Stick Around - A Suicide Discussion

GLOBALLY, ON AVERAGE, 1 MAN DIES BY SUICIDE EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY! 

I used to think of "Movember" as just a month where guys would grow a mustache to raise awareness about prostate cancer. While that is true, it has become so much more than that. In recent years there has been a focus on men's mental health and suicide prevention efforts during the month of November. Last year at work, there was a group that decided to grow mustaches for fun to support mental health. For me it really was just a fun way to be involved in something and an excuse to have a curled mustache for a month.

movember.com/mens-health/mental-health

Lark Dean Galley has recently felt called to help and serve those who struggle with their value and purpose. Having overcome immense personal challenges in her 55+ years of life, she has continued to grow in her empathy and compassion towards others. After working in the corporate world for 25 years, she left to run her father’s trucking company when he passed away unexpectedly from suicide after struggling with mental illness for most of his life. Realizing there were many entrepreneurs who could benefit from her experience, Lark started her own consulting business.

Her 19 year old son’s suicide in March 2019 reinforced what she’d been hearing from many of her high achieving clients – they felt unworthy and incapable of reaching their goals. Lark went from coaching on the externals to focusing on why each person matters. Her goal is to help 100,000 people choose to stay on this planet and step into their greatness. She has done this in a variety of capacities, but in each she has used the tools and lessons learned from her own struggles.

During our chat, Lark shared that her new book, “Learning to Breathe Again: Choosing to Heal After Losing a Loved One to Suicide” will release on Amazon on November 10th! For more information you can check it out on her website: larkdeangalley.com/book/ or order after November 10th here: amazon.com/LearningToBreatheAgain

You can also find helpful resources on Lark's site here: larkdeangalley.com/larks-resources/

Mitch Strahlman is a Masters I/O Psychology Student and Health Research Assistant at the University of Texas at Arlington as well as a Volunteer Counselor at the Suicide Prevention Hotline. He graduated from Michigan State with his Bachelor’s in Supply Chain Management and minor in Economics in 2018. Then he worked in Supply Chain for two years, and went back to school full time this fall to pursue Psychology. His end goal is to research ways we can prevent and decrease the amount of suicides in the United States.

During our chat, Mitch recommended checking out Adam Grant on social media. He's an organizational psychologist who's work can be found here: AdamGrant.net. In addition, Mitch mentioned that really the best thing to help our mental health is to get out and do something we enjoy!

Christian Hampshire has been a supporter with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah for about 20 years. He is also a co-founder of “Band2Gther” which is a community of people striving to elevate mental health prosperity and overcome depression. Christian is an avid trail runner and has planned an upcoming run Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon… 8 TIMES!! 

Here's a link to his Band2Gther site where you can find community info and his podcast as well: weband2gther.com 

During our chat, Christian also mentioned the following as great resources for interested listeners:

October 4th to October 10th 2020 is recognized as Mental Illness Awareness Week in The United States. In this week's episode I go over some of resources and recommendations from the Mental Health America website which can be found here: mhanational.org.

So this week in particular, let's all Stick Around and look around for people that may need our support in getting they help that they need to improve their mental health.

Felix Dey Grew up and went to college in Germany and received a degree in economics. He then came to Los Angeles, CA in early 2019 to start graduate school and graduated in 2020 with a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from the USC Marshall School of Business

During our interview, Felix brought up the following as great inspirational resources:

"Finding Mastery" - a podcast series by Michael Gervais: FindingMastery.net

In 2014, Laura's daughter, Hannah Rashelle Warburton completed suicide at the age of 16. 18 months earlier, Hannah was in a car accident where she sustained a head injury that was basically ignored. It was a concussion that developed into post concussive syndrome which exasperated her anxiety and created deep depression which eventually caused mental illness. They tried to help her with therapy, natural supplements, and antidepressants. But It wasn't enough. After that experience the "Live Hannah's Hope - Empowering Youth" website was born.

September is widely known as Suicide Prevention Month with the 10th being recognized as World Suicide Prevention Day. I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't been involved with this podcast and met so many amazing people through it. It's truly been a wonderful experience discussing this important topic with people all over the world! In today's episode, I share my own insights on what I've learned and review some powerful tools we can use to improve our own mental health.

I also mentioned that if any of you "Stickers" out there ever want to send me feedback or ideas for the show, you can email me! Here is my address:

Leslie Weirich was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana and studied Journalism at Indiana University. She's been involved in sales, marketing and recruiting during her career but after she and her husband Keith lost their son Austin to suicide 4 years ago, Leslie began speaking to groups of teenagers about their experience. She learned just how many kids were hurting and how their story could open them up to talking about their pain. Later on, she was asked to be the keynote speaker for the largest non-profit in their state at their annual fundraiser. That evening that she spoke, they raised over $259k to put licensed clinical therapists in schools! 

Some resources that Leslie shared during our interview:

Damian Todd is a 22 year veteran of the British Royal Marines Commandos. He has visited 76 countries to date, ultimate goal is to visit 100 as a bucket list item. He is also a philanthropist whose ‘crazy ventures’ have returned almost $300,000 for charities – One being The Gumpathon, an event which raised $250,000 by way of 4 men taking 63 days to run from New York to Los Angeles. The other entitled ‘Roll around the clock’, conducted only last year which established a world record in Brazilian JiuJitsu and raised $35,000 for RUOK.

Damian has competed at national level for 2 sports, Track Athletics and Bobsleigh and has won several European titles. He has also tarted a business called The Force of Inspiration through a mindset of leading by inspiring, and by way of a love for his favorite childhood film: Star Wars.

During our chat, Damian mentioned Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning" as a great resource for those struggling with mental health.