Mental Health Week 2013 promoting awareness

Mental Health Week 2013 promoting awareness Mental Health Week 2013 promoting awarenessPosted October 8, 2013, by Julia Watters According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a staggering 3 million Australians reported having a mental or behavioural condition in the 2011-12 Australian Health Survey. Thats 13.6 per cent of the national population. Depression was most prevalent, with 2.1 million (9.7 per cent) of the population reporting symptoms. With so many Australians experiencing mental health issues, there is a pressing need to raise awareness of this traditionally taboo topic and that is what Mental Health Week, from 613 October, aims to do. To help us understand some of the challenges of living with mental health issues, I spoke with two people who have been affected in different ways. As a sufferer of borderline personality disorder (BPD), Talya is no stranger to the struggles associated with having a mental health condition. This disorder is clinically recognised and symp toms include emotional instability and severe feelings of insecurity, which can lead to impulsive and dangerous behaviour in extreme cases. Talya has also had the additional challenge of dealing with family illness. In 2010, her father was diagnosed with stage 4 dem tode nah bowel cancer. As this rare genetic strain of bowel cancer is hereditary, Talya underwent a long series of tests and discovered that she, too, harboured the dangerous gene. Attempting to deal with this double-whammy, Talya turned to the only coping mechanism she had keeping busy. While she had