Latest news with #TheImperfectsPodcast
Hans India
28-05-2025
- Health
- Hans India
Heart attack or panic attack? Unmanaged anxiety forcing youngsters to call ambulance
Anxiety affects one in five Australian men at some point in their lives. But the condition remains highly stigmatised, misunderstood and under-diagnosed. Men are around half as likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder compared to women. Some feel pressure to be fearless and hide their emotions. Others simply don't understand or have the language to describe anxiety symptoms. This has serious consequences. Our latest research shows young men are turning to ambulance services when their symptoms become overwhelming – some even think they're having a heart attack. So why do so many men wait until they need to call emergency services, rather than seek support earlier from a GP or psychologist? And what prompts them to call? We reviewed the paramedic notes of 694 men aged 15 to 25 years in Victoria, Australia, to find out. Young men haven't seen others asking for help. Boys are raised to value courage, strength and self-assurance, and to suppress vulnerability. When parents encourage boys to 'face their fears', rather than offering emotional comfort and tenderness, anxiety gets positioned in conflict with masculinity. This leads to a disjuncture between the support young men are met with (and come to expect) from others, and the support they may want or need. This also means that boys grow up believing their male role models – dads, brothers, grandads, coaches advising them not to get anxious and deter boys and men from seeking help. As a result, anxiety goes undiagnosed and opportunities for early intervention are missed. Recently, we have seen positive shifts challenging restrictive masculine stereotypes. This has improved awareness surrounding men's depression – starting conversations, normalising help-seeking and leading to the development of men's mental health programs and resources. However, men's anxiety remains in the shadows. When anxiety is talked about, it's not with the same weight or concern as depression. This is despite men's anxiety having harmful health impacts including turning to alcohol and drugs to cope and increasing the risk of male suicide. What does anxiety look like? When men are encouraged to talk about anxiety, they describe various challenges including repetitive worries, feeling out-of-control and intense physical symptoms. This includes a high heart rate, shortness of breath, body pains, tremors and headaches. Jack Steele, a prominent Australian personality, opened up about his anxiety difficulties on The Imperfects Podcast last year saying: 'I didn't know what anxiety was. I thought I was the opposite of anxiety. The way I explain it, it's like your whole body just shuts down. My throat starts closing and my whole body just goes numb. […] It feels like you're just so alone. You feel like no-one can help you. You genuinely think the world's ending – like there's no way out.' These physical symptoms are common in men but can be frequently dismissed rather than recognised as anxiety. Our research has found that, when left unaddressed, these symptoms typically worsen and arise in more and more contexts. Why do anxious men call ambulances? Our new study investigated the consequences of men's anxiety going unaddressed. First, we used data from the National Ambulance Surveillance System to identify and describe the types of anxiety young men experience. We then looked at the characteristics and contexts of young men's anxiety presentations to ambulance services. Overwhelmed and lacking support, many young men turn to ambulances in crisis. Anxiety now accounts for 10 per cent of male ambulance attendances for mental health concerns, surpassing depression and psychosis. While every presentation is different, our study identified three common presentations among young men: 1. Sudden onset of intense bodily symptoms resembling life-threatening physical health conditions such as heart attacks. Twenty-two-year-old Joshua, for example, whose case files we reviewed as part of our study, was on a tram home from work when he experienced sudden numbness in his hands and feet. A bystander saw he was having muscle spasms in his hands. Joshua was alert but extremely anxious and asked the bystander for help. 2. Severe anxiety triggered or worsened by substance use. Adam, a 21-year-old man, consumed a substantial amount of diazepam (Valium) while driving home, after having an anxiety attack at work. Adam reached out to paramedics because he was concerned his anxiety symptoms hadn't dissipated, and was worried he may have taken too much diazepam. 