Earlier this week, we caught up with Rosemarie and Katrina from Daily Telegraph, at Rushcutters Bay Park (just outside the Vibe Hotel). Rosemarie interviewed us about the ride, our reasons to join, and a bit of background (read all about it on the Daily Telegraph – I won’t spoil it here).

What we can show, are a few pics Katrina took:

Late last night it became clear to us, that the two drivers who volunteered to drive our CityFord supported Ford Territory, have both pulled out at the last minute! This morning, at our breakfast meeting in Waterloo, we brain-stormed some ideas to get a replacement driver to take our cameraman, Caz Dickson to Port Augusta.

Since the car needed to be picked up tomorrow, there was no time to waste, but the task wasn’t easy:

1. All three of us had a full day planned at work – trying to tidy things up before taking 2 weeks off.

2. The driver needed to fit a certain criteria

3. The driver had to have two weeks to spare, with no notice (ok, 1 day’s notice) to his employer

To be honest – I was stressed out! around 13:55 this afternoon – Robbie send out this tweet:

“#Riding4aCause is looking for a driver! Car and fuel supplied. Adventure of a lifetime to the red centre!!! Please RT”

13 ReTweets and 1 hour and five minute later, I’ve tweeted:

“Got a Driver!! Thanks twitter friends ”

Shane Donnelly, a photographer from Caringbah, had put his hand up. I had a short conversation with him (as I was in a meeting at the time), and said I’ll call him after work. The next conversation confirmed all the finer details, and  - WE’VE GOT A DRIVER!

At the same time, another guy (Alex Turner) put his hand up, and was picked to be the co-driver, so Shane will have someone to talk to on the way from Port Augusta to Alice Springs. I recommended a co-driver, as I suspected the radio reception wouldn’t be so great on the Stuart Hwy

Over the past year or so, we’ve built a very supportive community, predominantly on twitter. Many of the people we met on twitter, we’ve met offline IRL (In Real Life), and become friends. Without the support of this twitter community, it is hard to imagine how we would’ve found Shane and Alex.

Big round of applause for the twitter community, and our tweeple!! Thank you all!

@razchorev

Today, Andrew and I to visited @karenmorris (from Inscriptions Media), who works with Paul Boxall from The Printing Company. They are based in Sydney’s first ‘eco-friendly’ building at 23 Narabang Way, Belrose NSW.

Support

Karen and Paul had a conversation last week about one of the boys from Paul’s sons’ school, who recently committed suicide. The topic of depression came up, and Karen (whom Andrew and I met through Twitter), told Paul about our project, Riding4aCause & the work we’re doing to raise the awareness of Male Depression.

I received a short email that day, saying, quite simply:

As The Printing Company has a huge range of products they can print, we didn’t know where to start! We decided to visit Karen & Paul in Belrose top have a chat about the project and how they can help.

We had a lovely chat with Karen & Paul (complete with coffee/hot chocolate [+ marshmallows for Andrew]), hearing about personal experiences with depression and suicides. We all have sons (11 between us!) and discussed many topics related to raising boys – anger, stress, anxiety depression and suicide. We discussed opportunities for speaking engagements with schools, especially with the HSC coming up for senior school students, there’s a good opportunity to reach out to teenagers. We also discussed the motivation behind this project and how it all started with ‘a single tweet’ and blossomed from there. We accepted Paul’s offer to provide printing and promotional products for Riding4aCause, and Karen also offered to manage our breakfast  send-off event at Deus Ex Machina on 5th of September!

Testing equipment

During the ride, Andrew and I tested our new Scala Rider system (Sponsored by Strike Group) – Just AWESOME! The moment we turned them on we were talking with each other very clearly, with virtually no setup – it just worked! Very clear communications during commuting speeds (up to 80km/h), minimal background noise, and acceptable range (150-200m). We’ve chatted most of the way (about 20 minutes) until we lost contact when the distance was too great.

At faster speeds (90km/h+) it is difficult to hear a complete conversation due to the wind noise (most likely from our helmets), but we found by sticking together and talking in short bursts it was OK. It was a great addition to the ride because we could share observations about our trip, the traffic, which direction to take, etc. We ended up chatting almost the entire journey! It’s an absolutely fantastic device! Thanks Chris Ryan!

To top this all, a Bartercard directory arrived in the mail today, courtesy of @waynemansfield, as he donated $5000 in Bartercard money. I’ve already contacted some people from the directory, who can help us spend the Bartercard money along the way

That’s it for one day – how was yours?

