Vic: Gallop says he probably would have stayed in politics

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2007
Vic: Gallop says he probably would have stayed in politics

MELBOURNE, April 23 AAP - Former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop, who quit politics
last year citing depression, says he probably would have stayed in the top job if he had
understood his illness better.

Professor Gallop, now director of the Graduate School of Government at the University
of Sydney, said he had recovered from depression, which had forced his resignation from
politics in January 2006.

He said he owed his recovery to knowing what factors caused him to develop depression,
and to leading a less stressful lifestyle.

"Firstly, I sought medical assistance which was very, very helpful," Prof Gallop said
in Melbourne today.

"Secondly, I became more aware of things that perhaps I hadn't thought about before.

"So a mixture of medical assistance, plus being more aware of the sorts of personality
that you have and the background and the influences that operate on you.

"All of those factors help in getting a more positive outlook on life."

He said he probably would have continued in politics if he had known where to seek
help and how to handle his depression earlier.

"There's no doubt that if early in my life I'd been more knowledgeable about what it
means to have a predisposition to depression, to be generally anxious about things for
which many others find quite normal and easy going, I think I could have developed techniques
of coping and I think it would have helped enormously," he said.

But, he said, he had no regrets in leaving politics in WA to start a new career in
lecturing at a university on the opposite side of the country.

"The decision's made and I don't go back on that now."

Prof Gallop was in Melbourne to speak at the release of the Annual Professionals Study
2007, which showed the rate of depression among professionals such as lawyers, architects
and engineers.

AAP sam/gfr/ks/cdh

KEYWORD: GALLOP

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