Beyond Blue would like all individuals accessing our online forums in relation to Australia’s bushfire crisis to know that we are here for them.

If you’re feeling worried, we want you to know that it’s okay and you are not alone.

The impacts of this crisis will be ongoing and everyone will have different experiences, thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Even if you haven't been directly affected by these fires you may still feel sad, overwhelmed, stressed and upset.

We hope that you will use this safe, understanding space to talk, share and support one another on a united front.

It can be difficult to know what to say in times like these.

The forum community have been engaging in discussions that you may find helpful: Are you managing to be ok with all these dreadful bushfires?

You may wish to share what you are doing to help cope, or simply to share your experience with others.

Beyond Blue has developed a dedicated resource about bushfires and mental health, including practical advice about dealing with the emotional impact of bushfires, information about the signs and symptoms of emotional distress, tips for supporting children and young people, and links to several useful websites.

Taking care of yourself:

• Limit your exposure to social media – it’s okay to have a break and it’s important you make sure you’re not becoming overwhelmed.
• Speak with our friendly forum community about how you’re feeling
• Set realistic goals that keep you motivated, but don't take on too much (most people in this situation talk of recovery as a journey not a sprint)
• Give yourself time

Seeking help when you are in a bushfire affected area:

• Follow the advice of your local state fire services if you are in a bushfire affected area.
  State fire services:
  NSW RFS
  QLD RFS
  VIC
  SA
  TAS
  NT
  WA
  ACT

• If you require emergency support please contact 000

As a community, let’s help one another through sharing and connecting during this difficult time. This could be by listing links to articles or resources you have found helpful, tips for what is working to help you manage or sharing your thoughts, feelings or experience related to the bushfire crisis.  

Whatever it may be, we're here. 

Thank you for creating this space beyond blue. I have felt stressed and stupid for feeling so overhwhelmed by these fires when I am not even directly impacted. Part of me feels guilty because I haven't lost what other people have lost but I just don't know how to feel happy when this is going on in the world. I am at a loss for words. Usually in the supermarket people will give you a smile but at the moment even that feels weird and you can tell and feel that everyone is just flawed by what is happening. I'm sorry to whinge, I just don't really have anywhere else to share these thoughts. Sorry if that isn't what this is for.

Hi OverwhelmedMarlon

It is exactly what this space is for and I too am feeling a little bit the same, saddened, frustrated, guilt that I have not lost anything like some of our neighbors have but am feeling overwhelmed at this state of our Country. However there is an amazing thing that is happening along side of the tragedy and that is human kindness and that of people reaching out to help both financially and with supplies, with trucks, with mental health support, and with love and kindness, that is so heart warming to see.

I have had to turn off the news and not really look at facebook and the likes, while there is the kindness thread the impact of it is alot to deal with.

Great to chat to you and you are not whinging...it is a huge thing that is happening, but we will recover, we are Australian!

Sarah

I have never seen fundraising like it before, you're right it has been absolutely astounding to see how everyone has pooled together to show support.

I agree with you about the news. On one hand I want to keep watching to know what is happening but it is also a lot to take in. I have family in areas that have been impacted previously so I feel inclined to keep watching, it is scary and I just hope we get a lot of rain.

Great to hear back from you OM

It is hard to want to know the updates as you say, but also know when it is time to turn off too.

I hope that your family remain safe, and it is that extra layer of fear if you have experienced this before.

The other weird thing is that the emotions that go with all the love and support also make me very emotional but in a good way, so it is just alot to manage.

Keep chatting and I hope that by sharing here it makes you feel some level of comfort, it is really helping me.

Some rain would be so wonderful and I hope we can get some really soon, even if it is just a shower, and it doesn't put the fires out, but with rain it does give people some psychological peace, in that if it is raining the fires might go, which in itself great.

Hugs

Sarah

Hi Everyone,

It is wonderful we have this amazing space and community here where we can openly share how we are feeling about so many different topics. Bushfires included.

I think it is the enormity and ferocity of the fires and the amount of devastation that is so overwhelming. The coverage seems to be everywhere as well.

