After almost a month of daily mo shots, here’s a full face shot so you can see how it turned out. In hindsight, I think I should’ve let the soul beard (the bit of fuzz under my bottom lip) grow from day 1, but it’s only been going for a couple of weeks. The mo itself hasn’t been long enough to be the full Fu Man Chu, so I won’t bother shaving the bit under my nostrils. Basically this is the full untrimmed moustache. I guess you could call it organic. It’s not as bad as I feared it would be. Still sparse, but at least it’s more than just the few hairs that Bristow has.
So if you’ve been following my adventures, or have just been spammed by me because you made a pledge to donate, now’s your last chance to do it. There’s only one day of Movember to go.
I’ve never had a moustache before, so I really don’t know if they’re “supposed” to grow up and towards your nose. It’s funny to think that I once thought of having a comb-out. Now it looks like they’re going back in. Someone said that these shots are a bit in-your face, and for that I apologise. I wanted to share the tale of the sparse hairs in their true sadness. Only a couple of days to go and it’ll all be over. I’m looking forward to being clean shaven again. So is my girlfriend.
The mo’s starting to look interesting. I’ve been falling behind on uplooading the pics, but they’re coming. Been focusing more on my health and trying to get a bit more sleep after reading about a CEO who died due to lack of sleep.
Filed under: Movember | Tags: anti-depressants, beyondblue, depression, doctors, drugs, medication, Movember
beyondblue provides a lot of good resources on depression, but they place a lot of emphasis on the medical profession. It’s a sad reflection on our society today that people need to turn to their doctor as their first source of help. We’re unable to gain guidance from community leaders, like village elders or priests because we’ve become so detached from spirituality. We seek solace and a place to belong in cultural appropriation. If we turn to doctors, they will prescribe us with medication for which the mechanisms of action are as unknown as illicit drugs.
Take for instance a couple of drugs my GP gave me when I was 19. I first went to her because I’d been feeling depressed for years and neither my parents nor school counsellor had been much help. There was a 3 month waiting list to see a good psychiatrist she knew, so she gave me drugs in the meantime. First there was Tryptanol. “It appears to prevent the re-uptake of norepinephrine and serotonin at nerve terminals, thus potentiating the action of these neurotransmitters.” It appears? I guess they don’t really know. Well that was just a waste of time and made it even harder for me to get out of bed in the morning, so the doctor then gave me Sinequan and “The mechanism of action of Sinequan (doxepin HCl) is not definitely known”. That information is from the manufacturer themselves. This drug seemed as bad as the first. The doctor gradually reduced the dosage and I still felt drowsy even on the lowest dose. When I finally got to see the shrink, he just laughed. He said that the drugs didn’t work because my problems were reactionary, meaning that I was depressed not because of a chemical imbalance, but because of all the things I’d been through and was still living with.
Years later, I had a colleague who’d recently been put on anti-depressants. He told me that his drugs were great. “They just gave you the wrong kind,” he said. Maybe it was because we were in our late 20s by then. I read now that
“Antidepressants increased the risk compared to placebo of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders. Anyone considering the use of Sinequan or any other antidepressant in a child, adolescent, or young adult must balance this risk with the clinical need.”
I wonder if that info was around in my day, and if so, just what the hell my GP was thinking.
Filed under: Movember | Tags: CALD, depression, John Brogden, Movember, Multicultural Mental Health Australia, redemption, suicide
There are many different forms of depression. Someone can be living with dysthymia for years and then do something stupid like a man losing the family’s nest egg on a bad investment, or as in John Brogden’s case, a politician acting politically incorrectly . This can lead to disgrace and major depression, even attempted suicide.
Brogden resigned from parliament, but later returned to public life as CEO of several companies. He spoke publicly about his battle with depression and became a patron for Lifeline. His greatest achievement however, was being given a pat on the back by the very community he insulted. “Multicultural Mental Health Australia (MMHA) Chair, Associate Professor Malak said he encouraged more community leaders and celebrities, especially from CALD [culturally and linguistically diverse] backgrounds who may be affected by a mental illness in the family, to show the same courage as Mr Brogden and talk about it openly.”
John Brogden’s story can show those in their darkest hour, that even if their depression is the result of self-inflicted shame, there is light and even redemption on the other side.
One of the many ‘treatments’ after being diagnosed with prostate cancer is ‘active surveillance‘, or just waiting and seeing how it goes. It doesn’t really sound like treatment to me. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation some men avoid treatment because “treatment has potentially serious side effects such as impotence and incontinence, treatment may be worse than the disease”. The disease kills about 3,300 Australian men a year and yet we don’t have the same success rates in diagnosis leading to successful treatment as we do with breast cancer. We don’t even know if there’s much point in having routine screenings like we do with breast cancer.
Filed under: Movember | Tags: depression, men's health, Movember, prostate cancer, Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
I’m a whinger. Yesterday I complained that the Commonwealth Bank changed their logo to pink for an entire month for Pink Ribbon Day on 25th October, but did nothing for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September. How wrong was I?
Maybe my ignorance is indicative of men’s habit of shunning issues concerning our health. Even when it’s all around us, we don’t notice until it happens to us and it’s too late. It’s a good thing I’ve got involved with Movember. Not only am I raising awareness of prostate cancer and depression in those around me, I’m also learning a lot along the way.
Filed under: Movember | Tags: Movember, Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
I’m appalled. September was Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and I heard nothing about it at all. Pink Ribbon Day was 25th October and the Commonwealth Bank changed their logo from yellow to pink for the whole month. I don’t remember them doing anything like that in September even though they’ve been a partner of the Prostate Cancer Foundation since 2002.
Filed under: Movember | Tags: depression, domestic violence, men's health, Movember, murder
It’s interesting to follow yesterday’s post with a report about an abused man who killed his wife. I’ve never condoned wives killing their abusive husbands and this man killing his wife is no different. You do feel sorry for them, but the onus is on the abused party to walk out. Of course, once you’re there, walking out could be the hardest thing to do. It sounds like the abused man was forced by his wife to live a very depressing existence.
I just wonder if Anthony Sherna were a woman, would the judge still have sentenced him to 14 years in prison? This blog isn’t about gender politics, but the sentence for this crime does highlight the imbalance between the way we treat abused men and abused women. By the same token, we as a society are more aware and supportive of distressed and depressed women than we are of distressed and depressed men. That’s why Movember is so important. It’s bringing men’s health out of the darkness and getting people talking about prostate cancer and depression. Movember is donating directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and beyondblue who are doing things to provide resources for people suffering from depression as well as many groups who are at risk, such as adolescents and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (GLBTI). Donate today.
It's Movember. Just gimme a mo ok? 