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Help for anxiety<br />
WESTFUND MEMBERS MAGAZINE JUNE 2009 - 23<br />
www.westfund.com.au<br />
“Rural people tend to be stoic and like to think they can<br />
handle anything but I think the prevalence of anxiety is quite<br />
high. This is probably due to their need to function through<br />
a drought which has made everything else hard as well.<br />
“Even in the really tough times, there has always been this underlying attitude of<br />
‘it’s fine, we’ve been doing this for a long time’, but now the whole world is saying<br />
that climate change is never going to go away, which has eliminated hope and<br />
changed the philosophy of being quietly confident that it will rain again.<br />
“In the towns, people are just hoping it turns around and they’re worried<br />
about paying their bills. The wives are another ball game - they’re trying to<br />
hold it together, deal with the banks, field the phone calls and some are really<br />
anxious about their kids’ education.”<br />
Chris says one of the problems in her area is lack of awareness about anxiety<br />
and depression. Often people don’t understand that what they’re<br />
experiencing is a diagnosable mental health problem that can be treated and<br />
from which most people recover.<br />
“I think the men in particular tend to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs in<br />
order to feel better and they can get very angry,” she said. “I think the women<br />
throw themselves into work and children and everything else so much that<br />
they burn out. Our bottom line will always be – go to the doctor. Start there,<br />
because with anxiety, it can look like a physical illness. Your heart might be<br />
racing, you may have headaches or a sore back or you mightn’t be sleeping<br />
well. You may not realise that it is anxiety until someone tells you it is.”
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