It does me good to recognise the fear, anger, frustration, sadness, confusion and so many other emotions I am experiencing at this time. Accepting them as being a part of a normal response to all that is happening helps me.

Sharing here that we are hurting and not coping can be releasing.

Looking for a release from the negative emotions is helpful. We need a balance.

A family member has a bush block that has been burnt out. We both had a laugh when she told me the fire fighters were able to save their shed and also their long drop bush toilet. The toilet is some distance from the shed so they would have had to make an extra effort to have saved it.

With kind regards to Everyone.

From Dools

Hi everyone,

OverwhelmedMarlon - I wanted to write to you and echo what everyone else has said. I'm really glad that you are here posting and sharing your thoughts. I hear you completely, and want to let you know that it isn't at all stupid.

What's happening with the bushfires is a damn tragedy and nightmare, and I think it's gotten to the point where its having a knock on affect on everyone - whether you are an Aussie or even people overseas. I know I've been a total mess, even though I live in the city where I'm safe.

You have every right to feel what you feel; regardless of whether you are affected or not.

rt

I think the hardest thing I'm finding is that there is no 'safe space' away from bushfire saturation in the news or social media. I have a chronic illness as well as depression so I rely on social media and the internet to keep close to the world but that means I need to choose between my contact with the outside world and keeping myself safe.

And then I feel awful that I'm thinking please stop, when I know how bad this is for those affected, so I was very glad to find this page and see other people feeling similar.

I have been struggling with the fire situation even though I am no where near the fires.

It has been very upsetting with what has been happening and adding to my distress has been so much anger and nastiness directed towards our Prime Minister. I am in my 70’s and have never experienced this type of behaviour in any other disasters we have had. I feel so sad as it feels like I am watching our country divide at a time when everyone should come together.

Hi Maisie's Right Here

It is great that you have found a space here, that is what we are here for and I feel very similar to you, I want to watch the news and be across what the latest world issues are but it is so heavy with fire after fire, devastation, people homeless, animals dying...I don't need to spell it out here..but I feel your pain too, the guilt to be able to turn it off when others are suffering so badly, however, that does not mean we do not care for our fellow neighbours or have empathy or want to support them, we just need to take care of us too. While we might have not had a house burn down we can imagine what that would be like so empathy can be as heavy as having the actual experience happen.

Keep talking and coming to visit here if you need to, we are here for virtual hugs and for comfort and to let each other know we care.

Thank you for sharing your care here too MRH xxx

Hugs

Sarah xx

Hi Kaylyn 1967

Welcome to you to the forum and I hope that you are getting some comfort being here with us and sharing in what does feel like people are pointing fingers, laying blame and thick with politics and red tape. I am getting comfort form though the Australians that are doing everything they can to support, from donating food and supplies to money and services, that our celebrities and people of influence are digging deep too and that we as are nation are essentially holding our hands out to help our neighbors and that is very heart warming.

It is unlike anything we have really seen Kaylyn 1967 and it is just so much to deal with, hugs to you and I hope you can come back to feel supported here too.

Hugs

Sarah

Hi Everyone

These wildfires have been an issue for me even though I dont live in area that is being effected in southern vic

Sophie_M mentioned "Limit your exposure to social media – it’s okay to have a break and it’s important you make sure you’re not becoming overwhelmed"

This is an important point.... social media can be problematic due to people having conflicting views and can have a detrimental affect on our well being whether we have a mental illness or not during this awful time

Hi Kaylyn1967... Maisie's Right Here and OverwhelmedMarlon.....I understand where you are coming from and yes this is a difficult period to be going through

Great to have you all as part of the Beyond Beyond Blue forum family too!

kindest thoughts always

Paul

Seeing these bushfires ravage our communities is sickening enough, but the ones that send me off my rocker is just... well the pervasive anger that surrounds the Aussie online discourse. None of the places I visit regularly is peaceful anymore... its just cynicism, rage, anger and rantings on how bad our state our country is as well as rantings about various media figures, politicians and

As a person with wave-like major depressive disorder, seeing the rage and anger our online people present is just depressing in itself and is really making me wonder about the state of the world and our country. Nothing seems right, everything seems wrong. All we can do is rant and hope someone hears us.

