He was devastated to discover
It was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard,
The mouse proclaimed the warning :

There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!’

The chicken clucked and scratched,
Raised her head and said,
‘Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave
concern to you, but it is of no consequence
To me. I cannot be bothered by it.’

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,
‘There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!’

The pig sympathized, but said,
‘I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse,
But there is nothing I can do about it
But pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.’

The mouse turned to the cow and said,
‘There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!’

The cow said, ‘Wow, Mr. Mouse.
I’m sorry for you,
But it’s no skin off my nose.’
So, the mouse returned to the house,
Head down and dejected,
To face the farmer’s mousetrap . . . Alone.

That very night a sound was heard
Throughout the house — like the sound
Of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught.In the darkness, she did not see
it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer’s wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital,
And she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever
With fresh chicken soup, so the farmer
Took his hatchet to the farmyard
For the soup’s main ingredient.

But his wife’s sickness continued,
So friends and neighbors came to sit
with her around the clock.

To feed them,the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer’s wife did not get well;
She died.

So many people came for her funeral,
The farmer had the cow slaughtered to
Provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his
Crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is
Facing a problem and think it doesn’t
Concern you, remember —-

When one of us is threatened,
We are all at risk.We are all involved in this
Journey called life.

We must keep an eye out for One another and make an extra effort To encourage one another.

Helpful Tips

Whatever its cause, depression is not just a state of mind. It is related to physical changes in the brain, and connected to an imbalance of a type of chemical that carries signals in your brain and nerves. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters.

Some of the more common factors involved in depression are:

* Family history. Genetics play an important part in depression. It can run in families for generations.

* Trauma and stress. Things like financial problems, the breakup of a relationship, or the death of a loved one can bring on depression. You can become depressed after changes in your life, like starting a new job, graduating from school, or getting married.

* Pessimistic personality. People who have low self-esteem and a negative outlook are at higher risk of becoming depressed. These traits may actually be caused by low-level depression (called dysthymia).

* Physical conditions. Serious medical conditions like heart disease, cancer, and HIV can contribute to depression, partly because of the physical weakness and stress they bring on. Depression can make medical conditions worse, since it weakens the immune system and can make pain harder to bear. In some cases, depression can be caused by medications used to treat medical conditions.

* Other psychological disorders. Anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and (especially) substance abuse often appear along with depression.

Most people who have gone through one episode of depression will, sooner or later, have another one. You may begin to feel some of the symptoms of depression several weeks before you develop a full-blown episode of depression. Learning to recognize these early triggers or symptoms and working with your doctor will help to keep the depression from worsening.

Most people with depression never seek help, even though the majority will respond to treatment. Treating depression is especially important because it affects you, your family, and your work. Some people with depression try to harm themselves in the mistaken belief that how they are feeling will never change. Depression is a treatable illness.
Life with depression

Working with your doctor, you can learn to manage depression. You may have to try a few different medications to find the one that works best for you. Your doctor may also recommend that you see a therapist and/or make certain lifestyle changes.

Change won’t come overnight—but with the right treatment, you can keep depression from overshadowing your life.

The key findings of SANE Research Bulletin 9: Money and Mental Illness are:
•    38% of respondents have an annual income of less than $20,000
•    54% of respondents often could not afford treatments recommended by their doctor
•    96% had to choose at times between healthcare and essentials such as food.

SANE’s Executive Director Barbara Hocking says of the findings, ‘we now have the appalling situation where people with mental illness are being forced to make really unenviable decisions. Why should people who are trying to cope with the distressing symptoms of mental illness also have to go without food to pay for essential treatment, or remain unwell to put food on the table?

SANE Research Bulletin 9: Money and Mental Illness also found that 17% spend more than $100 a month on medication and yet 32% were not registered with Medicare Safety Net. Debt is a major issue with more than half of respondents (53%) relying on credit cards to help ends meet, and 29% having been contacted by debt collectors in the past year.

‘A group of people with mental illness are now at risk of becoming an underclass. Government urgently needs to do more to ensure that all people with mental illness are able to access the treatments they need,’ says Ms Hocking, ‘whether this is for psychiatric care or for the other chronic conditions we know they experience at much higher rates than the general population.

‘Healthcare must be made affordable for people on low incomes via targeted financial support. SANE also encourages the government to support financial literacy and counselling programs for people with a mental illness and register all people on low incomes with Medicare Safety Net as a matter of course.’

