I"m afraid at an organizational level there is still a lot of ignorance and just plain bad attitude to mental health issues - the Police force are very cynical about the impact of PTSD, Centrelink write off people with a mental health issues and try and push them into inappropriate work placements. It goes on and on. I would have hoped footy clubs were better.

Anyway all the best to him.

  On 18/12/2018 at 03:04, Dee Zephyr said:

Schwass has been vocal today.

There’s a tweet by a Jake Edwards in the link below about an AFL club cancelling his talk with their players just last week then we hear about Daw today. Some discussion in the comments on whether he should name and shame the club.

https://apple.news/AmCy-wy15SmqlxwHK0I92Vw

Maybe they wanted someone with more qualifications. There's very little on his website about his qualifications or actual details around his program.

I think he has an important story to tell and that there's little harm in telling that story or doing some peer group mentoring with young players or community sports teams. But AFL teams have doctors, sports psychologists and mentoring staff already. A team might've had professional advice that for a number of their players right now the last thing they needed was a talk on suicide. 

Anyway, the AFL and teams have made progress with a number of players - Franklin, Fasolo etc publicly coming out to express their struggles. The community needs the most change, some of the tweets I've seen today are horrendous and I don't really mean the jokes, I mean those who just don't get it. The AFL should've suspended Mark Robinson's credentials after he made a comment about Fasolo, that's the kind of steps I'd be taking.

  On 18/12/2018 at 04:15, chook fowler said:

I"m afraid at an organizational level there is still a lot of ignorance and just plain bad attitude to mental health issues - the Police force are very cynical about the impact of PTSD, Centrelink write off people with a mental health issues and try and push them into inappropriate work placements. It goes on and on. I would have hoped footy clubs were better.

Anyway all the best to him.

well i wouldn't just assume that majak didn't have available support. i would expect north had a decent support structure and a

knowledge of mental health issues because of certain previous north players.

sometimes (and i'm not saying in this case) people with mental health issues can't or won't take advantage of available support. it's a difficult situation and from personal experience i know of a few cases where people rejected help (for whatever reasons) with a fatal outcome

the good news is majak is recovering and i wish him the best

  On 18/12/2018 at 06:17, daisycutter said:

well i wouldn't just assume that majak didn't have available support. i would expect north had a decent support structure and a

knowledge of mental health issues because of certain previous north players.

sometimes (and i'm not saying in this case) people with mental health issues can't or won't take advantage of available support. it's a difficult situation and from personal experience i know of a few cases where people rejected help (for whatever reasons) with a fatal outcome

the good news is majak is recovering and i wish him the best

Yep. The first step is asking for and accepting help. I had no idea my mate was in so much dark trouble. I knew there was some problems at work, but had no idea of the extent. When we met up he didn’t want to talk work. 

He was escaping....

  On 18/12/2018 at 01:32, Damo said:

I cant believe he survived that fall.

 

Indeed.,. thats gotta be a 30+ metre drop.  Anyone know the height from the water?  

This is such a shock, hope is going to be ok? 

 

 

Very sad and wish him the best in all aspects of his recovery.

  On 18/12/2018 at 05:15, DeeSpencer said:

Maybe they wanted someone with more qualifications. There's very little on his website about his qualifications or actual details around his program.

I think he has an important story to tell and that there's little harm in telling that story or doing some peer group mentoring with young players or community sports teams. But AFL teams have doctors, sports psychologists and mentoring staff already. A team might've had professional advice that for a number of their players right now the last thing they needed was a talk on suicide. 

Anyway, the AFL and teams have made progress with a number of players - Franklin, Fasolo etc publicly coming out to express their struggles. The community needs the most change, some of the tweets I've seen today are horrendous and I don't really mean the jokes, I mean those who just don't get it. The AFL should've suspended Mark Robinson's credentials after he made a comment about Fasolo, that's the kind of steps I'd be taking.

Like Adelaide and the camp last year with the qualified team leading that little peach... 

  On 18/12/2018 at 06:17, daisycutter said:

well i wouldn't just assume that majak didn't have available support. i would expect north had a decent support structure and a

knowledge of mental health issues because of certain previous north players.

sometimes (and i'm not saying in this case) people with mental health issues can't or won't take advantage of available support. it's a difficult situation and from personal experience i know of a few cases where people rejected help (for whatever reasons) with a fatal outcome

the good news is majak is recovering and i wish him the best

Sometimes there is nothing that anyone can say or do to lift the darkness, sometimes the darkness is so bad that you just don't want to be here anymore.

