I was all ready to rip into a great story this week about the merits of being in Rotary.
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That soon paled into insignificance after we heard a riveting and timely presentation from Carol Coffey relating to depression.
Depression is something that you think will never happen to you. It is characterised by sadness, loss of interest, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite.
- Carol Coffey
Carol grabbed our attention very quickly with a few random statistics about depression:
- One in two people will suffer from mental illness in their lifetime.
- There are almost eight deaths in Australia each day from depression.
- 50 per cent of mental illness occurs before the age of 14.
- More hours are lost through mental illness in the workplace than any other factor.
With figures like this it is easy to understand that you or a family member will be touched by depression.
“Depression is something that you think will never happen to you.
It is characterised by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness and poor concentration.” Carol said.
Carol said that research indicates that many sufferers keep their depression a secret, but deep down they just feel at rock bottom and not worth a cracker.
Look, this is such a huge and too complex issue to tackle in this column.
But it is very real and happening right now in our district.
So, if you tick any of boxes above, do something about it today.
Your GP is a great start. Remember, this is all about you!
Carol then pointed out that Rotary is a Partner Project for “Lift The Lid”.
This program raises funds towards Mental Health Research though the Australian Rotary Health.
It is just so good to be associated with an organisation that is pro-active in this area.
In other Rotary News, our 17 yo exchange student from Norway has now arrived in Mudgee.
Henrik Fossnes will be here for 12 months and is currently attending Mudgee High School.
Don’t forget the Mudgee Garden Spectacular. Six very special local gardens on display October 13-14.
Until next time..
Garry Connelly OAM