The survey also found one-third of respondents (31%) were smokers – compared with 18% of the general population. Almost half of smokers said they could not afford nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), the most effective aid to quitting, even though they wanted to stop smoking.

Ms Hocking says, ‘now more than ever, with the proposed increased costs of cigarettes, subsidised NRT is urgently needed for people with mental illness as well as other disadvantaged, low income groups to enable them to live a healthier, smoke-free life.’

SANE Research Bulletin 9: Money and Mental Illness, can be downloaded from the Research area of the SANE website at www.sane.org

Kylie’s story

I don’t think society understands the insidious cycle created by having mental illness and living on the lowest of incomes. The stress generated by trying to make ends meet impacts heavily on both symptoms and quality of life. Every day is spent working out what bill must be paid and which can wait. It is mentally draining and all consuming at times, exacerbating symptoms.

For me, low income means being acutely aware of what is in other people shopping trolleys. I can be in awe when you see trolleys stacked with meat and brand name products. Luxury items to us. We can’t afford what we need let alone what we want and I am aware of constantly having to say no to my children.

People may think that those on the poverty line get cheap scripts or health care but if it is viewed as it must be, as a percentage of a miniscule income, then it is clear it impacts on budgets significantly. How would people feel if this report identified people with cancer were having to choose food over health care and treatment? Living this way is not acceptable for anyone, even the mentally ill.

Kylie Griffin was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 28. Kylie is a mother of two and works as a mental health consumer advocate and lives in West Wodonga.

Richard’s story

My illness means periodically managing a roller coaster of paranoia and mood swings. This can be challenging enough for people like me, without added financial stress and feelings of hopelessness.

When I see my psychiatrist it costs $185.00 per half hour – simply to oversee a change in medication. Part of this is later refunded but it strikes me as very difficult for vulnerable people to come up with large amounts of cash at the very same time help is needed.

A high percentage of people with a mental illness also smoke and sadly, I do too. I would like to see nicotine replacement therapy made accessible for those wishing to use it to have a smoke free life. Today I looked up hypnotherapy to help me give up smoking, and was quoted $495.00.

I think it’s quite a paradox that people who are often on a low income need the highest costing treatment for diagnosis and counselling. For many like me, private health insurance is an impossible luxury.

I have moved 16 times in the last ten years. I am limited by what I can afford and have sometimes lived in unsuitable accommodation – most often share houses. At one point, during one of my darker times, I couldn’t afford rent and it was a friend who bailed me out. My housing options are also severely restricted because I have a pet dog, Steinberg, who gives me great company.  My dreams of owning a home have all but vanished due to my fluctuating illness, yet I am still hopeful.

I supplement my pension by working in mental health advocacy and creative endeavours but it’s still a struggle. In the past I have relied on credit cards to get by and previously been contacted by debt collectors. Over the years I have relied heavily on family for assistance financially, and also for accommodation. Counselling in conjunction with financial planning would be an eye opener to many people whose illness affects behaviour and spending.

Richard McLean was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 22. He is an author, artist, musician and mental health advocate living in Melbourne.

StigmaWatch has contacted Rivers and explained that Bipolar disorder can be a highly distressing mental illness and the stigma felt by those who experience the illness is equally as disabling and perputuated by advertisements such as this that make light of the illness.

The catalogue that featured the Bi-Polar reference was also titled ‘12 days of madness’, which further contributed to the trivial nature of the campaign.

StigmaWatch received a reply from Rivers stating ‘In no way was it intentional to offend any people and we apologise if this has occured.  Your comments are important to us and have been passed onto senior management and the marketing team’.

The Advertising Standards Bureau was also contacted by a concerned community member and the complaint was upheld:

‘The Board considered that the advertisement satirises a feature of
mental illness over which sufferers have no control and that this advertisement could cause offence.
On this basis the Board determined that the advertisement does discriminate against people on the
basis of their disability and is in breach of section 2.1 of the Code.’

Rivers responded as follows:

‘Rivers Australia confirms that the advertisement was only published once and has not (and will
not) been released since the initial publication. It is also not available anywhere for public viewing on our website.’

It is a great result for the community and all those who were adversely affected by the advertisement to have the complaint upheld and found to breach the code of ethics.

Credit has also been given to Derryn Hinch and 3AW, who discussed the advertisement on air, raising the important issue of mental illness, encouraging discussion and opening the lines to callers for their feedback.

