Tag: australian

Not All Heroes Wear Capes…

Dear Fellow Human beings,

It is with great disappointment that we write this letter to you all. You see, it has come to our attention that our faith in humanity has been sorely misguided. What we mistook for your basic human rights and freedom of speech actually turned out to be your egos and lack of compassion for others. This letter has been brewing in the minds of men and women around the world, who have been watching you and your egos as you display yourselves in public like a bunch of Ibises around a full dumpster or toddlers who have had their favourite toy taken away from them during playtime.

As you wander around the streets chanting slogans that a two year old with a mouth full of biscuits could have made up as they soil themselves. You complain about your freedom being taken away from you whilst you fail to wear a mask and be a decent human. By that we mean your duty to protect those that can’t protect themselves, you continually fail to see the bigger picture and are quite often guided by the esteemed alumni of Facebook University. When it comes down to it you’ve let your egos get in the way, you see it as your privilege to walk mask less through the streets ignoring public orders and chanting about your basic freedoms being taken away. You see it as your right and while the constitution of the country we write this from allows you that, we’ll refer to the bigger picture once again.

What you fail to see are all the families struggling to see loved ones, the mother’s giving birth on their own, the father’s missing the most important day of their lives. The children lying in hospital beds without support, the grandparents struggling on their own, mother’s, fathers, sons and daughters who are all doing it tough. Your failure to see past your own reflection in the mirror is that everyone is struggling. This isn’t just about you, this pandemic affects every single one of us, it’s about everyone doing their part, it’s about the lockdowns, COVID and the vaccination plans so we can get back to some semblance of normalcy.

With our egos in the way we struggle, no we fail to see beyond ourselves. We fail to see all the people we could be helping. We fail to see our fellow humans. We fail to see those already laying in ICU beds requiring ventilation in order to breathe or the families that we could be helping. We could be using our privilege for good, our ultimate privilege or ultimate freedom in life is to give to others, to act in a selfless manner. As the rapper DMX so beautifully put it in his song Right /Wrong, “If you help another without concern for a reward or gold, what you give you shall receive tenfold”. That could be our ultimate gift to others in a time when everyone is doing it hard, that privilege could help save lives including yours.

It is your right to complain, to march, to stand on your soapbox and spread your rhetoric to others, whether that be that COVID is a hoax or a government conspiracy or maybe that the vaccine is a way in which to track you. It could be that the government is trying to keep you at home and invading your basic freedoms. It’s also your right whether you get vaccinated or not but what we would urge you to do is your research, we would also urge you to push your ego aside and think about why you started protesting in the first place and is it really helping. At the end of the day the more people who are out protesting and not wearing masks instead of being at home the longer lockdowns will continue to go on and the more time it will take for us to open the world back up. Don’t worry about what’s going on overseas, look in our own back yard and start asking what we need to do as a public to get our country back up and running.

That bigger picture we were talking about at the start of this letter, that’s everyone doing their part. If that means you need to check your privilege at the door and maybe take one on the chin and wear a mask, stay at home or get the jab for someone else then maybe you should start to think about that bigger picture. Start to think about all those doing it tough or spare a thought for our health workers on the front lines. They’ll be the ones looking after you without judgement when you’re laying in the ICU struggling to breathe after contracting COVID-19. Harsh but that’s the reality we are now living in and have been living in for well over 12 months now. The world has changed and we need to change, we need to come together now more than ever in the history of the human civilisation. If each of us can do a small part, if not for ourselves than for someone else the sooner we can open up and live with COVID.

If that doesn’t get you thinking then spare a thought for the women and children in Afghanistan and their rights and freedom that are about to be stripped from them from warlords and leaders who have been branded as terrorists in the past. They’ll enforce a strict sharia law giving women no rights whatsoever. That’s having your freedom taken from you. Imagine being shot at as you protest what is your freedom being taken away from you. That’s a government or power taking away your basic freedoms. They’ll be forced to stay inside, they won’t be able to attend schools, work or have a voice. Having a government that asks you to stay at home to stop the spread of a virus that is wreaking havoc around the world is not a government that is taking away your freedoms, it’s a government that wants to get through the worst of this so that we can have a world that is somewhat back to normal.