And I feel I can't do anything while no one seems to care from the people that we elected....

I already have MH diagnoses, but I am finding my bush fire experience hard to get over. I am a carer of 3 with disabilities and I had an evacuated house guest who is medically fragile at the moment when we were evac'd ourselves on New Years Eve. I look like I am holding up, but even now I am hiding the butterflies under every inch of my skin, the nightmares, the sleeplessness, the tears, the terror. We had another bad day full of warnings yesterday and the sense of doom is destroying me.

I have to be the strong, capable one, and I am failing. The surrounding community agog with desperation, loss and suffering, I feel trapped within my home, that now feels unsafe as we came so close. I had to drive to a medical appointment, yesterday, through devastation, black and tragic, and I cried the whole way, silent tears just escaping no matter how brave I wanted to be.

Being regional, in a community already lacking adequate support for mental health issues, it feel incredibly selfish to put a hand up and admit to feeling this fragile and needy. I am one of the lucky who lived and still has a home, but I feel desperately unequal to the process of keep on keeping on ...

In 1999 I phoned up to volunteer for my closest brigade after graduating with enviro science, and though being unemployed with all the time in the world I was told by the captain he was not interested in me because I was probably just another enviro graduate looking for free training to help their national parks service application.

In 2003 when I moved to a small coastal town I again rang the local brigade. They were incredulous as that I was not a 'true local' and did not own property to defend why would I would want to join.

I am not glory or thrillseeker. I told them simply after all the catastrophes of 1993-94 (NSW), 2002 (Canberra) 2009 (Black Saturday) I was sick of watching it all happen on TV and as an intelligent able bodied person, simply wanted to help when the country was burning down.

So here I am , feeling angry, frustrated and impotent and wanting to help in a direct way. Very angry and distressed to see most of my refuges, the places I went to to seek solace, a lot of the places that are now annihilated I knew very well. I truly feel for the people who have lost their property and of course the billions of animals holocausted.

Hello ArthurFleck, SquireHarbour and Lady Nova

This is such a terrifying time and the mix of emotions are issues that it is generating is really horrific.

SquireHarbour - I feel for our Prime Minister too, he is under so much pressure and I am sure that he is doing the best he can, that no matter what one does in that role they can never make the right choice that suits everyone and therefor all we do is criticize and hurl abuse and blame, it is so heartbreaking to see.

Lady Nova - I have no idea how hard this must be trying to look after others and manage this yourself, it is wonderful you have reached out here and get some support from this community, we really have not experienced anything like it and I imagine feeling trapped in your home and still having to make appointments and live among this is so scary.

ArthurFleck- that is really hard to digest and especially at a time when they are screaming for help, why they would not want more volunteers coming up and more people to help. I suppose they can only take so many and train so many however, their responses to you have not been very satisfactory seeing the devastation we are in now. The people that are doing things for the animals and firies in their own homes and communities so perhaps there are other ways to assist without actually being at the front of the fires.

It is great to chat to you all and I am hoping that the recent rain has had some impact. The love and support of fellow humans is what is bringing me joy in that we as a country really have come together to help each other out.

Hugs to you all and stay safe.

Sarah xx

Hello Sarah

Thanks for the words of support.

Its just that... why the most important people we voted and rely on to protect us are failing so badly? Why our PM went to Hawaii when Gospers is on fire? Why he screwed up at Cobargo? Why he has to constantly defend his record when his record shows he clearly gimped himself? The bad interviews, the stupid social media posts, the bastardisation of donations, it just gives off a image that he is that incompetent. Thats not even considering people are blaming anything else other than the big elephant in the room.

Even if I live halfway across the country, seeing this shockingly incompetent leadership from people I should be trusting makes me despair for the state of our country.... what can we do? The only thing we can do is go to the streets and shout the extremes because we are that desperate. Resignation, boot out parliament all that... it seems no one has faith in any of our pillars of society. Its either all filled with malicious conspiracies or fools and there is no inbetween. Donations are dismissed as self serving selfishness, responses are seen as inadequate, everything is bad....

