Thread: If a person committed suicide

Originally Posted by Roverlord off road spares

My pych told me an ADF who returned from an overseas conflict was left to seek assistance via doctor and medicare and has to pay for the gap.
Where a person on work cover has their treatment completely paid for. My pych was pretty peed off about it.
Seems a quite unfair

It depends whether Department of Veterans Affairs has accepted their condition or not. Getting stuff through this completely incompetent department can take years. In the last 10 years I think the current number of ADF suicides is now 239. I for one would like a Royal Commission into this diabolical organisation.
I know of people who have left the ADF after numerous deployments because they can't take it anymore. Once they leave they are on their own.

My Dad served in the RAAF in WW II. He suffered from debilitating respiratory illnesses. He had no idea that he was entitled to a War Service Pension until he was in his seventies, when the welfare officer from a local RSL found out about him. Veterans Affairs looked after him very well from then on.

Mario, You are a Trojan. Just keep in mind that if you got better at all, you can get better completely. Not saying you will but you can try, and the quality of your business shows, you're made of the right stuff.
Caring about your reputation is great but caring about what other people think is folly. Most people will not judge you anyway and the vacuous turds who do aren't worth a second thought.

I'm not even out yet and so far DVA has knocked back my claims for the things the ADF is attempting to discharge me for....Apparently I do not have the conditions I am being discharged for with one exception they've accepted a 10-20% liability for my psoriasis. Still being discharged though.

Advice from more than one person within the ADF...

Mate, its a health discharge, take the health discharge and get the free 75% pension for the rest of your life.

Thanks but I'd rather have my career and not be repeatedly accused of being suicidal or having mental health issues.

heres a fun bit

The provisional conditions from 1997 for which there were multiple psych reports refuting are have been dredged up and used against me.. after accessing all of my documents so I can send them to DVA how many of the reports that successfully rebutted the originally misdiagnosed conditions do you think are still in my file? (keep in mind that the original provisional conditions must have been refuted because I wasn't discharged for them)

but the funnest bit...

If I don't beat the discharge date with the appeals and Rogs or am able to have my discharge date extended, If I have processes left over available to me after they kick me out I can attempt to continue the fight to stay once I'm out and if I beat the discharge decision I can come back.

But I learned something interesting today...

Euthymic is essentially a psychobabble term (however the psych people want to have it addressed mods feel free to edit) that when translated into dumbass redneck grease monkey speak means...

having a **** eating grin while chewing the exrement sandwich.

or in lay person speak.

"hes in a surprisingly good mood for someone who's living through a ****storm"

Gosh Mario, that rings a few bells about my 'treatment' - and not as savage as yours...

Whilst I'm inclined to pin my 'Extreme' Depression onto the shrt-cut route the Neurosurgeon took, there is no doubt that how I felt about the side-effects/how they weren't addressed and the cascading consequences...helped put me there and have slowed the nearly impossible crawl-out.

Bottom line (for me) is :- The Neuro surgical team did not take an adequate 'History' of me.. or they failed to spot the ramifications of a Heavy Vehicle / Bus Driver, being dis-allowed to ply their trade for TWELVE months...and only mentioning this at the end of the 'no driving for 3 months' - Yep, "Driving", not BUS driving
So I lose my job - he was only able to hold it for the 3 months as business was traditionally slow at that time, but had to move when I became unavailable...
So now I've got a savaged income ( got back ONE day per week now...) which grounds my only - and recently acquired - passion...flying Light Sports Aircraft.

Two strikes. . . and we won't publicly go into the minor (?) other neuro side-effects... none of which are accepted as being caused by the procedure (which makes me feel even worse, as the only alternative is..."It's all in the mind, you know..."
Actually, I will mention what only became obvious today.... Went for a fly, first one in a few months... and had to cut it short due to an anxiety attack (I think).
Seems I've lost a chunk of mojo or cohones, as the same windy conditions that I used to relish, now had me so terrified that I chickened out...and came back early.
Technically, I haven't lost anything, - landings were 'greasers' but the palpitations, breathlessness and anxiousness were worsening.