3. Mental health deterioration with self-harm or suicidal thoughts, often tied to situational stressors such as unstable housing, unemployment, financial difficulties and relationship strain. Leo, aged 25, had been increasingly anxious for the past three days. Leo's parents called an ambulance after he told them he wanted to kill himself. Leo told paramedics on arrival that he still felt suicidal and had been getting worse over the past three months. Young men's anxiety presentations are time- and resource-intensive for paramedics, many of whom feel poorly equipped to respond effectively. After ruling out physical causes, paramedic support is typically limited to reassurance and breathing techniques. Most young men are then instructed to follow up with GPs, psychologists or other health professionals in the general community. But taking that next step involves overcoming the stigma associated with help-seeking, the shame of having called an ambulance and deep tensions between anxiety and what it means to be a man. This means many young men slip through the cracks. And without ongoing mental health support, they face high risks of presenting again to emergency services with increasingly severe mental health symptoms. To address this, we need to: -ramp up conversations about men's anxiety and take their experiences seriously -develop an awareness campaign about men's anxiety. Awareness campaigns have successfully dismantled stigma and shed light on men's depression and suicide -improve diagnosis of men's anxiety disorders by up-skilling and training clinicians to detect anxiety and the unique and distinct constellations of symptoms in men -create accessible pathways to early support through digital psychological education resources, focused on improving awareness and literacy surrounding men's anxiety experiences. (Dan Lubman is associated with Monash University. The co-writers Krista Fisher, Simon Rice and Zac Seidler are from the University of Melbourne)
New Indian Express
27-05-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Heart attack or panic attack? Why young men in Australia calling ambulances for unmanaged anxiety
MELBOURNE: Anxiety affects one in five Australian men at some point in their lives. But the condition remains highly stigmatised, misunderstood and under-diagnosed. Men are around half as likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder compared to women. Some feel pressure to be fearless and hide their emotions. Others simply don't understand or have the language to describe anxiety symptoms. This has serious consequences. Our latest research shows young men are turning to ambulance services when their symptoms become overwhelming some even think they're having a heart attack. So why do so many men wait until they need to call emergency services, rather than seek support earlier from a GP or psychologist? And what prompts them to call? We reviewed the paramedic notes of 694 men aged 15 to 25 years in Victoria, Australia, to find out. Young men haven't seen others asking for help Boys are raised to value courage, strength and self-assurance, and to suppress vulnerability. When parents encourage boys to face their fears, rather than offering emotional comfort and tenderness, anxiety gets positioned in conflict with masculinity. This leads to a disjuncture between the support young men are met with (and come to expect) from others, and the support they may want or need. This also means boys grow up believing their male role models dads, brothers, grandads, coaches don't get anxious, deterring boys and men from seeking help. As a result, anxiety goes undiagnosed and opportunities for early intervention are missed. Recently, we have seen positive shifts challenging restrictive masculine stereotypes. This has improved awareness surrounding men's depression opening up conversations, normalising help-seeking and leading to the development of men's mental health programs and resources. However, men's anxiety remains in the shadows. When anxiety is talked about, it's not with the same weight or concern as depression. This is despite men's anxiety having harmful health impacts including turning to alcohol and drugs to cope, and increasing the risk of male suicide. What does anxiety look like? When men are encouraged to talk about anxiety, they describe various challenges including repetitive worries, feeling out-of-control and intense physical symptoms. This includes a high heart rate, shortness of breath, body pains, tremors and headaches. Jack Steele, a prominent Australian personality and one half of the Inspired Unemployed, opened up about his anxiety difficulties on The Imperfects Podcast last year saying: "I didn't know what anxiety was. I thought I was the opposite of anxiety. The way I explain it, it's like [ ] your whole body just shuts down. My throat starts closing up and my whole body just goes numb. [ ] It feels like you're just so alone. You feel like no-one can help you. You genuinely think the world's ending like there's no out." These physical symptoms are common in men but can be frequently dismissed rather than recognised as anxiety. Our research has found that, when left unaddressed, these symptoms typically worsen and arise in more and more contexts.