He was first referred to a psychiatrist at Uppingham public school, where, he says, he was ”in a constant state of edginess” and ”impossible to handle”. By the time he was 17, he was suicidal. ”Everything that happens is because you are a c—,” he said. ”That’s because I’m a complete wanker, that’s because I’m an arsehole, yes. You, you, you kind of almost have a Tourette’s view of yourself.” In a moment of despair, he tried to kill himself. He has wrestled with demons ever since. ”I want to speak out, to fight the public stigma and to give a clearer picture of a mental illness most people know little about,” he says.

Fry had to wait until he was 37 before he was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a condition characterised by soaring highs and despairing lows. Nobody saw it coming. Before his sensational collapse became headline news he was one of television’s best-loved performers. He was at the height of his fame, after years of sustained success, yet everything came to an abrupt end in 1995 after he walked out from a starring role after just three shows of the West End play Cell Mates, which had suffered poor reviews.

Fry came close to gassing himself in his car. ”I had this image of my parents staring right in at me while I sat there for at least, I think, two hours in the car with my hands over the ignition key,” he says. ”I decided not to do it. When you feel you can’t go on – it’s not just a phrase, it is a … a reality. I could not go on, and I would have killed myself if I didn’t have the option of disappearing because it was that absolute.” He went missing in Europe for a week then returned to London and spent months having psychological treatment in the US. In the BBC2 documentary, The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, he consults experts and fellow sufferers of bipolar disorder, including the comedian Tony Slattery and Hollywood actors Richard Dreyfuss and Carrie Fisher.

The illness, formerly known as manic depression, affects hundreds of thousands of people in the UK. Although it can be managed successfully with drug and psychological therapies, 15 per cent of sufferers – about 2000 people a year – kill themselves. Doctors estimate that one in 100 have bipolar disorder, but some researchers think the true figure could be far higher. Campaigners say only about half of sufferers are actually diagnosed and, on average, this can take eight years. The delay could be costing lives, Michelle Rowett says, the chief executive of MDF The BiPolar Organisation, a user-led charity. ”Bipolar has the highest suicide rate out of all mental illnesses,” she says. ”So people not treated soon enough are having their lives put at risk.” The disorder costs the country 2billion (A$5.04billion) a year.

At present, most sufferers do not receive optimal care, only 5 per cent have psychological therapy and just a third of known sufferers have a yearly check of their state of mind. Professor Nick Craddock, of Cardiff University, is conducting the world’s largest study into bipolar disorder in an attempt to improve diagnosis and treatment. Findings being published this year will implicate several genes. ”Genes can make someone susceptible but external triggers will play a big role in determining whether that person goes on to develop bipolar disorder,” he says. ”Several per cent of the population have a tendency to have bipolar mood swings.” Fry fears the growing intensity of his attacks of depression and says he is ”in a very sort of black state” but remains undecided about whether he needs medical treatment. ”I love my condition too. It’s infuriating, I know, but I do get a huge buzz out of the manic side. I rely on it to give my life a sense of adventure, and I think most of the good about me has developed as a result of my mood swings. It’s tormented me all my life with the deepest of depressions while giving me the energy and creativity that perhaps has made my career.’

2. Sinead O’Connor: Musician “I had developed manic depression [bipolar disorder] … and the main symptoms the constant voice in the head telling you to kill yourself.”

3. Hugh Laurie: Actor “It gets on top of me and I get frustrated.”

4. Caroline Aherne: Actress “I try to piece together what I did and why I did it, but it’s just a big blackout.”

5. Robbie Williams: Singer “I’ve really been grappling with depression. It’s all linked with my cocaine and ecstasy abuse.”

6. Stephen Fry: Actor and director “I may have looked happy but inside Iwas hopelessly depressed.”

7. Tony Slattery: Comedian “There’s psychomotor agitation, where you’re endlessly pacing, and you can’t sleep and you’re short-tempered.”

8. Gail Porter: TV presenter “It’s horrible, horrible, horrible. It took a year and a half until I found out that I had post-natal depression.”

9. Brooke Shields: Actress “I just felt as though I would never be happy again, and as if I had fallen into a big black hole.”

10. Adam Ant (Stuart Goddard):Musician “When I was sectioned for six months, that was one of the worst experiences of my life, not being able to go out and have freedom. Having experienced it, it’s almost inexplicably awful.”

11. Ruby Wax: TV presenter “Depressions are very cyclical, they happen once every five years. When I was on TV, yes I was effervescent, you can’t fake it. It [depression] comes like the pox.”