No government wants to spend millions in welfare payments just to keep you at home and take away your civil rights nor do they want to spend millions on testing and vaccination dosages or salaries for those having to administer them to you for that matter. The debt that this country has put itself into to protect you and give you those freedoms that you cry are being stripped from you is a debt that your children’s, children’s, children’s will be paying back. Before you go listening to those with their master degrees from Facebook University. Go and do your own research and make an informed choice. That doesn’t mean using social media or listening to podcasts and YouTube videos. Read actual research documents and papers, the internet has allowed us unprecedented access to information and resources to acquire knowledge. Corona viruses have been around for thousands of years, they are just evolving and adapting into bigger and stronger viruses there is nothing conspicuous about them some are just deadlier than others.

Everyone is doing it tough, we all want the country to open back up, we want to be able to travel further than 5kms from our house. We want to be able to board a plane and take off to destinations unknown. We want to see our family and friends in the flesh, not just on a screen from our living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms or wherever it is while we become the zoom and facetime generation. We want to go back to work so that our partners, wives and husbands stop looking at us with murder in their eyes after having just spent 50 plus days with us in the same small space. Only getting one or two hours each day of respite from each other. We want all businesses small, medium and large to thrive but none of that can happen while we march blindly and arrogantly through the streets spreading the one thing that is keeping us in lockdowns.

We aren’t angry, we are just disappointed… as every good parent would say to their child. As a society we can be doing so much better for each other. In the past we’ve poked the anti-vaxxer bear and the flat earth crackpot (Yes that was written with a little tongue in cheek), we’ve even looked at some of the weirder conspiracy theories floating around the world. We aren’t saying go and get vaccinated, we aren’t saying don’t protest but we are and always will ask that you look at the bigger picture and if that involves you taking one for the team or masking up for those in the world who’s immune systems are compromised or in some cases not even developed enough to fight a virus, yes we are talking about those cute smoosh faced things called babies. Then maybe you should stop, take some time to think and figure out what’s important to you.

Take a minute and just ask yourself each time you leave the house without a mask or go and protest amongst hundreds and thousands of others. “Could I be making someone sick if I contract the virus, could it be someone who doesn’t have the immune system to fight it? Could that person be someone I love? Could it be a close friend? Could I be acquiring the virus from someone I don’t even know… Just ask yourself what’s the bigger picture here and how can I be doing my part to help those that can’t and in some cases won’t help themselves. The question on everyone’s mind should be what can I do for myself that can benefit others. Some of the measures are simple (Mask up), some are invasive (Get the Jab) and some will feel like torture and torment (Lockdowns = stay at home and follow the public orders).

From the team at A Mind of Its Own, we hope you are all staying safe, we hope you are staying connected and we hope that you never have to see a loved one suffer. Take care, stay safe and let’s all do our part… We know some people will take offense to this letter but before you do. Stop and think are you really upset by what we’ve said here or is it your ego talking? That way you won’t have to get public safety announcement and pleading letter from us and we can go back to writing about stupid things that everyone wants to know about but no one wants to Google like what is a cleveland steamer?…

Team AMoIO

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Lights Out, Words Gone…

Well 2020 has certainly thrown a bucket of stinking sh*t over the world but thankfully it’s done and dusted. We started the year with bush fires that ravaged the country on both coasts before putting several of our cute and cuddly native species in danger of extinction. From there we moved into uncharted territory with people munching on bats and spreading Coronavirus in the little know town of Wuhan. Being a world in which travel from continent to continent is possible this put nations around the globe into lockdown and began to kill of young and old a like with flu like symptoms. We all had to learn to entertain ourselves and be ok with what became solo Netflix and chill sessions. It wasn’t till late in the year that we finally got some good news when the Americans went to the polls. In what was our favourite day of the year the American public gave the Mango Mussolini a double fingered salute and decided to evict him from the Whitehouse. Uncle Joe as he is creepily referring to himself now, is just Biden his time while he waits for the grown man child to accept defeat, pack up his belongings and jog on. Like a child chucking a major wobbly because they didn’t get their own way Mr. Trump refuses to go quietly into the night good sir. Chances are the Secret Services will be dragging him out kicking and screaming on the day he’s scheduled to leave the Whitehouse.