 

  On 18/12/2018 at 08:16, Dante said:

Sometimes there is nothing that anyone can say or do to lift the darkness, sometimes the darkness is so bad that you just don't want to be here anymore.

 

Very True. I imagine people inside North are feeling devastated today. 

No matter what support is ready and waiting. Sometimes it’s just not wanted at that moment. 

Paul Hester in 2005 was out walking his dogs when he just decided to not go home, another good friend. 

  On 18/12/2018 at 04:03, Jaded said:

Mental health issues are so prevalent in young people these days (in people of all ages really).

It is one of our biggest epidemics in terms of health and well being in Australia. 

Why we don't spend more money and time helping and educating people, as a society, is beyond me. There is still a stigma attached to having depression or anxiety, especially amongst men, and until we remove this stigma, people will continue to suffer in silence. 

Yep in the Western World.

Life has been turned around, so its about money, rather than about living it.

It’s a pretty shocking thing to happen, there’s a lot more openness about mental health issues amongst players but here still must be so many that suffer in silence. The public and the media have to be very careful at times, there have been occasions where someone has come out saying they have mental health issues and commentators have said stuff like “it’s a get out of jail free card”. 

Unless you know the person, you don’t know [censored]. 

I hope Majak gets the help he needs and is able to recover from this, sadly it has come just as his footy career was really starting to take off. Perhaps the pressure of having to back up a promising year contributed. 

  On 18/12/2018 at 06:48, Petraccattack said:

Indeed.,. thats gotta be a 30+ metre drop.  Anyone know the height from the water?  

They mentioned a height of 25 metres on the news this morning so quite a miraculous survival. Good luck Majak.??

It's an epidemic, young men committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is a massive issue facing society not just the AFL.  Most of use grew up with the toughen up attitude and we never communicated our emotions to anyone.  It is very hard for my generation and ones older than me to understand what the pressures are on young people that would lead to them even thinking about taking their lives.  It is bloody scary, we can't have the mind set that generations before dealt with the pressures of life so why can't these young men.  

Men are garbage at talking about emotions, add in modern technology it causing more isolation.  If boys had an issues when I was growing up we had a punch on and moved on, these days it is worse, social media allows people to attack others and play emotional games for long periods of time.

Not sure what anyone can do about it and something I am working very hard at with my boy is listening, it doesn't come naturally to me and it is hard sometimes really understand what he is really saying, but I'm there and I hope as he gets older he will always know that I'm there to listen.

 

Seriously horrible.

Majak has/had burdens that few would experience here and others we would have no idea about. Being a child refugee fleeing a part of the world where violence is still endemic, going through that court case, representing the Sudanese community as it's sole player in the AFL at senior level, having that saga publicized about lying to the club and being criticized as not living  up to his potential (when most of the journos potting him would give their left nut to play one game) would be a pretty nasty equation for anyone. That is what is on the public record. What we don't know in detail (and bluntly, it's none of our business) might be even more revealing.

It's sadder in another sense in that he started to hit form this year. He was bloody imposing this year and looked Glen Jakovich like when on song.

However, his mental health and physical wellbeing take precedence over his footy career. Good luck Majak. While it seems that things can't get better, they will.

I knew three men that killed themselves in their late 60's/70s a few years after their wives had left them.  They were the Fathers of mates of mine.

I worked with a girl who killed herself when she was 23 about 20 years ago.  She'd tried a few times before.  She was engaged.

A woman in her early 30s who was the Sister of a friend of mine killed herself in the actual psyche ward treating her.  She was married with two kids.

Another bloke that worked in the same company as me (different office) killed himself in his late 20s.  He was a real estate agent.  This was over 20 years ago.

It's been happening forever and will continue.  It is what it is.

If you must do it don't do it where a loved one will find the confronting images.

  On 18/12/2018 at 22:27, drdrake said:

It's an epidemic, young men committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is a massive issue facing society not just the AFL.  Most of use grew up with the toughen up attitude and we never communicated our emotions to anyone.  It is very hard for my generation and ones older than me to understand what the pressures are on young people that would lead to them even thinking about taking their lives.  It is bloody scary, we can't have the mind set that generations before dealt with the pressures of life so why can't these young men.  

Men are garbage at talking about emotions, add in modern technology it causing more isolation.  If boys had an issues when I was growing up we had a punch on and moved on, these days it is worse, social media allows people to attack others and play emotional games for long periods of time.

