Starlo’s back to basics

NSW STH COAST Steve Starling

www.fishotopia.com

As we discovered during the pandemic lockdowns, a lot of us tend to go a little nuts when we can’t get out fishing! But it’s actually no joking matter: our sport can genuinely help maintain your mental health!

Depression and anxiety are the world’s leading cause of disability. In Australia, it’s estimated that close to 50% of the population will experience a mental health condition at some point in their lives. That’s every second person. Each year, well over a million Australians experience depression, and more than two million suffer from anxiety. Sadly, those numbers are growing, and they surged during the COVID pandemic.

Unfortunately, a tendency lingers in some parts of our society to dismiss mental issues like depression and anxiety as character traits: a weakness of personality marked by an inability to deal with the challenges of life. There are still some whose well-meaning advice to sufferers is to “buck up”, “get over it” or even “harden up”.

Others ask: “What have Matt Tripet is the founder and driving force behind the ‘Fly Program’ initiative, which uses fishing, mountain biking and various other outdoor activities as part of a full spectrum of responses to mental health issues, and which has recently expanded its programs to include women.

Size isn’t everything! Men are great at talking about fishing, but tend to be less forthcoming on matters of the head and heart.

you got to be depressed about?” Wherever we look there are people in much worse day-to-day situations than ours. It feels almost indulgent for citizens in a country as lucky as Australia to talk about depression or anxiety while those in less fortunate parts of the world go hungry, or flee the horrors of war and oppression. But the fact remains that clinical depression and severe anxiety recognise no boundaries and are rarely a reflection of economic or physical status. They’re illnesses, like any other. Telling someone with depression or anxiety to “pull themselves together”, “toughen up” and “get over it” makes as much sense as offering the same advice to a sufferer of measles, malaria or meningitis… or to someone with a broken arm!

Depression and anxiety are real and can affect anyone, at any time. Sometimes, these conditions are triggered by

specific incidents of trauma, grief or stress. More often, there’s no obvious catalyst. The root causes may be chemical, genetic or social, but the end result is very real… and potentially fatal.

In more extreme cases, these common mental disorders become truly debilitating, making it impossible for sufferers to function normally, go to

work, or maintain healthy relationships with family and friends. Left untreated, severe depression or anxiety can ultimately lead to self-harm or even suicide.

Suicide is an epidemic, especially in the developed world, out-stripping many more obvious causes of death. On average, around nine Australians take their own lives every single day (up from seven a day before the pandemic). Stop and think about that for a moment… It adds up to more than 3,000 souls each year: almost three times the number of people who die on our roads. Those figures don’t include attempted suicides, nor a significant number of unexplained deaths from causes such as singlevehicle accidents on straight stretches of road, at least some of which are most likely attributable to suicide.

Staggeringly, three quarters of all those Australians who take their own lives each year are men. There are probably a few reasons for this statistical anomaly, not least the fact that men tend to choose lethal, non-reversible methods of suicide. But there’s also no denying that most men simply aren’t as well-equipped — emotionally or socially — to either recognise or deal with mental illness, nor as likely to seek help from others in dealing with it. Aussie men are notorious for bottling up their emotions, suffering in silence, and ‘self-medicating’ with alcohol or other drugs. They pay a high price for their apparent toughness. In fact, too many pay the ultimate price.

I’ve suffered from bouts of depression and anxiety through a big chunk of my own adult life, and I’ve met plenty of other men who’ve been through similarly dark times. Some are willing to talk about their experiences, others less so. For a lot of us, however, fishing and the great outdoors have played a vital role in dealing with our disorders.

But let’s get something straight: fishing on its own can’t cure depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress. It’d be nice to think that it might, but it can’t.

Recreational fishing is simply not an effective form of therapy on its own. In fact, just like self-medicating with alcohol or other drugs, fishing can actually end up amplifying the very condition we’re attempting to escape from. If we take our depression or anxiety into our fishing, we run the risk of creating a toxic feedback loop in which the activity itself becomes part of the problem, rather than a component of the cure.

Sadly, depressed people tend to make depressed anglers. Negative thoughts and anxieties are easily transferred onto the task at hand, meaning that fishing’s inevitable setbacks and hurdles can actually feed the black dog, rather than driving that cursed hound from our doorstep. Blank days, tangled lines, snagged lures, lost fish, failed trips, social media envy… Let’s face it: our sport carries its fair share of challenges!

All that said, fishing can certainly form a part of any comprehensive treatment strategy. For starters, physical activity and exercise are proven to produce chemicals in the brain that reduce the impacts of depression and anxiety.

This link between the activity involved in angling and relief from depression or anxiety is more than a theory. It has been proven in clinical studies. In addition to the beneficial aspects of exercise and exposure to fresh air,

the whole angling process demands sufficient focus on the present moment and the intricacies of the activity at hand to help clear our minds of most other things, including negative thoughts, self-doubt, worry and stress. Much like gardening or cooking, fishing demands a hands-on presence in the here-and-now. This is exactly the definition of the new-age concept of ‘mindfulness’.

Groups devoted to helping people overcome mental health issues have embraced this notion of ‘mindfulness’, and activities such as fishing now form an integral part of many of their recovery programs (in concert with other therapies). Two of the best such organisations I know of in Australia are Matt Tripet’s wonderful ‘Fly Program’, and Dean Hamilton’s ‘Forge Through’ initiative for first responders. You can easily get on line and find out more about each of these wonderful organisations, especially if you think that you, or someone you know, might benefit from them.

The first and by far the biggest step you can take

Dean ‘Hammo’ Hamilton is the affable man-mountain behind ‘Forge Through’: a mental health initiative for first responders and military personal that uses knife-making and fishing as parts of its program.

Beloved Aussie actor and comedian Garry McDonald knows that the fish don’t have to be huge to make big smiles! Gaz used fishing as part of the recovery process from his highly publicised bouts with depression and anxiety a decade or two ago.

on the road to recovery from any mental health condition is recognising and acknowledging that you have a problem, then discussing it with others: family and friends to begin with, then a health professional like your GP. You also need to understand that you’re not alone… Not by a long shot! Tight Lines.

Important Note: If this story has raised any issues with you personally, or given you reason to be concerned for someone you know, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyondblue on 1300 22 4636, or MensLine Australia on 1300 78 99 78.