It might have been a nightmare year that we’d all prefer to write off, however we’ve been heading in a direction as global community for quite sometime now and the team here at A Mind of Its Own has struggled to keep our tongues from flapping too much. There comes a time however where you just have to say enough is enough and to be honest we’ve decided we can no longer keep quiet about this topic. Like all good blogs we are going to dip our toe in the deep end and no doubt offend a few people with this one. Isn’t that what freedom of speech is all about though? The ability to speak your mind without persecution from others. We hate to spill the tea to you all on this but there is no such thing as freedom of speech any longer. Someone, somewhere will find a reason to take issue with your thoughts, ideas and how you’ve voiced them. From being too far on one side of the ledger we have now swung the pendulum way too far to the other side. Well that’s the opinion of the writers here at this fine blog.

Ladies and gentlemen we now live in a politically correct world where people are offended too easily or find reason to be offended by things that they’ve never really cared about before until they read a post on social media or their friends have talked about it over organically farmed soy chai latte served in a glass keeper cup where the soy beans were nursed through the extraction process on a soft bed of love and rainbows. Just so you are aware there is nothing wrong with being ethically responsible for the planet in fact we actually recommend more people take note of how they are treating the world and do something about it. We’ve only got one earth and as much as Elon Musk is trying to get us to Mars it doesn’t look that hospitable. We are pointing out that certain people tend to jump on bandwagons when it suits them. Like fair weather supporters of their local sports team, when things are going well they are there when they aren’t they are complaining, whinging and often even marching only to reflect and ask themselves why at a later date.

In order to explain our line of thinking for this blog we need to take you back to the late 80’s in Australia. Mullets were the rage, MC Hammer pants were cool and Hypercolour was all the rage. We had iconic brands made right here in Australia like Bonds, Billabong, Fosters, Rosella, Peters, Streets, Cottees, Vegemite, Arnotts Biscuits, Uncle Tobys, Speedo to name a fair few, they were also still Australian owned at that point in time and exported around the globe to millions of people keen to get some Australiana in their lives. Fast forward to today and many of our favourite household brands are no longer made in Australia or Australian owned but what does that have to do with being politically correct? Under some of those brands are brands in themselves that have recently come under fire for their naming. The PC Police have been hard at work suggesting that some of our brands require new names as they are offensive or insensitive to various communities and ways of life.

Although the renaming of things to appease the politically correct pundits can be traced back to the beginning of the 19th century and probably further, here in Australia it started with Devon. Devon, you know, that luncheon meat so many of us used to enjoy in various ways. We were always impartial, to Devon on white bread with tomato sauce. Some would say it was the working class Deli meat of choice. Up until World War One it was called Fritz. Who’s Fritz you ask well that was often slang for the Germans. That wasn’t the only thing to be renamed due to the war and needing to be politically correct. Jam filled buns went from being Berliners to Kitchener Buns. From here the flood gates opened to political correctness changes. The managers renamed the Penguins at SeaWorld from Fairy Penguins due to their small stature to Little Penguins as they didn’t want to offend the gay community. A nice gesture but a little bit of overkill we think as the word fairy does not belong to the LGBTQI+ community and frankly if someone referred to a gay man or woman as a fairy that would be offensive. But that’s political correctness for you.

Things have gone as far as PETA wanting Iconic Aussies rockers Hunters & Collectors to change the name of the band as they believe it represents and promotes animal cruelty. It could be they referencing treasure hunting and collecting, they do have a song about the Holy Grail. So is this a case of political correctness gone mad or just a case of someone taking offense to something in which there is literally none to be taken. What really got our goat was the renaming of our favourite lollies in the world, we get that some people will find it offensive and that is their right but they are literally red and have a red skin, ergo red skin, just change the picture on the bloody packaging for crying out loud. No one wants to eat a “Red Ripper” . It sounds like a dog’s penis. The renaming of Coon cheese we kind of get as it’s a derogatory term often used to describe people of colour by those who are culturally insensitive or just plainly racist but we do feel for the founder John Coon who never had the intention of being racist when he named his cheese after himself. As of late Dr Zeus has come under fire for the drawings in his books which have been deemed culturally insensitive and several titles have been removed from the line up and shelves of stores. Eminem is also a target, no one seemed to mind in the early noughties when they were all singing along to his white rap. Next thing you know we won’t be able to call people racist we’ll have to call them people of differing opinion or something stupid. Heck we won’t even be able to call them stupid.

If you currently live in the land of Merica or America for those who aren’t in the deep south you’ve probably already started to feel that there is no such thing as freedom of speech any longer. Like gun laws stopping you from being able to wield a machine gun or have a suppressor on your rifle, your ability to rant and rave on social media is being taken away from you as we pussy foot (excuse our language) around peoples sensibility and prissy nature. We can blame millennials all we like for our growing political correctness but where do we draw the line? In a world where we are becoming increasingly vigilant around what we can and can’t say and a world where we supposedly have freedom of speech. Well those of us not living under a dictatorship or communist rule.