One more milestone reached! Yesterday I rode to meet Peter Lucas from Kenma. What a pleasant experience! I merely popped in to say G’day, and meet our new sponsor…

I left there with a BIG smile on my face, as well as a Ventura rack and bag; a tank bag, & 3 puncture repair kits. I’ve learned that there are many (too quiet) supporters out there, and that gave me a reinforced belief that what we’re doing is essential!

On the way home I stopped at the post office to find a parcel from Strike waiting for me. It contained a new GPS and a Scala Rider (bluetooth communications between riders, which also works with mobile phones, and the GPS). I was just so happy I had the Ventura bag to fit the parcel in!

Today Andrew and I caught up to:

1. Finalize our itinerary (to be published in the next day or so). We were planning where to stop and why (i.e. why would we stay in place X instead of Y?), weighing up camping vs. cabins (logistics, weight, equipment, and laziness ) and debating whether to do a side-trip to Yulara (Uluru). We’re still discussing this one.
2. Work through the group ride rules
3. Update the website (being done as this is being read)
4. Discussing various options on how the trip will pan out.

As we were sitting at Blip Coffee (Rushcutters Bay), we received an email from Jaselyn, our lovely PR girl, From (ParkYoung Strategy & communications, Melbourne) with our well-crafted PR and Media plan. Did you know June 14-20th is Men’s Health week? No, then head on over to http://menshealthweek.com.au/ for more information! We’re going for a “soft” launch this week and more PR activities over the next few weeks.

Later today I received another email from Steve Andrews (Black Dog Ride) to let us know that Matthew Johnston (a creative consultant for the Black Dog Institute, and the author of I Had a Black Dog and Living With a Black Dog), showing his support, and offering to help out – I’m sure he’ll be able to help!

A very eventful day – what will tomorrow bring??

What You May Really Have: Depression

Like many men, you may think it is not “manly” to express feeling and emotions, and instead you try to suppress them. In order to deny or ignore your feelings (especially ones associated with depression), you may turn to abusing alcohol or other substances to cope.

Male depression is a serious medical condition, but many men try to ignore it or refuse treatment. Male symptoms include: violent or abusive behavior, inappropriate rage, escapist behavior, reckless behavior, alcohol or substance abuse, sexual liaisons, and more frequent thoughts of suicide. Having these kinds of symptoms make it difficult to link them to depression, and making diagnosis and treatment harder.

What to Know: Many effective treatments are available for depression, so don’t try to tough out male depression on your own. The consequences may be devastating.

Make a Plan: Call your doctor for an appointment to discuss your symptoms, especially your emotions and feelings. Being open and honest about what you are experiencing can help you get properly diagnosed and treated.

Image via Wikipedia

Male Depression, as the name suggests relates to men only. However this type of depression is not something different from the normal depression term we are acquainted with. However, negligence on the part of men has made it a very grievous problem.

Men tend to have the attitude that nothing can deter them and they are strong enough to face such problems. However, this negligence in the long term aggravates the problem and makes it a chronic problem. Thus, nowadays the problem of male depression stands as a different category of depression as it needs special attention.

Men tend to hide their problems from health care specialists because of the overconfidence that, they can tackle the problem themselves and these further exacerbates the condition.

Symptoms Of Male Depression
Depression in its basic sense is a sudden attack of acute mental illness characterized by depression and anxiety. This term is often related to mental breakdown or nervous breakdown. However, these terminologies are not according to the medical terminologies.

Male depression is a similar kind of depression with some of the basic symptoms that are also found in other depression states. Though the symptoms in male depression are also similar to female depression, but it is different in some of the areas. Precisely, the symptoms of male depression are

1. Violent behavior – One of the most commonly found symptoms in men, affected by male depression, is the increasing percentage of violent behavior. They tend to react very violently to everything.

2. Loss of Weight – Another most distinctly visible symptom is the loss of weight. This loss of weight is quite abnormal and is regarded as a symptom because the weight gets reduced automatically without any workout.

3. Loss of concentration – Lack of concentration in everything is also a very visible and remarkable difference one can find in this state. It is characterized by lack of alertness and forgetting simple things in a very short span of time.

4. Thoughts of Suicide – One of the most hidden symptoms of this problem are the suicidal thoughts that arises in the heart and mind of the affected person. The affected person can only know this symptom. So it becomes very difficult for the other person to determine.

Conclusion
These are some of the important symptoms that are found in a person affected by male depression.Apart from these, headaches, digestive disorders, alcohol abuse and isolation from family and friends are some of the general symptoms seen in an affected person.

Image by marymactavish via Flickr

I’ve been searching the web and the twitterverse for the phrase “Male Depression”. In my recent search I found a blogs  www.depressionInMen.net – a new blog which started after the sudden suicide of the German Goalkeeper, on the 10/11/09 – Robert Enke.