God, I feel like I lost what made this country great.

Hi SquireHarbour

I hear what you are saying and there does seem to be a massive gap in what we were promised s a country to what is being delivered and it is hard to see, when we are in a time of crisis that we feel our leaders are not doing that to the level of what is expected. I am not sure we have seen anything quite like this when essentially our whole Country is alight, I am not sure how anyone person can lead to be honest, to be at so many places and support so many different organisations, communities and give hope and direction, i really dont know how he could do better but I am hearing that people are not happy with what he is doing. I think he really does not have much to go on from past as we really haven't had this sort of level of crisis in our Country. Is that satisfactory, probably not but I do have hope that as a group of people, Australians have bound together to stand up and stand up to help a fellow human. It is really heart warming to see what every day Aussies are doing to support, help and care.

We are going through a really tough time and yes, I am somewhat surprised that we are getting traction off celebrities donating, while it is wonderful I am not sure we need all the hype around it either...I prefer the workd gracious...anyway.

Great to chat to you some more and huge hugs to you xx

Sarah

Replying to all. Scapegoating Morrisson for the fires is disgraceful. Yes, he should have come back from Hawaii straight away, but I guess he thought it just might have been just another bushfire season at the start. It would only have been symbolic anyway. Everyone was where they should have been when the disaster began as far back as July.

State and Federal governments on both sides of the house have failed us since the catastrophic fires in 1994. The government(s) should have been all over this for decades. We should have a whole squadron or more of LATs ready to wipe out such fires as soon as they begin.

I do not believe in Adani opening but banning coal exports but at least 50% of our coal exports are for steel smelting and seeing we are such a clever country we don't make our own steel anymore, so we export coal to places like Chine that do it for us. Yes, every new house should have at least the northern side of the house covered in solar panels, which feed both back into the house and the grid. Stuff like that.

But walking through the baying crowds on Friday afternoon screaming for blood and simple solutions was something like out of the Middle Ages or Frankenstein....and they were led by the usual power hungry troublemaking screamers. None of this is going to help.

We choose to live in a country where 95% of the vegetation is pyromorphic - it loves and wants to catch fire, it evolved to do so.

I respect your freedom of speech, but my distress doesn't feel like it needs a lecture right now.

Emotionally vacant leadership is harmful to those who need support and leadership in times of crisis. I hope we can all agree on that?

I also respect what you are saying, but seeing what our government is doing in response to the bushfire crisis (or rather, what has not been doing) is distressing to everyone, of course people are going to be outraged. I live 3,000 kms from the bushfires, and even its affecting my anxiety for what is going on... seeing dead animals, whole lives ruined, you can't exactly lecture people on how they can respond or who they can blame for their distress.

I agree with Lady Nova that seeing this lack of responsible leadership is extremely debilitation to people who has lost everything and is looking to our political leaders for the slightest bit that they care.

And currently, all indications that they.. aren't. And that is distressing and traumatic for me in a time where the whole world is seemingly going mad with blind zealotry and I thought me and my friends are just pawns in some game........

Replying to all again. Making this a partisan issue is not helping anyone. Originally from Port Macquarie, I helped rescue and rehabilitate koalas in all degrees of injury from the fires in 1994-5, now 2/3rds of my fur babies are wiped out?

Why?

Because the local NPWS let that fire fester after a dry lightening strike for days without sending out so much as mobile striker to get it out. Why? Because I know through in the filed experience. They get paid the same amount for doing nothing or going beyond the call. And let's not forget that most NPWS salary collectors are Greens and Labor voters.

respectfully, your experience crafts your perspective, my experience has crafted my perspective. Having not lived my life means you cannot debunk my opinions so you can stop trying. I am suffering in a ravaged landscape, suffering mental illness and caring for 3 family members and a medically fragile person I have taken into my home due to evacuations. I think I have a right to not have my experience and proximity to disaster made out to be less than or dismissed as "partisan" when my politics have not even been alluded to by myself. Allow us our grief, and our expression without judgement. This is a place to help heal, not to be right

Hi AurthurFleck and Lady Nova and SquireHarbour

I just want to jump in and say that we are all hurting and we are all very emotional about the leadership of our country, what they are and are not doing. If we can just park that over to one side and be here for support to care for each other and to help in a time when we are so very raw and emotional and seeing our country on her knees.