Whilst America goes into meltdown over their rights to bare arms and Trumpzilla spews riotous rhetoric across social media are other parts of the world feeling the pinch when it comes to political correctness vs freedom of speech? Sitting here in Australia it’s cringe worthy viewing nightly watching the so called mightiest country in the free world tear itself apart from the inside out. As waves of demonstrators storm the capital and kill fellow Americans the most we have to deal with on the home front is the loonies protesting COVID vaccinations and the other loonies who believe COVID is a hoax. Not sure how one would describe all the deaths around the globe. Unless it is an elaborate global hoax. Enter the conspiracy theorists hell bent on making something out of nothing.

Looking at the men and women protesting COVID vaccines, mandatory mask laws, quarantining or whether COVID is a hoax created by governments to impede their human rights, the question needs to be asked is it politically correct to allow them to march and have their freedom of speech or are they all just selfish wankers putting people needlessly at risk? There seems to be a common occurrence when it comes to political correctness there is black and white on several things in which people should be correct and then there are the grey areas. There are a lot of assumptions that come with being politically correct. Take actors as an example. In this case actors who have played a character that is deemed culturally insensitive. Take a white actor playing a black character. Black face is culturally insensitive to many cultures around the globe but does that make the person playing the character intrinsically evil? The assumption we all make is yes. They chose to play that character therefore they are evil and racist.

Companies such as Netflix and HBO Max have come as far to censor programmes and even remove them from their lineup for being politically incorrect. But banning and censoring art does not alter it, it just makes it harder for people in the present to learn from history. The same goes for removal of statues and history. In Australia, Australia day has become a day of opinion and unrest rather than celebration of the nation. As stated to one person we (the current Australian society) can only apologise so many times for the damage done by our ancestors. If it wasn’t the British it would have been the French or Dutch who colonised Australia. The same story would be playing out, the world is what it is through colonisation whether we like it or not. Exploration and expansion of empires was written into our DNA through curiosity. As soon as man could walk he or she was wondering what lay beyond the horizon. It doesn’t excuse how we’ve treated native populations around the world but we should be working together to educate future generations on the damage caused that allows them to be in a country like Australia. Sadly expansion is in our nature, we can’t say there wasn’t wars between tribes when Gondwana was the Super continent over land.

Where do we draw the line between politically correct and freedom of speech you ask? Well that is a tough one? Should people be able to express their opinions and views even if they are politically incorrect? Chances are most people would say political correctness has gone too far in some regards and yet they also feel strongly when it comes to hate speech. What we can all agree on though is that whether you have an opinion about something, you should never force your opinion upon someone else particularly when it comes to politics, religion, same sex marriage, sexual preference, gender, race, human rights and other potentially charged societal topics. In cultures regulated by political correctness, people feel judged and fear being blamed. They worry about how others view them as representatives of their social identity groups. They feel inhibited and afraid to address even the most banal issues directly. People draw private conclusions; untested, their conclusions become immutable. Resentments build, relationships fray, and performance suffers.

If we went back over the last couple of years there have been several movements that 20 years ago wouldn’t have gotten the coverage or the followings they have. Not because they aren’t worth protesting or voicing but purely because social media connects us all and allows those who previously didn’t have a voice to speak out. It also allows childish, immature, racist bigots to hide behind their keyboards and take a swipe at any and everyone to make themselves feel better. Again is it there right to bring down poor little Greta because she’s the only one standing up for the environment? No it’s not, the internet has given even the most shy person a platform to bully and bring down others. We live in a world of cyberbullying, political correctness and most of all indifference. A lot of people just do not care these days and that’s ok. Perhaps it’s some defense mechanism in which they shield themselves from the world and all it’s constant chaos.

