Neil Marks has been a Lismore and Northern Rivers personality for the last 30 years.
He worked at 2LM and ZZZ FM for 30 years and was a Lismore City Councillor for 13 years. Many in the community know him personally or by name. Being a councillor for so long, some people will not speak highly of him.
Even his harshest critics will give him encouragement in his next venture, which is to ride his beloved Triumph around Australia to raise awareness for mental health.
Neil can speak to the issue firsthand during his six-week ride, travelling over 15,000km because he too suffers from depression. His goal is to share his story with as many people as possible and to help as many people as possible. Even if that is only 1 person, then his journey will have been worthwhile.
Neil’s own mental health problems started prior to the 2022 flood when “Things weren’t playing well in my head,” he told the Talking Lismore podcast this week (Podcasts).
“It was just all over the place. Suddenly, I was trying to work out why a girl, when she was sixteen, ditched me for her old boyfriend while I was at school. It was just weird.”
When Neil went to see his doctor, he described his symptoms as his poor memory, fidgety legs and dreadful balance. As the conversation moved on, Neil asked what does depression feel like?
“She said those three things tick off a physical side of it. So, we had a fairly in-depth discussion and ran through lots of questions and bingo; that’s where I was.”
At that point, Neil described feeling heavy.
“There’s a physical weight that I just couldn’t shake. You just doubted and second-guessed everything you were doing and everything you had done.”
The next part of the conversation was about what they were going to do about it. For Neil, that included Google searches, Lifeline, Beyond Blue and the Black Dog Institute.
“I went to every one of them, and I just couldn’t find myself in there. So, I started my search for more information. In that twelve months between Covid and the flood, I didn’t do a great deal apart from self-look at things.”
In that time, Neil withdrew from the community and spent time in his ‘safe places’.
“Work is a safe place, home is a safe place, certain friends create safe places that you can go to and being on my own was a safe place. You change in so many different ways.”
At the end of the twelve months, Neil went back to the doctor and said it was time to see a specialist, a psychologist or a psychiatrist because the medication was not working alone.
“Medication numbed the hell out of me. It made me feel that if this was as good as it gets, what else could I do to improve?”
“So, I started seeing a psychologist and started doing relaxation exercises and other things to help me sleep. You realise that sleep, good food and exercise, and all those sorts of things put you in a better place.”
Motivation, or the lack thereof, is an element of mental health that you hear a great deal about. It was the case for Neil.
“Unless I made a commitment to someone, motivation is hard. I used to get up and go for a run seven days a week and take the dog out; I loved it. That all stopped. A couple of people I exercised with started dragging me out. They made me turn up on Saturday mornings and made sure I went for a walk at least once a week, and they still do. Once I say yes to them, I’ve got to do it.”
“I can wake up at my normal time of 5 in the morning and say now just sit there and have a nice long cup of coffee, and those sort of things. That motivation is really, really tough.”
Another twelve months later, Neil started seeing a psychiatrist, which was not the easiest profession to find availabilities in Lismore, to review the medication he was taking.
“An immediate change in medication, adding to what I was already taking, which was less, within days, I felt a different person. In amongst all that, I was working with the psychologist to find different ways to do things. Testing yourself. What is it I really wanted to do in life? What do I feel I’ve missed out in life that I could then work towards? “
“We started to talk about purpose, and she said, why don’t you do something around mental health and your career backgrounds you’ve had? I didn’t feel comfortable about being a spokesperson for mental health and said you kind of are because you have it, and with your communication skill, why don’t you use it?”
The result was a Facebook page called ‘Chasing The Dog’ where Neil has open conversations about his mental health. Chasing The Dog includes interaction with other people who were also suffering from mental health issues. It was these conversations that led Neil to learn more about himself than through his psychologist, psychiatrist or his doctor.
“It’s about connecting with other people who are suffering from the same sort of things. You sit down, and you compare notes. You ask do you have this? do you have that? do you have the fidgety leg? do you wake up in the morning with heavy shoulders and a dull sensation? Is that the medication? You realise there are a lot of commonalities, and that’s what I wasn’t finding in the websites I was going to.”
Neil felt a friend was not doing well mentally, asked and was told, “You picked it”. After messaging, phone conversations and face-to-face conversations, Neil realised that he had learned more about himself through this process.
“I learned a lot from several conversations, and at one stage I probably sat down with him for an hour, and it was probably the most educational hour that I learnt about me. That this is real, it is something you have, and it is something that you have to work through.”
It was at that point, Neil thought he could do more. He could use his media contacts to start a conversation about mental health. Now, Neil Marks is expanding the conversation from his Chasing the Dog Facebook page to a nationwide conversation as he rides his Triumph around our vast land.
The Lismore App will follow his six-week journey and provide updates, but you can stay up to date via Neil’s Facebook page.
(Neil Marks is taking short trips around the Northern Rivers to build up his physical strength that will be needed when he embarks on his journey around Australia, travelling 500km per day, on average. Photo: Neil Marks)