Not sure what anyone can do about it and something I am working very hard at with my boy is listening, it doesn't come naturally to me and it is hard sometimes really understand what he is really saying, but I'm there and I hope as he gets older he will always know that I'm there to listen.

 

Well after 30+ yrs of therapy...  and finally growing bold enough to speak my mind, and say what I think about issues, some people still try to take my voice away... from my rights.

Maybe they harbour the old mindset of shut-up and keep a stiff upper lip.  I can say, that 'stiff upper-lip' has a lot of lives to answer for.  As does the shut-up persuasion of our society.

 

Lets see what the just shut-up attitude has allowed to transgress us.  Pedophilia in churches. corruption in high places sucj as corporate golden handshakes.  including banks and large multi nationals.  non disclosure of hazardous toxic substances.(cigarettes) (asbestos) etc.  Pollution accidents/leaks into public areas and not so public environments. (bhopal) etc.

Bullying... Domestic abuse/violence. (by both genders).

 

The list goes on... because of this 'politically-correct', keep your lips sipped

 

I was abused and bullied mentally tortured by my older sister as a regular behaviour,,, and when I

eventually fought back when a bit older, I was the one who got berated.

The damage done was lifelong. to my self esteem, my self worth, my libido crushed, I now travel thew earth as an A sexual.   And still get mistreated regularly, because I have grown up in life, learning a different set of social cues. 

I do not understand the social hints and subtleties, and end up receiving dirty looks from individuals who were not so long ago showing smiles and warmth.

 

The damage of bullying is seen as 'a too-hard basket' for so long... because teachers and schools do not want to offend parents of aggressors.

.................................

 

IF... the words were spoken, instead of dirty looks and other physical expressions, I would read the message and be able to address the circumstances, but people are so cowardly they won't say what they think... but are too ready to talk behind backs, and give off their assumptions to 3rd parties, and give off dirty looks designed to hurt.

Edited December 19, 20186 yr by DV8

  On 18/12/2018 at 22:27, drdrake said:

It's an epidemic, young men committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is a massive issue facing society not just the AFL.  Most of use grew up with the toughen up attitude and we never communicated our emotions to anyone.  It is very hard for my generation and ones older than me to understand what the pressures are on young people that would lead to them even thinking about taking their lives.  It is bloody scary, we can't have the mind set that generations before dealt with the pressures of life so why can't these young men.  

Men are garbage at talking about emotions, add in modern technology it causing more isolation.  If boys had an issues when I was growing up we had a punch on and moved on, these days it is worse, social media allows people to attack others and play emotional games for long periods of time.

Not sure what anyone can do about it and something I am working very hard at with my boy is listening, it doesn't come naturally to me and it is hard sometimes really understand what he is really saying, but I'm there and I hope as he gets older he will always know that I'm there to listen.

 

teach your boy to cry freely,  to be able to cry when needed... to be able to express his anger in words, to be allowed to spout off if necessary, and then to sit down and rationalise/discuss after... so he can learn he has a pressure relief valve, built in.

... parents Must learn to stop taking that pressure relief valve away from their children......... kids have to learn the freedom of expression.

Never be embarrassed by your son...  never...  life is learning,  and much more important than your status, or your fear of other peoples thoughts.

... putting things into words,,, is the start of communication, and of learning.  remove the rant and the scream for support... at your own Peril.

 

.remove his fear of hi manhood and of showing and sharing his emotions...  'fear of emotions'... as they say, the nut doesn't fall far from the tree.

 

He will have, 'intuitively', his parents fears built in, to a large extent...  'fear' is the devil.  and are the chains.  Help him to undo those fears he has inherited,  early on. 

Have no fear of anything... but some anxiety is good. = crossing roads. = respect for danger but NOT Fear.

Edited December 19, 20186 yr by DV8

It doesnt matter who you are, mental illness is a serious problem for those who suffer from it. Maybe you do not... but for those who do, it is a difficult path. You cannot know the true nature of depression or anxiety unless you experience it. As members of forums, you can gloss over the fact that your put downs of players in public is ok necause they are professionals and well-paid. Even so, they are people like you and me. Reading harsh criticism can be devestating to someone who probably in all entirety, is just trying their best.

In my line of work, you have to put up with bullying just because their coffee or food didnt meet their highly opinionated expectations. Instead of just being accepting that today it didnt quite meet expectations, they have to bully or humiliate that person probably online. What makes that individual so special or how good are they at their job blows me.

People try their best, and online, what we write can have a huge impact on someone else who maybe struggling. I can admit i have been guilty. But if something i wrote pushed someone over the edge, i would be devestated.