So to wrap this all up in a neat little bundle and place it in the nearest recycling bin with what was the year 2020 we’ll finish up with a little ramble exactly where we started. There is no right or wrong when it comes to political correctness, what you might deem politically correct another might see as completely incorrect or irrelevant. So have we gone too far? The right might say yes and the left no or the left might say we haven’t gone far enough. All the team here will say is that you should think before you speak, you never know who might take offense to even the most inane comment. So as we wind up what will be our return to the world piece we wish you all an ecstatic 2021 and may it bring you a lot more than 2020 brought us all. So until next time and our next blog, you stay classy…

Look For The Good…

From time to time we like to hand over the keys to the kingdom to the big man, the top dog, the brains and beauty behind this here blog. The man that had an idea, an idea to ensure that all topics are covered, no matter how much they make us cringe. He didn’t want A Mind of Its Own to be just another travel blog or a blog that focused on the same topic week in week out. In fact the idea as outlined and detailed in previous posts was to spark interest and get people talking. No topic is safe or off limits and we’ll always try to give you an unbiased view, with both sides of the story portrayed so you can make your own decisions about things. When we do hand over the keys to the big man however you can be sure that he’ll give you a piece of this mind, body and soul about a topic that is close to his heart. So without further ado we’ll hand over the mic and crack into this week’s A Mind of It’s Own.

Have you ever looked into the mirror and told yourself this will get better, this too shall pass, you are not your depression and anxiety. These feelings do not define who you are! If, like me, you have experienced anxiety and depression on a daily basis, you will know that the empty husk of a human that is staring back at you often feels like a stranger. For many this is a constant battle faced day in, day out. I’d love to sit here and type out a blog about sunshine and rainbows but the fact of the matter is that we all have good days and bad days. The truth is that some people just have better days than most. It doesn’t mean their lives are better than yours or mine, they just may have never had to cope with the internal battle with themselves, the thoughts, feelings and often the numbness that comes along with battling mental health issues.

I cried this morning (The morning this was written, probably two weeks or so before you get to read this), for the first time in ages I shed a tear about what I thought at the time was nothing. I got angry at myself for crying, for allowing myself this moment of weakness after being strong for so long. I stood in front of the mirror preparing for another day on this beautiful earth, just like I do most days. Routine has become key to keep me from spiralling into that dark pit of negativity that crops up from time to time. There was no reason for the tears other than I was feeling overwhelmed. It was an overload of thoughts and feelings that caused me to shed a tear or two. Or perhaps it was the song playing in the background and the memories of a former friend and happier times. Perhaps it was a combination of it all but for now it’ll remain unexplored until I next see my psychologist.

Yes my psychologist. Why do I see a psychologist well that’s plain and simple, I needed help and still need help. I am a person who feels deeply but isn’t great at managing my feelings when I’m overloaded by them. I’d like to think I am empathetic to everyone but perhaps I am not. Perhaps I feel more than most people but one thing I know I do is take on everyone else’s problems. I often ponder why it is that I take on others pain, problems and play Bob the builder trying to fix things. Although unlike Bob the builder I often can’t fix things in other people’s lives and realise later on that they needed to do it themselves. Despite the fact I like knowing my friends and family are ok and everything is going smoothly. The truth is, it’s more likely that I take on the problems of others so that I don’t have to fix the things in my life that aren’t going well or are getting me down.

From here my thoughts flick to other people once again. Having been cooped up and having to work from home I’ve begun to wonder what effects COVID has had on others who like me suffer from anxiety and depression. Or perhaps not even those who battle mental health issues daily but rather those less fortunate than me who have sadly been affected by the changes brought about by COVID, those who have lost their jobs and in some cases their sense of being. It’s no secret that mental health in Australia and around the world is a major concern during uncertain times. That little bit I said about routine above, well I am not alone in needing routine to keep me grounded and level. A lot of people who suffer from anxiety and depression function so much better when they have a constant routine. We struggle when things throw our routine out of whack, and COVID has done just that. It has limited our interaction with others, taken away jobs, our day to day routines and morphed it into something often unrecognisable.

The indescribable feelings, thoughts and pressure heaped on those who have lost jobs, lost the ability to provide for their families and in some cases lost who they are altogether has led to an increase in suicides across the country. It’s a sad point to get to when you feel that you have no other options other than to take your own life. It’s an escape from it all and people will have their own opinions on suicide and those who have attempted to take their life or who have taken their life. I can honestly say I’ve never been suicidal. Frankly I’m too much of a pussy to take my own life but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had thoughts. Irrational thoughts about what it would be like to drive my car off a cliff or crash into another car. Would the airbags deploy? Would I survive, would the car flip? A visual play by play running through my head beginning, middle and end. But I always come back to the same point and that is the pain it would bring my family. The rock in my life, the one constant I’ll always have. The people who have always been there for me, no matter what. I just couldn’t ever put them through that.

