sitting here at work Mauser reading yr story.... got the tears going ... I have never suffered depression, tho sometimes, in particular over the last year or so I do feel down at times. Somehow i pick myself up tho and keep going. I guess people become imune to seeing depression, they don't want to know cos it's all too hard... and when you walk into Centrelink... it IS depressg... i remember being in the queue during a stint of unemployment... i've worked and supported myself all my life and then suddenly i was in the dole queue after 24yrs of working... i felt like screaming "i'm not a f*n loser! I lost my job cos the business owner drank the place to the ground!" (he was an alcoholic which i didn't know). Centrelink is judgemental, no matter what they say. But if you need help, even just an ear to listen... get that ear... get someone to talk to... sometimes it's easier to talk to a stranger as there's nothing else binding you... whatever works for you and if you're on the outside looking in and see someone else that needs help but won't/can't ask for it... try anyway... it's someone's son/daughter, brother/sister, mother/father, uncle/aunt etc