A couple of days ago I contacted the blogger – Carl Golin, and this is his reply, his story:

Hi Raz, thanks so much for contacting me!  Coincidentally I had just been looking at riding4acause.

First, let me out myself: “Carl Golin” is a pen name.  My real name is B*** *****, but I don’t want potential customers (I’m an independent computer programmer) doing web searches on my name having the depression blog pop to the top of their results.  If you decide to write about me anywhere, you’re more than welcome to indicate that Carl Golin is a pen name (nom de web, as I call it) and that my real name is “B**”, but please do not include the “******”.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area (California, USA)  but I currently live abroad in Europe (since 2000).  As a teenager it was clear to me that something wasn’t quite right with the way I felt, and the depression that ensued held me back from accomplishing a lot of what I had hoped for in my early adult life, and brought me very close to suicide.  Of course I was terrified to admit this to anyone.  I preferred to suffer in silence, with only a few people really knowing what was going on with me.  Those people did not include my family, because there was already a family history of deep depression and I did not want to be perceived as contributing to that unfortunate legacy.

But in my late 20s there was no more holding it back.  I had an incident whereby I had a very public panic attack, replete with ambulance and paramedics and the whole nine yards.  It was time to seek treatment!

In retrospect, that panic attack was the best thing that has ever happened to me.  The “great flowering” — as I call it — ensued.  I’ve had plenty of relapses since then, two of them quite bad, and in general I can say that at age 41 I don’t feel quite as good as I did during the Great Flowering, but compared to pre-treatment days I’m king of the hill.

I’ve always thought about doing a depression blog.  Robert Enke’s suicide — and really his wife’s press conference (I’m fluent in German) — finally pushed me to it.  It was absolutely gut-wrenching to hear her describe his struggles, and of course it was clear that he had bottled a lot of it up because of his stature and the masculinity of his sport.  I wanted the subject to be talked about more openly, though – in my case – anonymously as well because, being a programmer, the web is a very natural place for prospective clients to find out about me, and unfortunately there is some truth to the idea that depressed people can be unreliable.  I did not want that association being made with me.

So I wanted two things: to be one more voice addressing the subject of male depression, and to have a personal outlet for myself.  I’m an expert at setting up blogs and such, so I really had no excuse but to finally begin.

So that’s his story. What’s yours?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Widow: Germany Goalkeeper Enke Was Depressed (abcnews.go.com)
• Widow reveals Enke’s struggles with depression (soccernet.espn.go.com)

Things happen. We can’t change what has happened. The only thing we can do is to choose how to react to what has happened.

So what happened? Nothing major, it just seems as if someone is there trying to block my light. My vision. Put spanners in my works. It may not be that way – that’s how I feel.

Examples:

Looking for sponsorship is not an easy task. Never was. Never will be. Looking for sponsorship for a cause, seems to be an even harder task. The big corporations want to support good initiatives. People who do good things within their communities. They face a problem, though – there are rules and guidelines to where the money can and can’t go. Fair enough.

One of the requirements of an individual seeking financial (or other) support from a corporation, is that the individual (or group) has a Non-Profit status (501 tax exemption from the IRS – in the US). If you think about it – it makes sense: the corporation wants to know the money is going for a good cause, and the donation will be regarded as tax-deductible.

My problem with that – it cost $15,000 to set up this NON -Profit organization. So I need to raise $15,000 from donations, just to cover the setup cost of the venture? Not to mention the annual upkeep, the auditors, the lawyers….

It is an expensive exercise to be do-gooder.

There must be a way around it. Maybe I can get one of the major accounting/law firms to support us, and donate the set up costs? I’ll explore….

It has been widely documented that there is a clear gender difference when it comes to being diagnosed with depression. Six million men and 12 million women in the U.S. each year meet the criteria for clinical depression. Various explanations for the 1:2 ratio of depressed men vs. women have been suggested. One possibility is that men may under-report their depression due to a perceived stigma associated with this mental illness. Depression is traditionally viewed as a woman’s problem; for a man to admit to being depressed, he runs the risk of being viewed as weak, feminine, or not manly enough to “tough it out.”

Additionally, it has been posited that symptoms of depression are manifested differently in men vs. women. While depressed women may report feeling sad and emotional, depressed men are more likely to experience irritability and hostility, or physical symptoms such as fatigue and pain. Thus, depression in men may be harder to recognize.

Others have argued that the ratio may reflect true gender difference due to men and women using different coping styles. In a series of well-known studies by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a prominent researcher in the field of depression, she discovered that while women tend to ruminate, or dwell on, their problems, men tend to distract themselves with activities; moreover, she found evidence suggesting that rumination results in greater depression.