But for some people the pain is way too much, they need to escape, to stop the hurt, to stop the voice inside their head. They feel alone and often like they have no other choice. Despite having friends and family who care about them they may feel that no one will care and feel that it will stop the pain. To most of us it’s incomprehensible to take your own life as we can rationalise the pain it would cause others. To those who have attempted to or have taken their own lives well the truth is we don’t know how they are feeling or what they are thinking. Perhaps they’ve seen things no one should ever have to see in their life. Maybe they’ve experienced great trauma whether it be pain in the way of physical and they want it to stop or emotional pain like that suffered by those who are bullied. The sad and confronting truth is that people commit suicide as they feel they are left with no other options than to end it all. Once it’s done, they won’t have to suffer anymore. These are just examples and each and every one of the beautiful souls who felt they had no other option had their own reasons and their own story.

As I began writing this blog I started looking into the statistics and wanted to dive a little deeper into the psyche of those who feel they have no other option than to take their own life. It was at this point I began getting a little frustrated. I saw an instagram post only days before I started writing this about the number of suicides in Australia since the beginning of COVID, the issue I had was that I couldn’t find any data backing up the statistics listed in the post I saw. Firstly, the statistics differ from website to website and a lot of them including the Australian Dept of Health website haven’t been updated since January 2014 and are still utilising data from 2010-2011. It goes to show that mental health and the tracking of the statistics surrounding it, including suicide, isn’t a priority of this government or previous ones. COVID has seen a spike in Suicides with the number sitting at around 1000 according to the statistics I could get which is 78 more people a day since March 1 than the numbers of people who have died from COVID. Again, the validity of these figures differs due to the way they are reported and not having one governing body that takes care of them or records them.

Although come to think of it we do have a government department that is tasked with keeping statistics and records on everything else, so I am pretty sure the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) could be tasked with keeping up to date statistics on all mental health related issues. The last two reports they conducted into Suicide where in 2010 and a report in trends from 1993 to 2003. It has recently been shown that we are still years away from real time suicide data. Professor Pat McGorry one of the nation’s prominent mental health advocates, said it was difficult to try to reduce the death rate, because suicide statistics come with a lag time of up to two years. He said this in a piece written in May this year by ABC Australia journalist Stephanie Dalzell, he also warned that we could see a spike in deaths by suicide due to economic and social impacts directly resulting from the corona virus pandemic.

While the Australian government has begun throwing money at what has been a highly dysfunctional mental health system that for years has required reforms and changes it comes off the back of the coronavirus pandemic which has led to many people including myself asking why it takes a pandemic for our government to finally look at changing the way mental health is viewed, assessed, funded and discussed. There is still a stigma surrounding mental health with many of our older generation still under the guise that it’s weak to speak. So without accurate data how can one believe the statistical models that are thrown to the public year after year? This was something that was on my mind as I dove deeper and deeper into my research. All the project figures show an increase, a jump, a rise and or a spike as the economy takes a hit and unemployment rises. There are now over 2.9 Million people who have received or are currently receiving Job Keeper payments from the Government. What is this going to mean for suicide rates and increases in mental health issues?

The sad truth is things are only going to get worse before they get better with our economy and social impacts of coronavirus. As Melbourne enters lock down for the second time for another 6 weeks with tighter restrictions and curfews, we can only begin to wonder how this will affect people. With some of Australia experiencing a second wave it’s only a matter of time before the entire country is impacted as this highly contagious virus jumps person to person. As the government throws money at the problems they can see immediately and support the short term, it isn’t addressing the long term problems or the big ticket items outlined in the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic Response Plan. This plan details 10 priorities, three enablers, seven principles and 75 actions. The only action to come out of this response plan so far is getting the states and territories to agree. There has been no implementation timetable or scale of investment agreed and zero urgency to make the key structural decisions or finance the key priorities.

Trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who has lost their job and has a family to support is hard. Whilst I have empathy, until you actually go through something like this yourself you will never be able to truly know what it’s like to, as they say, walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. That hasn’t stopped me from wondering what tips a person from struggling but surviving to seeing no alternative than to take their own life. How they give up the battle after having fought for so long. What they went through to get them to that point and who was around them to help them out.. When I began writing this it was after what I’d deem as a bad morning for me, but this was just 1 morning, I can’t imagine what people go through who have to fight constantly and might not have access to support and help that I do.