12. Richard Dreyfuss: Actor “I said to my doctor, ‘You gotta testme, there’s something wrong with me that I would be behaving this way.’”

13. Sarah Lancashire: Actress “My twenties were a writeoff. It’s a cruel illness, because you can’t see it and you can hide it so well.”

14. Graeme Obree: Cyclist “When you’re depressed, everything becomes distorted.”

15.Winona Ryder: Actress “You have good days and bad days, and depression’s something that, you know, is always with you.”

16. Sophie Anderton: Model “I think it backfired. It wasn’t what I expected, it was difficult. I didn’t expect them to throw somany mind games into it. I didn’t expect to be so emotional, but I asked for it really. I’ma glutton for punishment.”

17. Denise Welch: Actress “I lost all sense of reality. I basically had what was a nervous break down.”

18. Lenny Henry: Comedian “That’ swhere depression hits you most – your home life. It doesn’t affect your work. I can’t do this zany, wacky, funny thing any more. I haven’t been like that for a long time.”

19.Mel C: Former Spice Girl “At the back of my mind there is always a fear the depression could return but I do all the right things. I try to get the right amount of sleep because I know that I need sleep to function and I need to eat properly and to do some exercising.”

20.Melinda Messenger: Model and TV presenter “I felt suicidal. I couldn’t stop crying. I remember thinking, ‘wouldn’t it be great if the car crashed and I died?’”

21. Bill Oddie: TV presenter “Chemicals will help you and medication will help you perhaps overcome it initially, but it won’t work permanently if you don’t follow it up with quite intense psychoanalysis of some sort.”

22. Linda Hamilton: Hollywood actress “The lows were absolutely horrible. It was like falling into a manhole and not being able to lift the lid and climb out.”

23. Trisha Goddard: TV presenter “I was in danger of having my children taken away from me when I needed five weeks in psychiatric care … There is the smiling depressive which is the biggest time bomb and when they go they usually go with a bang, which was me …”

24. James Dean Bradfield: Manic Street Preachers “I became a completely dysfunctional, miserable person, completely uncommunicative and aggressive.”

25. Jim Carrey: Actor “I was on Prozac for a long time. It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever.”

26. Ben Moody: Musician “I was horribly depressed, and I felt like I had failed as a band leader, a professional, as a person.”

27. Keisha Buchanan: Singer, Sugababes “With depression, you can go in and out of it and not really know whether it’s still there or not. Sometimes I’d find myself bursting into tears for no reason.”

28. Carrie Fisher: Actress “Mania starts off fun, not sleeping for days, keeping company with your brain, which has become a wonderful computer, showing 24 TV channels all about you. That goes horribly wrong after awhile.”

29. Neil Lennon: Footballer “It’s a bit like walking down a long, dark corridor never knowing when the light will go on.”

30. Lord Bragg: Broadcaster, author and president of Mind “Occasionally now I feel a wang that goes in my head – once you’ve got it you’ve got it. The [illness] was quite severe, leaving me deeply unhappy and frightened.”

31.Meg Mathews: Noel Gallagher’s ex-wife On the recent news of her going into rehab: “I can confirm Meg is receiving treatment. She is suffering from depression and needs time out.”

32. Ben Stiller: Actor “I have not been an easygoing guy. I think it’s called bipolar manic depression. I’ve got a rich history of that in my family.”

33. Frank Bruno: Ex-boxer “It’s like a kettle. If it’s a kettle, you turn the kettle off, you know what I mean? I wish I could put a hole in my head and let the steam come out. The pressure was just getting a little bit much for me.”

34. Russell Grant: TV presenter “It is amaze of total confusion …it can get to the point where you don’t care if you live or die.”

35. Katie Price/Jordan: Model “I was a psycho woman. It felt like something in me that I had no control over.”

36. Paul Gascoigne: Footballer “Everywhere I looked life seemed to be full of problems and they were just going to go on and on. It was never going to get any better.”

37. Kylie Minogue: Singer “You get such a kick and then it’s all over. That’s good ground for uncertainty and depression. I usually burst into tears.”

38. Jack Dee: Comedian “Depression is something that has always figured in my life but now I’m dealing with it. I wish I’d done this years ago because it’s been really helpful.”

39. Uma Thurman: Actress “Nobody seemed to have any perspective any longer. Those were low points. But we got through it.”

