LOOK after your mental health like you would your new tractor.
That's the analogy Holyoake Wheatbelt suicide prevention co-ordinator Jo Drayton used at the Liebe Group's Rural Minds workshop recently.
"If you bought a new piece of machinery and the hazard light came on, you'd get it serviced," Ms Drayton said.
"That's what we need to do for ourselves - when you can't sleep, lose interest in your relationships, feeling down for no reason - go see a GP."
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The normalisation of mental health and suicide prevention in the regions was evident with the turnout, which had about even numbers of men and women and a mix of ages from people in their 20s to 60s.
The interactive workshop discussed the stigma that is still attached to mental health and suicide and outlined some of the common mental illnesses that many people live with.
Ms Drayton explained mental health as a spectrum and that sometimes we sit more to the side when our emotions are balanced and we feel good, which is called 'optimal mental health'.
As we move down the spectrum we experience 'low levels of distress, which leads to being 'really distressed' and not being able to function on a daily basis and eventually a diagnosis.
However a diagnosis can be done when different levels of distress are experienced, not necessarily when someone is at breaking point which is how people live with mental illness.
Ms Drayton referred to a term coined by the Regional Men's Health Initiative - a 'situational crisis', which is when a person is experiencing a period of poor mental health but it might not lead to depression, anxiety etc.
"For farmers a situational crisis can be brought on by a poor season, frost, financial trouble, relationship breakdowns, the death of a loved one etc," Ms Drayton said.
"The earlier someone seeks help, it's less likely the crisis will end up critical and lead to a diagnosis.
"The crisis might not be due to a chemical imbalance.
"Chemical imbalances can often go untreated and be lifelong, yet people can still be high functioning, so just because a person can show up to work, be friendly and seem OK doesn't mean they are and they might be unknowingly battling a mental illness, or reluctant to face it.
"A mental health diagnosis does not define you as a person."
Ms Drayton said when someone was in a situational crisis, their pre-frontal lobe in the brain was not functioning normally.
"They have less of a capacity to make decisions and weigh up risk and then revert back to the primal responses of fight, flight or freeze."
Ms Drayton said Australian culture has come a long way in breaking down the stigma around mental health, but she felt there needed to be more work done on the passive stigma, particularly among men.
"Tell your son it's OK to cry and talk about their feelings," she said.
"A real man is one who gets help so he can help those close to him.
"Would you think less of someone who spoke about their mental health, so why wouldn't you talk about your own?"
One of the main causes of stigma, according to Ms Drayton, is ignorance.
If you have a loved one who has or might have a mental illness she suggested begin by researching it before you talk to them about it.
While the steady rise of mental illness diagnoses is concerning, it is also a result of it becoming normalised as more people have been diagnosed.
A major part of the workshop was dedicated to suicide prevention.
In every State, there are significantly more regional suicides than those in capital cities and very remote regions have twice as many suicides than capital cities.
WA has the third highest rate of suicides compared to other States.
While more men die by suicide than women, more women attempt to take their own life but tend to use a less lethal means than men, so intervention is more likely.
"This tells us that people with suicide ideation do not want to die; they want the emotional pain to end and see death as the only solution," Ms Drayton said.
"For every suicide, we see about 20 attempts.
"Males aged 29-45 is the most common bracket for people who suicide, but we have been seeing more younger females use more lethal means."
While Ms Drayton said depression was the biggest link to suicide, not all suicidal people have depression.
"Any number of life events can cause someone to think about suicide," she said.
Reckless behaviour can be a warning sign that someone might be suicidal as they can test their fear of death.
"A lot of people live with suicide ideation but are afraid of death, so someone who exhibits reckless behaviour and has other mental health symptoms can be at major risk of suiciding," Ms Drayton said.
- If you or someone you know needs assistance, call lifeline on 13 11 14 or RuralLink, a specialist after-hours mental health telephone service for WA rural communities on freecall 1800 552 002.
