Inspirational tales of beating ‘the black dog’

Louisa Rust

“For everyone who is young and struggling with depression, please know that you will not feel like this forever. You are not a freak and while you may not be able to stop your tears now, you one day will and you will feel proud and confident with yourself.”

This extract from the winning entry of The Black Dog Institute’s writing and poetry competition typifies the contest’s aim to provide messages of hope to young people struggling with mood disorders such as depression.

The competition is the fourth to be conducted by the institute in as many years, with both writers and poets working with the theme; Mood Disorders in Adolescence – Grassroots Solutions.

The $2000 first prize and trophy for the essay component of the competition was won by Beth Nathan from Victoria, for her work, And Then My Tears Subsided.

The Minister assisting the Minister for Health, Paul Lynch, presented prizes to the winners of the competition last Monday, and said he had been deeply moved by the stories and the young peoples’ strength in seeking support.

“Our teens today are impacted by things that weren’t prevalent a couple of decades ago,” he said.

“The Internet, mass electronic media, mobile phones, global warming, premature sexualisation, higher rates of divorce, blended families and ‘designer drugs’.”

It is estimated 14 per cent of Australian children and adolescents suffer mental illness of some form.

Over the past three years, the essays and writing from the previous competitions has been adapted into three books.

They are Tracking the Black Dog, which looks at the history of the term, Journeys with the Black Dog: Inspirational stories of bringing depression to heal, and Mastering Bipolar Disorder: An insiders guide to managing mood swings and finding balance.

The executive director of the Black Dog Institute, Professor Gordon Parker, said the candid accounts from this year’s writers was the first step in producing a fourth book that would give new hope to young people, their parents and carers who have been affected by ‘‘the black dog’’.

Media manager with The Black Dog Institute, Ian Dose, said the competition was not only helpful for the writers and readers of the stories, but helped the institute develop programs for people suffering from mood disorders.

“It helps us get grass roots input on how people have been dealing with depression and bi-polar disorder,” he said.

“Often peoples’ stories on how to deal with depression mirror the personal struggle of people reading the stories.”

Mr Dose said the competitions had so far had “a tremendous response”.

“There are certainly a lot of people who suffer from depression or care for someone who does,” he said.

“It would be tough to find a family out there who has not been touched by depression in some way.”

The Black Dog Institute is a community-orientated facility that specialises in mood disorder.

It is attached to the Prince of Wales Hospital and affiliated with the University of New South Wales.

Its mission is to advance the understanding, diagnosis and management of mood disorders and improve the lives of those affected.

To view the competition’s first, second and third place getters and highly commended essays, the winning and highly commended poems and judges’ comments, visit http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/media/writingcompetition/

For more information on mental health and support, contact your local doctor or call the Illawarra Mental Health Service on 1300 552 289.