The Mount Isa boilermaker promoting mental health
This post was originally published on callyamate.com, and shared with permission.
In 2013 I reached what I felt could be called the pinnacle of my life. My son and his wife just gave birth to my grandchild, the first of now 3, I had just finished my tertiary education (remotely) and my daughter had just moved into a job as a manager of a business.
I felt the there was no need for me to carry on.
It wasn’t as if I was about to do anything silly, but whatever happened, happened. I’d be ok.
Mid ’13 I had a massive motorbike accident, resulting in a 6 week stay in ICU. I had smashed a kidney, tore my liver, collapsed a lung and bent a heart valve. Not a bad attempt if I do say so myself.
On admission, I signed the paperwork for DNR (for those that don’t know, that’s Do Not Resuscitate). I was calm, and believed that is what I wanted. I would just drift away and not be missed.
The 2nd day that I was in, a person that I had struck up a friendship with came to visit. Nothing more than formalities that one would do for a distant friend. But she uttered some words to me that changed my life and my outlook. Something that had never been said to me before in my life.
“If you go, I’m going to miss you”
Now this person wasn’t a life time friend. We had flat out known each other for 6 months. Of that time, we properly had spent a grand total of a day together.
But our friendship meant that much to her that she said the words.
She left the hospital, and I don’t even think that she had made the carpark before I asked the nursing staff to bring me that DNR paperwork to me, and it was destroyed.
Them simple words were life-changing to me.
Someone actually cared about me.
Not as a partner, not as a sibling, just as a person.
It was from that day that I changed my outlook, that life is worth living, life is about helping others. Not in a bricks and mortar kind of way. The type that morally lifts all around you.
“A rising tide lifts all boats” kind of way. I found that a healthy mixture of work, play and social life is better for the soul than any drug. Yes, I was high on life, but not that I shouted it from the rooftops.
Setbacks are only there to test us. And 9 times out of 10 times, a setback slingshots us further than we were before, to a far better place.
…. So fast forward to now and my time on social media.
There’s a story to when I made the hashtag CallYaMate. Its easy to find here on this page or have a scroll though my TikTok account, I’ve shared it a few times.
But the nuts and bolts of it are this. Let’s help our mates, let’s nip things in the bud before they get to a point that medical intervention is needed.
Let’s take the pressure off of the system so that those that really need it can have it sooner.
And let us all accept that we are all different, but we are all one, and together we can get through anything.
Craig
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help now, call triple zero (000). You can also call Lifeline on 13 11 14 — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Visit the mental health helplines page for a list of resources.