In the research conducted into this topic I read several stories written by families, friends and even those who have committed suicide or attempted to commit suicide. In each of the stories I read there is a constant battle against depression, anxiety and other mental health issues and the will to live. In each case there was a strong correlation between self-harm and suicide. They were all normal people like you and me. They talked of a detachment from life, lack of feelings and often loneliness from the outside world and yet it was also a protection from things and people that could do them harm. They are exhausted from years of battling with themselves and through desperation seek out other relief whether it be alcohol, drugs, self-mutilation or something else it’s all together in an attempt to feel something or nothing at all. At some point though it all got too much and they just wanted to end the pain and suffering.

While the stories tell us of the pain, my analytical self wants and needs to understand what’s happening in the brain. What part of the brain is or isn’t firing, what’s happening with the receptors, is there an imbalance of chemicals? All these questions filter through my mind as fingers clack across the keyboard searching for the science behind why people take their own lives. Are there any commonalities happening in the brains of those who have suicidal thoughts? Sadly research is lacking into the science behind suicide but I did manage to find a study conducted by Canadian researchers that hinted to an abnormal distribution of receptors specifically for the chemical known as GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid). What’s GABA you ask? It’s the chemical messenger widely distributed throughout the brain. It’s main purpose is to bind to receptors and reduce the activity of those neurons.

The research conducted at the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario by Michael Poulter and his colleagues found that one of the thousands of types of receptors for GABA was underrepresented in the frontopolar cortex of those with major depressive disorder who had committed suicide. The frontopolar cortex is involved in higher-order thinking, such as decision making. Whilst scientists don’t currently know how this abnormality leads to the type of major depression that makes someone suicidal, they do have theories around it due to the location in the brain. The premise is that any disruptions to that particular system within the brain would be predicted to have an important outcome.

The report went on to say that the GABA receptor problem was not the result of abnormal or mutated genes. The change rather was Epigenetic meaning some environmental influence affected how often the relevant genes were expressed, made into proteins. They also discovered that the brains of suicide victims often had receptors for GABA which had a molecule attached that would keep that gene hidden from cells’ protein-building machinery—in this case, preventing the cells from manufacturing GABA-A receptors. As I continued to read through the report the science started to make more and more sense but like most things it can change in the flick of a switch or a simple study. The more researchers look into the neurobiology behind suicide the more that will come to light.

There is still plenty of research to be done into suicide and its prevention as scientist try to identify potential biomarkers that may be early indicators, predictions of mental health issues or predisposition to mental health issues down the track. Year on year, the funding into research seems to climb but we still aren’t getting real time analytics or year by year figures. The data may be there, we (the public) just aren’t seeing it or being exposed to it. Could the figures really be that bad? We know suicide rates in the male population is four times higher than women, yet attempts is three times higher in women. Around the world each year on average 800,000 people commit suicide. A further breakdown of the available data would allow us to identify social impacts and pressures, especially those in minorities or disadvantaged groups.

As I read story after story of those who lived and found the courage to tell their tale in an attempt to help others, I began finding myself frustrated with the politics of it all. The government year on year is investing in mental health but it has become a multimillion dollar industry to the lobbyists and politicians. Whilst they continue to fund projects and make reforms on the surface are they actually listening to those who have been there before? Implementing and supporting on the ground projects? The internal politics and competing interests amongst academics, clinicians and researchers is almost just as bad as the politicians making the promises and seemingly throwing money at the problems. The big questions on everyone’s mind is ‘Are the suicide prevention programs actually working?’ Are the studies asking the right questions and when will we start to see data recorded in a way that it is able to be analysed and used to build real models and predictions?

As I close yet another A Mind of Its Own blog I am reminded that a simple conversation can save a life. So don’t be afraid to ask people, whether it be family, friends, coworkers or a complete stranger if they are ok? A simple conversation goes a lot further than you may think. Until the next instalment of Australia’s most underrated blog that’s actually factual unlike our funny friends over at Betoota who make us all laugh with their quirky, punchy yet often true headlines. I’ll leave you with some links below in case you or someone you know needs a little help or just needs to talk to someone. There is help out there and a lot of the not for profits go above and beyond to support the community. Remember it’s ok not to be ok but it certainly isn’t weak to speak. Peace Out and take care of yourselves.

The Big Bopper…

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/

https://www.openminds.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.ruok.org.au/