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The Forum > Article Comments > A new paradigm shift for mental health > Comments

A new paradigm shift for mental health : Comments

By Nicholas Procter, published 19/1/2006

Nicholas Procter argues there should be an examination of the way mental distress is understood and the way help is sought.

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Bronwyn, let me assure you that you have not been ignored. I have browsed the websites though have had little chance to study the material but I will on the weekend. Sometimes simplicity is overlooked because we are conditioned to expect complexity in all things related to modern life.
Thanks for the tip and will give it a go.
Posted by Craig Blanch, Thursday, 26 January 2006 3:26:19 PM
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Craig, I understood intellectually for a long time that my (then) extreme depression was due to my own reaction, that the people whose actions and attitudes were the proximate cause of my depression might not have given me a thought for 12-18 months or so. But intellectual understanding isn’t sufficient to resolve depression. Fortunately, I have another tool to use, Vipassana meditation, although most of the time I’ve been ill it’s been difficult to maintain. In Vipassana you work at deeper levels, with the so-called unconscious (in fact always conscious) mind, it’s here that the problems lie and here that they must be resolved. On a ten-day retreat in March 03, I was able to see at a deeper level what I’d known intellectually, and there was a dramatic improvement in my condition. A trip to Burma in Dec 04, where I was able to meditate in a strong atmosphere and at times with my teacher, S N Goenka, led to a further dramatic improvement. My depression was in part because the senior management at Queensland Treasury managed to press all the buttons from emotional trauma when I was two-years old, when my father walked out and my mother transferred her affections to my new-born brother. This left long-term problems with fear of rejection, inability (for many years) to make a commitment, etc. I’d been able for many years to cope and make a contribution to society both through my professional work and my voluntary work, but Treasury pushed me over the edge. Meditating in Burma, I was able after 60 years to resolve the issues with my (long-dead) father; this took much of the force out of my reaction to my treatment by Treasury. (More follows)
Posted by Faustino, Thursday, 26 January 2006 5:10:02 PM
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(part 2) So, yes, we are ultimately responsible for our mental reactions, but few who suffer depression have the tools to recognise and deal with this, certainly when it is at its worst. I was regarded as being at the level of depression normally associated with suicide for about 10 months (beginning when after a long period of severe depression, a series of discussions led to all hope of rectifying my situation being lost.) The reasons that I was not, in fact, suicidal were, first, my understanding from Vipassana and, second, the enormous support I had from my wife, and to a lesser extent from my children. Without those, I’d have been gone.
Posted by Faustino, Thursday, 26 January 2006 5:10:35 PM
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Faustino, let me start by saying that I did not, by any measure, mean to infer that the reasons for mental illnesses are figments or illusions. Trauma, in the way that it has visited you over the period of your life, is very real and extremely potent.
I believe that you have demonstrated that what I posted was only one tiny facet in the dilemma that we call life.
The retreat that you have mentioned cannot be dismissed lightly as many have gone before you into similar self-enabling and cleansing experiences with similar outcomes. It is something that I have thought of trying from time to time but, I must admit, it does daunt me.
The monetary side of such a journey makes it somewhat of a luxury at present though I have always wanted to visit the Burma railroad and the bridge over the River Kwai. Sorry, I do digress.
You are correct that intellectual understanding is limited in its scope in dealing with depression. Intellectualising does little more than attribute labels from which we see problems but rarely, if ever, solutions.
Solutions come about by people that refuse to submit to the hopelessness that a label can bestow. No case could exemplify that better than yours.
Thanks for sharing and extend my very best wishes to your family.
Posted by Craig Blanch, Thursday, 26 January 2006 6:07:20 PM
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Yesterday on the way to Australia Day celebrations I noticed a sign outside a Public High School in Miranda in the Sutherland Shire.

It really upset me so I took a photo and put it on my blog to hopefully hear other people's opinions about the sign.

This is what the sign said "Our committed teachers will be released and return Monday January 30" http://jolandachallita.typepad.com/education/

Am I just too sensitive or is this wrong?
Posted by Jolanda, Friday, 27 January 2006 10:23:04 AM
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Jolanda,
Is it possible that the notice meant the teachers were committed as in dedicated and will be released (from holidays) to return. It would be very well phrased but it is also a possibility. I guess there is always two ways of construing everything....
Posted by Coraliz, Friday, 27 January 2006 1:00:43 PM
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