Icehouse, that's some great stuff. You are way deeper "in the trenches" than I am, doing awesome work. For now I'm going at it from another angle, using the skills I have to help organize & promote.

One of my friends who is a professional movie director just offered to make a documentary about our foundation for free. Including a 30 sec ad that our national TV networks will air for free. That's what I'm bringing to the table for now, and it's great, but still...

As useful as that may be, I still want to actually do the real work of talking to folks and giving them some hope to a way out. Connected to what Kiwi describes, being in a rehab that was part of a mental hospital for 10 weeks totally changed my view on this world, and I was amazed - after a few uncomfortable initial days - how well I actually got along with the other patients, no matter their character, IQ, ideas.... without feeling any "better" or "smarter" than them. I remember talking to an alcoholic neo-nazi, a Jewish weed addict, and a Turkish Muslim who used heroin at the same time, cracking jokes... quite surreal. There was a part of humanity that surfaced that usually keeps hidden under our "beliefs & values". I hate to call it a "spiritual" awakening, but it surely shook my world.

Kiwi, back when I had to choose, I was wondering about doing a PhD. I was studying the field of non-verbal communication from both humans and animals (ethology)... and was totally fascinated by the domain. Yet I also saw that the academical world can be cruel, draining, full of petty politics. Anyway, I decided against it for a few reasons (money being one of them...), but I can see how it's hard to detect a depression in such a "safe" environment, where there is stress, but it's more hidden. Which may have been a reason why it took some time to find out that MDD was the real problem, is that a fair guess?

Like you, my drinking was self medication mostly. I used to combat stress with sports when I was younger, and also with performing on stage (pop music) but there was a period where I lost the time/drive for that, and at the same time the stress of my job increased. Alcohol, for which I had no interest for the longest time, seemed like a good medication. After all, it's not like I was walking behind a shopping trolley with a bottle of cheap wine in a paper bag, right? I mean, I was a $1,000/day IT consultant, so what could possibly go wrong? Uh oh...

Although half off-topic, may I ask what your specialty is?

Anyway, the trenches. No matter what my role will be in the organization, I will be one of the "EC's - or "Experience Carriers", which is the name we give to the "stabilized addicts" (there has been a lot of debate about what to call it, as you can imagine). And those EC's will do their "tours" going into the field actually helping people. which beats setting up forums or connecting with politicians etc. It's these people who will make the difference, who will be the bridge between folks needing help, and the qualified professionals/self-help groups.