40. George Michael: Singer “It was like I had a curse on me. I couldn’t believe how much God was piling on. There was so much death around me.”

I don’t want to keep struggling with this into my adulthood, because I want to be normal, and I want to pursue fading dreams and become a successful adult with a successful job and a successful life. I’ve never had a relationship and wish to be loved and to love as someone who has confidence being themselves. But even though I wish for all this I know that mental and psychotic disorders cannot be cured as easily with meds or other physical procedures. It’s much more complicated than that.

My husband works as an electrician and I look after our two children, as well as help run the farm. We have a girl Emily aged 10 and a boy Andrew who’s seven. My daughter Sammie from my previous marriage is 19 and in the Navy.

We are growing wheat and are anxiously hoping this crop will come through. We run 100- or so head of sheep (which is less than we used to have!) It’s a small farm compared to some of the others out here.

I’ve been living with Bipolar Disorder since being diagnosed at the age of 14. My mother also has the condition.

I grew up in Sydney and was a typically difficult teenager. I used to have deep bouts of depression and my mother and I didn’t have a good relationship. She took me to her psychiatrist and I continued to have the same doctor as her for my treatment for a long time. I get along much better with my mum since I moved out of home at 18. I didn’t tell anyone about my condition back then because that’s not what you did.

I’ve tried a number of different medications. It has always been a challenge to manage my Bipolar, to stay in the middle of the see-saw. I had to wean myself off one older medication, the side effects were so bad.

I try and have a healthy lifestyle but it’s very hard at times. I try not to get too hyper. When I get together with family and there’s alcohol around, I can be very hyper, although I know I shouldn’t.

It’s also a struggle getting enough structured exercise when you become a parent, I know I should but I never seem to get the time. With my first marriage, we moved to the Snowy Mountains and I was more or less a fulltime mum. When my first marriage broke down it was very difficult, the depression really hit hard and I felt ‘lost’ for quite some time. But luckily I found a wonderful caring man whom I married a few years later.

It’s the co-morbid conditions that go with my Bipolar that add a new challenge. Headaches and migraines fall into that area. When you have a co-morbid condition like that, it can really add to the depression. I have intracranial hypertension, which is basically too much fluid around the brain, and that was giving me daily headaches, punctuated with migraines, until we got it a bit more under control.

One of the therapies that help me to cope is oil painting. I took it up four years ago, mainly do landscapes. The sky is so big out here and the sunrises and sunsets are amazing. I also like to paint the red earth colours. They’re very inspirational.

I’ve been part of group shows but had my first solo exhibition recently in the Hunter Valley. I sold eight paintings on opening night – and then it rained for three weeks straight so no-one else came! It really does so much for your self-esteem when people like what you create so much that they want to buy it. Some of my works are still on display in the window of the newsagent in our town.

In 2003, I took the step of going public about my condition. I was on a chat site about depression called BlueBoard. We were all anonymous people, talking about depression. I thought: ‘No-one knows my real name – why the hell not?’ So I told my story to the Rural Women’s News newsletter, The Country Web. That resulted in the same article being reprinted in my local paper.

The reaction was great. People told me I was being so brave. One lady I knew from the local area came up and said she had Bipolar Dis order too.

I was also asked to be part of a book called Daring to Dream which is about inspirational rural women. I’m not that inspirational compared to the other women in that book! Funnily enough, two of them turned out to be members of the same artist’s group that I’m a part of.

The thing I’m about to be involved in is speaking at a women’s health day, being organised as part of drought relief. I’ll be talking about Bipolar Disorder and really jumping in with two feet! My doctor thinks it will be good for me.

It’s always difficult accessing health services in the bush but I’m luckier than many people as we’re only 15km from town. I have a GP and there’s a psychologist who comes through every fortnight, by arrangement with the local doctor. I’m seeing her about once a month.

I think GPs do have a role to play in dealing with mental health issues, but they have it particularly hard in the bush compared to the city doctors. They have to know more about everything. My GP has to go away when he takes holidays rather than stay here, otherwise he’d be on-call at home 24 hours a day.

I’m very into researching health issues on the Internet. Sometimes my GP asks me for the websites I’m quoting so he can check them out himself.

I feel a lot more in control of my Bipolar these days. I have great support around me. I used to have incredible mood swings; very deep lows and then highs. As I get older, I seem to manage better. These days, my swings are less a tidal wave than a series of ripples. I know when I’m “up there” that I’m going to come down. I look back and wish that when I was young, I knew what I know now.