The Black Dog Project Conference Talk at Asia Pacific Conference on Mental Health – Perth Convention Centre June 11-13, 2012.
This presentation provides a snapshot of the outcomes of a Government funded pilot study into the effectiveness of The Black Dog Project website and print resources used as both a counselling tool by Health Professionals, and as a personal aid and direct line of support for children, young people and families dealing with personal and mental health struggles. The study was initiated by the WA Association of Mental Health and conducted by Founder of The Black Dog Project, Janine Browne and Researcher, Dr Caroling Bulsara from University of Western Australia.
(Untitled (Man on Ice), by Teun Hocks, 2003. Oil on silver print. Original in colour.)
Who Holds The Mirror .
Sometimes the reason we feel so bad is because we allow others to ‘hold the mirror’. To alter how we perceive ourselves. Influence and determine how we feel. One of the hardest tasks is to be able to see and hold onto a clear and positive view of ourselves because we’re being constantly bombarded with toxic messages. An overload of choice that can tie us up in an endless spin of decision making. Add to this, the noise and the race to be and get somewhere and the fatigue all of this causes.
Question …. amidst all of this, how do we recognise and keep a firm grip on the good in ourselves? How do we maintain the energy it takes to stand firm in our own place and resist negative influences and all that makes us feel less, pulls us off course, interrupts our progress? What happens when you hold yourself still, in your own space for long enough to see through the fog and smog. What do you see? What’s real? What’s a product of your experiences and circumstances – those around you? What’s worth keeping – and what’s way passed its use by date?
(See also ‘A Date With Use-By’. Image by Harley Manifold from book, In My Room.)
January 18, 2012 - Dear Me
Dear Me . (Written November, 2011)
There is a book that poses the question … if you could write a letter to your 16 year old self, what would you say? Having experienced bullying, abuse and traumatic life experiences that left me feeling life was too unbearable to continue on, that letter might read something like this …..
You’ll get through this. You’ll survive way beyond things you believed you couldn’t. And there will be many more times when you can’t bear the thought of living another day. Another moment.
But know that it is but a moment. A moment in which you have only this desperate thought and sense of hopelessness. Moments come – and moments pass. Tomorrow may not feel a whole lot better but it can be a starting point – not the end. ‘You Can Do Anything’ video. ‘Tread Carefully In Mind’.
Links to Support.
You’ll need to take some seemingly impossible steps. Every day. Day in. Day out. And you’ll need to keep working towards change and creating a place, a life, you feel more comfortable and less despairing in. Find something that provides a sense of purpose and meaning. And you don’t necessarily have to know exactly where or what that will be. You just need to maintain the drive and determination to find it. Trusting – despite being hurt by trusting before.
And you’ll have some massive spills along the way that will lay you flat for varying lengths of time – but you’ll get up. Eventually. Every time. You’ll get up. You must. And you’ll go another round so you can at the very least, prove to yourself you can. Your weakest point will be to rely on someone else to do this work for you…
Read the rest of this page »
The problem may be, we cannot imagine a future where we possess less but are more.
Art by Alex Gross . Source; Ad Busters Magazine.
Just Add Sugar .
Zippy balls of feathers hang delicate like a drip …. suckling flower centres from one to the next and the next ….. to the frog’s jig and chooks winding up down in the pen …. just beyond the close snap of beaks and the hum of blurring wings that stir shoulders to duck then stretch back to a tussle in the bushes …. on and up to trace colours bright against a cotton wool sky … fury, blurry bush critters hide then peek …. and honks from behind have you delightfully surrounded ….
(Footnote: Story written on verandah of Ruth’s farm, July 2010.)
