for me this is the hardest place to identify

So let's look at the hard numbers I know this is confronting but I am wanting to reduce these numbers with your help and the help of many great organisations.

These numbers are from the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing I have put a link in the notes for the show so you can see them for yourself.

They are numbers from 2020 and they indicate that not much has changed over the last decade.

Total Suicides in 2020 3139

Males 2384

Females 755

There were 381 deaths between the ages of 18-24 and a staggering 99 between the ages of 5-17 with the biggest majority between 15-17 in adolescents.

Overall the group that is still scary is the 30-59 males, this age bracket has changed over the years as it was more common in 40-45-year-olds a decade ago.

So they are the cold hard facts now let's get back to the positive side in helping and identifying people that are down but not out like I nearly was late last year.

I think RUOK is the best place to focus as its resources are varied and many for all walks of life. The one thing that won me over was their acronym ALEC and this is the second stage of the journey to help others if you can. The first part is doing their survey (link below) to see if you are ready to help others it only takes a few seconds, it doesn't mean you are an expert it just means you will go down the right path.

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