Beat Your Depression

You may recall the post entitled, “The Great Australian Sportsman Succumbs To Depression” [February 1st 2008].  This dealt with how the immense pressures associated with being a top athlete can cause sufficient stress to precipitate an episode of depression.

The great news is that Shaun Tait, the Australian cricketer noted for his immense speed when bowling, has now recovered from the affliction and is preparing to do battle with the ball again.  Hopefully, the setback that he had, like many other great sportspeople, will make him an even better person and athlete.  I certainly feel confident that this will be the case.

When I first heard the news about Shaun’s battle with depression I desperately wanted to contact him to offer any assistance that I may be able to provide from my own experiences and research.  However, I felt that my offer would be declined as the Australian Cricket Board had already implemented a course of action to assist Shaun by getting him to speak with other cricket greats who had triumphed over depression in the past.

On top of this Shaun’s father Phil had requested that everybody respect Shaun’s privacy on this occasion, and I did not wish to aggravate his condition in any way, even though my intentions were well meaning.

Now that Shaun has recovered, I may try to contact him to determine if he has any words of wisdom that he can pass on to others who are suffering from this miserable condition.

It has now been about eight months since the news of his hasty departure from all levels of cricket was announced.  This makes me reflect on how, even without any treatment, time can effect a recovery.  It reminds me of the saying that, if you have a cold it will take about fourteen days for you to recover, but if you take medication the cold will only last for two weeks. 🙂

Often, medication will only treat the symptons of a problem and make life a little more bearable whilst the mind and the body’s immune system tend to repairing the real cause of the damage.  This is similar to when a doctor will set a fracture in a splint and prescribe painkillers whilst the body mends the bone.

Our minds and body are truly amazing entities.  The more research I do, the more amazed I become about the inter-relationship between our minds and bodies.

Once again I am reminded of a story about a Scottish man who suffered from insomnia.  No prescribed medication had any beneficial effect on his condition and so he used to pour two fingers of whiskey into a tumbler each hour and consume it.  When questioned about this “self medication” he replied that the whiskey did not relieve his insomnia, it just made staying awake a lot more pleasant.  🙂

P.S.

I wrote to Shaun Tait to ask him if he had any insights that he would like to share with other sufferers of depression but, as yet, I have not received a reply to my letter.  In his defense, I suppose that he is quite busy now with his cricket commitments.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to contact him by telephone or by letter to his physical address as both have been suppressed from the public.  This is understandable as there are many “cranks” out there and so I wrote to him care of the South Australian Cricket Association a couple of weeks ago.