Funny, everything back to normal within seconds of the final landing... I think that's what they call... A clue.

Oh yes, my short fuse is now even shrtr, and the Wrong Word can cause an explosion... or if I manage to damp it down / suck it up... I spiral down into a Very Bad Place.

If only the Surgeon or his minions had bothered to talk-and listen- to me pre-op, or at least post-op. . .

Well, we did eventually chat, when he heard that I was making an un-offically 'official complaint'... he called me in and was astute enough to understand that reversing the 'conditions' would work best toward fixing my Dark Thoughts, as well as giving me back some income !

Rant over.

Originally Posted by cuppabillytea

My Dad served in the RAAF in WW II. He suffered from debilitating respiratory illnesses. He had no idea that he was entitled to a War Service Pension until he was in his seventies, when the welfare officer from a local RSL found out about him. Veterans Affairs looked after him very well from then on.

Mario, You are a Trojan. Just keep in mind that if you got better at all, you can get better completely. Not saying you will but you can try, and the quality of your business shows, you're made of the right stuff.
Caring about your reputation is great but caring about what other people think is folly. Most people will not judge you anyway and the vacuous turds who do aren't worth a second thought.

cuppabillytea, Thanks mate, If it wasn't for the business to give me something to do I don't know where i would be, it allowed me to have control of my life , it gave me a purpose. After being told I was no longer employable, I employed myself instead. Under my rules and conditions and needs.
My shrinks are very pleased with me and congratulate me for being able to reinvent myself. One of them uses my example in her lectures.

As many of you know I do it all online, I can't spend a lot of time on the phone talking about things due to the slow head and still needing time to get my head around things. Things get done though, but under my control, If I want to go and have a lie down for an hour or two, I can do it.
I can spread my day over 24 hours, I can pace myself, get up at 1am and do a couple of orders if I want to. I'm not stuck to the 9-5 routine that I would have tried to fit into if i worked for some one. It works for me.

This was an interesting read regarding some new findings in the treatment of depression:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...140-0/fulltext

A study found that Behavioural activation (BA) therapy is as effective as Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for treating depression.

BA is a much more cost effective solution to treating depression than CBT, meaning that the same results (patient outcomes) can be reached with fewer resources. What this means for the patient, and the health system, is that much more effective use of limited (and strained) health budgets will allow more patients to be assisted for the same outlay.


What I've read above in regards to people's experiences with their GP's is probably more a result of consulting the wrong professionals, as well as the resource constraints placed on those same professionals for labour-intensive treatments. The GP responses mentioned above could be considered the response of someone who is out of their league when it comes to that kind of treatment.

Originally Posted by carlschmid2002

incompetent department can take years.

Often people in need of care can't wait or don't have years!.
You can't tell people with mental health issues to wait, if their vulnerable they might not be around later.

Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

What I've read above in regards to people's experiences with their GP's is probably more a result of consulting the wrong professionals, as well as the resource constraints placed on those same professionals for labour-intensive treatments. The GP responses mentioned above could be considered the response of someone who is out of their league when it comes to that kind of treatment.

This is probably the case, but the average person has no way of discerning who the 'right professionals' are. Naturally, especially early in the process, they will go to their GP because that is what we do - the assumption being that the GP will handle the situation appropriately and provide the appropriate advice and referral. Unfortunately that is often where it all falls down. That GP will probably do some kind of 10 minute assessment - based on limited training, knowledge and time. And the outcome could be way off the mark for that person. Of course there are some very knowledgable GP's out there when it comes to mental health and lucky you if you see one of these in the first instance.

The other unhelpful dynamic here is that a lot of people have blind faith in their GP's. They dont question anything they say, nor hold them to account for poor advice.

Ideally you find a GP who will really listen to you and invite you to provide detail about what is going on. One that understands the limit of the GP role with mental health and will refer on to more qualified professionals quickly. Then make sure that they too ( Psychologists, mental health social workers, other counselors, psychiatrists) listen to you and that you feel like you can ask questions, be heard and respected. If that doesn't happen - back to GP for another referral or find one yourself.