If we can take some time to think about the goodness that has come out of all of this, the amazing work that the volunteers are doing and making us so very proud as Australians. From helping save wildlife and serving and making food. There is even a town about 800km from Brisbane that has essentially "opened" to let people stay in their motels and rental homes and have welcomed people to come and stay until they get on their feet.

There is so much love about and we can all have our thoughts and beliefs and feelings and they can be different, different doesn't mean we have to be right or we have to be in dispute.

Hugs to every one here, please stay kind and love is what will get us through this, together.

Sarah

Hi Everyone

Just to redirect (if thats okay!) to Sophie_M's original title which is 'Coping with Bushfires'

Its only my opinion that its way too early to focus on the 'blame game' as the fires are still active and so is the suffering and pain that people are going through

Lady Nova mentioned "Allow us our grief, and our expression without judgement. This is a place to help heal, not to be right"

lets be mindful of the people that have been effected by these wildfires....even indirectly :-)

my kind thoughts

Paul

I have suffered many losses in the fires and my life has changed. I have been touched by the kindness of strangers .I am so exhausted . For all those suffering directly or indirectly be kind to yourself.

I am finding it hard to receive as I have always been a giver.

I cry a lot.

I am forgetful

I am vague

I cant make decision

cant sleep

I feel like this has happened to another

People say I am lucky because I am safe and I am but I don't feel lucky.

People say things can be replaced and some can but I lost my way of life which defined me and that takes time.

I want to help others here,by being honest.

Quirky

Dear Quirky

I am sad you have experienced losses in these wildfires Quirky not to mention the way you are feeling too! After being through such a stressful time you are still wanting to help others...This is super caring of you..

Can I ask if you have sought some basic counselling during this crisis? You seem past exhausted..seriously :-(

Your wellness comes first (after what you have posted about how you are) before helping others....and I fully understand you are a person that gives so much to so many

I have also been effected by this crisis and with all respect I hope you can place yourself first at this time Quirky

Huge Hugs

Paul

paul,

thanks for your kind words. Sorry you have been affected by this crisis, it is sad that most people have in some way. My village is less than half what it was. I am safe in a big city with family but I am disconnected from friends.

The other thing when images of my place were on the news and everyone knew what had happened and didn't.

I am getting help Paul. My way of coping is to help others and share my story.

Hi Quirky (& a wave to all),

Quirky, I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say...

I can’t even imagine what you must be going through right now. The trauma, loss, shock and confusion...

I know that you have a generous and compassionate heart, and that giving and sharing is part of your way of coping. But I think it’s also okay to directly receive help and to even ask for help sometimes...you can’t pour from an empty cup...that cup needs to be regularly refilled.

So by all means give and share (as you do so beautifully and generously), but I hope you also allow yourself to be helped sometimes too...

We are all here with you...

How I wish that I could give you a big hug...thinking of you and everyone who has been affected by the bushfires...

Pepper xoxo

Hi Quirky
I feel like we must live close, or at least in kindred. I am, like you, totally lost in this. The me that was before is struggling to connect with the now. Even the coverage of smoke that still lingers is mentally cutting me off from the world. I dont want to leave the house because it frightens me to confront the totality of devastation, The ashen soils, the blackened, naked needles of trees standing at attention, pointing at the grey sky, threatening to give up and topple, the angry, fearful, traumatised faces in the community. I feel unequal to the grief and too numb to give in to the anger that seems to infecting social media. I am crying whenever I stop and let the thoughts intrude. This thing, this event, this part of our memory is so consuming, I struggle to find a way forward.
I hope we both can find the calm to move forward.