How do these factors impact depression in men? Perceived stigma can cause men to bottle up their depressed feelings and resist seeking treatment. Having less “obvious” symptoms of depression can hinder accurate diagnosis and delay appropriate treatment. The tendency to distract themselves from distress may cause some men to overwork and thereby neglect their health and family. Others may turn to destructive habits such as heavy drinking and substance abuse, or risk-taking behaviors such as reckless driving, promiscuity, or compulsive spending.

Untreated depression means prolonged and unnecessary suffering for the afflicted individual and his or her loved ones. It also means elevated risk for suicide, especially for men. According to statistics collected by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), men are 3-4 times more likely than women to commit suicide; while women are more likely to attempt suicide, men are more likely to complete suicide by using more lethal means such as a gun. Major risk factors include being separated, divorced, or widowed, and heavy drinking. Age and ethnicity play a role as well, with older white males at highest risk for suicide.
What can you do if the men in your life seem to be struggling with depression?

1. Learn the signs for depression, especially male depression. Irritability and impulsive behavior that are out of character for the person may be important clues. Remember not to take these signs personally.
2. Gently, but firmly and persistently, encourage your loved one to seek help by talking to his doctor, pastor, rabbi, or a therapist. Community support groups can also be helpful.
3. Get help right away if you suspect that the person may be at risk for suicide and/or other violent behaviors. Call 911. Call his doctor. Don’t be afraid of antagonizing the person by reaching out for help. His and others’ lives may be at stake.

For more information on this important topic, visit www.mengetdepression.com .
Copyright © 2008 by Toghers

An estimated six million men in the United States have a depressive disorder-major depression, dysthymia (chronic, less severe depression), or bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) every year. (2004).

The facts about men and depression.

An estimated six million men in the United States have a depressive disorder-major depression, dysthymia (chronic, less severe depression), or bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness)-every year. Although these illnesses are highly treatable, many men do not recognize, acknowledge, or seek help for their depression.

While both men and women may develop the standard symptoms of depression, they often experience depression differently and may have different ways of coping. Men may be more willing to report fatigue, irritability, loss of interest in work or hobbies, and sleep disturbances rather than feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and excessive guilt, which are commonly associated with depression in women. Also, tragically, four times as many men as women die by suicide, even though women make more suicide attempts during their lives.

The truth is, depression is a real and treatable illness. It can strike at any age, from childhood into late life. With proper diagnosis and treatment, the vast majority of men with depression can be helped.

What makes depression different from the blues?

Depression is a serious medical condition that involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It affects how you eat and sleep. It alters your self-perception. It changes the way you think and feel. Men with a depressive illness can’t just “snap out of it” or “pull themselves together,” because depression isn’t the same as a passing mood. Left untreated, depression may last for weeks, months, or years at a time.

Depressive illnesses can make routine tasks unbearably difficult. Pleasures that make life worth living-watching a football game, playing with children, even making love-can be drained of joy. Depression brings pain and disruption not only to the person who has it, but also to his family and others who care about him.

If you are experiencing some of the following symptoms, you may have a depressive illness. Ask yourself if you are feeling: sad or “empty”; irritable or angry; guilty or worthless; pessimistic or hopeless; tired or “slowed down”; restless or agitated; like no one cares about you; or like life is not worth living. You may also: sleep more or less than usual; eat more or less than usual; have persistent headaches, stomachaches or chronic pain; have trouble concentrating, remembering things or making decisions; lose interest in work or hobbies; or lose interest in sex.

If these symptoms are familiar, it’s time to talk with your doctor. Depression is a real, medical illness that can be successfully treated, most often with medication, psychotherapy (“talk” therapy), or a combination of both. Support from family and friends plays an important role as well.

It takes courage to ask for help.

The feelings and behaviors that are part of depression can hinder a person’s ability to seek help. In addition, men in particular may find it difficult to admit depressive symptoms and ask for help. It’s important to remember, however, that depression is a real, treatable illness and is nothing to be ashamed about.

Thanks to years of research, a variety of effective treatments including medications and short-term psychotherapies are available for depressive disorders. Treatment choice will depend on the patient’s diagnosis, severity of symptoms, and preference. In general, severe depressive illnesses, particularly those that are recurrent, will require a combination of treatments for the best outcome.

If you are feeling depressed, tell someone about your symptoms. Speak with a doctor, nurse, psychologist, social worker, or employee assistance professional. Asking for help takes courage, but it can make all the difference.

Source – NIMH website