John Ward is a local man who volunteers his time helping others rebuild their lives.
He helps run a recovery program aimed at teaching vulnerable locals how to overcome depression and anxiety.
“This program does wonders,” Mr Ward said.
“One young girl who joined the program was in her late teens, she felt no feelings – not sadness or happiness.
“She went and laid on the road outside her home in the hope that a car would run over her.
“Not to kill her, but to give her something that she would have feelings about.
“She came to the program and was cured by the end of it.”
Mr Ward said the program was run by several trained volunteers.
“We break up into discussion groups, and we get participants to talk about their problems and others in the group to suggest answers to those problems,” he said.
“It’s over an eight-week period, and after that we have follow ups every two weeks until week 20.”
Mr Ward said when a person first joined the program they complete a depression and anxiety test developed by the University of New South Wales.
“And then we give it to them on the eighth week of the program and almost everybody scores an improvement in their depression,” he said.
“One lady, at the beginning of the program, scored the maximum you can score (45) – which means she was suicidal, could hardly get out of bed and couldn’t make decisions.
“She scored zero at the end of eight weeks.”
He said people often overlooked depression symptoms.
“The world seems to think the only symptom of depression is sadness, but there’s a feeling of emptiness and hollowness,” Mr Ward said.
“There’s sleep disorders, there’s the inability to make decisions, unable to get up in the mornings and face the day, wanting to hurt yourself or others.
“Nobody with depression knows what causes it – they might think they know what caused it, but they’re wrong.”
The program is run by The Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“It’s not a religious program per se, but like Alcoholics Anonymous do, we recommend a power outside yourself,” Mr Ward said.
The next Depression and Anxiety Recovery Program session is on 20 August, from 6.45pm at Park Ridge Community Men’s Shed.
