Did you know that 48.1% of Australian men have experienced a mental health problem at some point in their life?
In fact, 1 in 8 men will experience depression and sadly suicide is now the leading cause of death amongst men aged 15-44. Men are also much less likely to talk about their problems and seek help from mental health services.
Depression affects how you think and feel about yourself, as well as how you view the world. Sometimes without even realising we slip into a pattern of behaviours that help us get and stay stuck. Often when you experience depression you can view EVERYTHING from a depressed point of view. So… let’s try to change that up now and start looking at depression from a slightly different point of view……..
What Makes Depression Worse
1. Staying still, and not doing anything that makes you breathe fast or hard
2. Staying in bed or sitting in the same chair or laying on the couch
3. Isolating; avoiding other people
4. Talking to the same person or a few people
5. Talking about the same topic, usually how depressed/unhappy you/they are
6. Sleeping during the day and having insomnia at night
7. Brooding on the past, fears, faults and resentments
8. Imagining the future will be the same or worse than the past or present
9. Eating terribly; overeating or under eating (whichever one you specialise in), eat junk foods, sugar, fat
10.Avoiding hobbies, passions or spiritual interests
11. Drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and/or using other drugs
12. Not asking for help
What Helps Depression
1. Exercise and Depression
Depressed people who exercised [supervised group exercise or at-home exercise] were just as likely to recover from major depression as people on Zoloft, but the exercisers were more likely to not be depressed 2 years later than people on Zoloft or who took Zoloft in addition to exercising.
How Much Exercise Matters in Depression
Every 50 minutes of exercise per week correlated to a 50% drop in depression levels (Exercise and Pharmacotherapy in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder, James A. Blumenthal, PhD et. al, Psychosomatic Medicine 69:587-596 (2007)
2. Social Connection for Depression
Social connections are at risk in modern societies
• Make time for shared family dinners and family holiday (down by 33% over the last 25 years)
• Invite friends over to your house (down by 45% over the last 25 years).
• Participate in a club (down by 50% over the last 25 years)
• Connect through nature
• Connection to another: Intimate one to one relationships. This pathway does not always need to refer to a relationship with another person; it could be with an animal
3. Consider things from another point of view
• Consider that you might be seeing things from a depressed view point
• Getting out and having fun can help shift your mind set
• Treat yourself with kindness and compassion
• View your depression with compassion. Depression can be a wakeup call to remind you that you need to take better care of yourself
• Talk to someone today – call our friendly staff to organise an appointment for depression counselling with one of our highly qualified clinicians or use our Online Enquiry Form to request a call back.
Additional depression support and information is available through:
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- Beyondblue Support Line co-funded by Movember, which provides the opportunity to have a one-on-one call or chat with a trained mental health professional, and is completely confidential.
- Beyondblue aims to build awareness of depression and anxiety, remove the associated stigma and improve the quality of life for those affected.
- Headspace offers information, support and services for young people aged 12 to 25.
- Kids Helpline is a 24-hour nationwide service that provides access to crisis support, suicide prevention and counselling services for Australians aged 5-25.
- Lifeline provides access to crisis support, suicide prevention and mental health support services.
- Mensline Australia is a dedicated service for men with relationship and family concerns. They provide support to men who are dealing with relationship difficulties, particularly surrounding family breakdown or separation.
- Mindhealthconnect provides mental health and wellbeing information, online programs, helplines and news.
- Suicide Call Back Service provides free nationwide professional telephone and online counselling for anyone affected by suicide.
- Information adapted from http://au.movember.com/mens-health/mental-health and www.billohanlon.com
We offer remote telehealth consultation or if you are in Cleveland or Loganholme in Qld Australia, book an in-person appointment with our psychologists.