A fella with a strong passion for social purpose shared a bit of his story with me over a chat yesterday. We discussed accommodation, homelessness and employment. He’s grown a passion having been through his experience which led to talking about his story. Some 10 years ago he went through serious depression. There was a moment he was close to suicide. A very fine edge for him with which way things could have gone. A close call and we’re fortunate he somehow managed through it. It’s something many of us can relate to, if not ourselves there may be someone you know that has suffered or is currently suffering.

Do you know someone suffering depression?

Around the social purposes we were discussing, we’d been discussing Mind For Me. I hadn’t even considered how this might relate to depression but he drew a connection from his experience. It’s a funny messy feeling when dealing with depression. A complete mix of wanting to be alone, wanting to cry out, feeling the need to be surrounded by people. A real struggle of emotion and not something others can just pull you out of. There are ways people can call out for help, engage with others. As my friend put it, having a support network he could call on would have made it all so much easier for him and less of a battle. Those little bits of indirect help, connecting with people and focus on other positive things can assist at least in some way. If you do know anyone that is struggling with depression, we don’t need details or even to identify them but let’s chat. They might be going through a hard time, We’ll work together to bring a form of support group around them, enable more engagement and support. Even if indirect help it may make all the difference and help them through it so they can tell their story in the future.

Let’s talk and build support networks.