Sky News AU
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
'Why didn't you look after Papa?': Lauren Zonfrillo reveals devastating question her children asked her after Jock's death
Lauren Zonfrillo has revealed the heartbreaking questions her young children asked her after she broke the news of their father's death. Victoria Police found 46-year-old MasterChef Australia star Jock Zonfrillo's body during a welfare check at Zagame's House on Lygon Street in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton on April 30, 2023. The devastating discovery came after Lauren contacted the police with her concerns after her numerous calls to him went unanswered. She immediately returned home to Australia from Italy with the couple's two children, Alfie, five, and Isla, three. Lauren spoke to The Imperfects Podcast on Tuesday where she opened up about both children's very different reactions to their father's death. She said they were "both very upset", but Alfie asked numerous questions while Isla made statements. "Alfie had a lot of questions, he wanted to know where Jock was right now," Lauren said. "He wanted to know when it happened. He wanted to know 'am I sure (Jock died)?'. "He went into sort of a little bit of bargaining. 'Will I ever be able to see him again'." Lauren said she told Alfie ' Papa's dead so he can never come back, no, not even for a cuddle'." The mother-of-two said the five-year-old asked: "Who's going to do Lego with me?". He also wondered whether Jock was "cold" and if he could "still go into Papa's kitchen?" Lauren said she was surprised by her son's questions and their conversation was not what she "expected". In contrast, the mother-of-two said Isla had just begun talking at the time and made more "statements" than her older brother. "I mean, she just started talking. You know, she was really maybe three months into talking," she said of her three-year-old daughter. Lauren said Isla told her, 'Papa gets really cold, so make sure he's not cold', and wanted him to wear a dressing gown and slippers. She reassured her daughter that her father was okay. "I was like 'when you're dead, you don't have any feelings like that anymore, but I know Papa's not cold. He's okay, he's in his pyjamas'. "And then she got a bit angry at me. She kind of blamed me, and she's done that a couple of times, and I've learned not to let it upset me because it's not her blaming me. "But she said to me, 'Well, you look after our family, so why didn't you look after Papa? Lauren said Isla asked her why she "didn't give him medicine, knew he had a temperature, and wasn't with him now." "'Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with him there?" her daughter asked. It comes after a coroner decided not to publicly release the Scottish-born restaurateur's cause of death, which police did not treat as suspicious, after a 16-month investigation into the tragedy concluded last August. Lauren was asked to disclose his cause of death on Sunday when she spoke to Liz Hayes on Seven News' Spotlight in her first major interview. She replied by saying she "has an answer" to the cause, but "it doesn't make a difference". "A lot of people want to know the answer to that; I'm really aware of that," she said. "I've had a lot of experiences with people coming up to me, all strangers, and asking how Jock died, and it's very unsettling." "Jock was very open in what he was willing to talk about. And I now don't want to make those decisions, because I don't know what he does and doesn't want to talk about." Elsewhere in the raw interview, Lauren also said she was "scared" to face Jock's body at the morgue, but wanted to see and speak to him. "I asked him what the f*** happened, and I just wanted the words from him. He just looked completely normal to me," she said. In a particularly emotional moment, the widow recounted she discovered Jock's journal which contained his heartfelt thoughts thoughts about her hard work and dedication after his death and said that gave her comfort. Jock filmed MasterChef Australian season 15, which was scheduled to premiere the day after his death but was postponed to May 7. It was subsequently reported the 46-year-old underwent treatment for bowel cancer after being diagnosed with the disease in 2021. Born Barry Zonfrillo, the late chef left school early to work in restaurants and worked with celebrity chef Marco Pierre White in London at 17. He emigrated to Australia in 2000 to work at Restaurant 41 in Sydney and later settled in Adelaide, where he operated the highly regarded venues Bistro Blackwood and Restaurant Orana from 2013 through 2020. After the collapse of his restaurants, the chef achieved new success when he joined MasterChef Australia in 2020 as a judge alongside food critic Melissa Leong and chef Andy Allen after the original judges George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston were sacked.
