Mental health in the electrical industry

[swaRRR]

I suspect in most cases it really is a cry for help as of the folks I known who have killed themselves, or tried and thankfully failed, none of their problems were that big to anyone outside of their own internal dialogue.

Assisted suicide for the terminally ill is a very different case, of course.

There was that guy who just got a suspended 2 year sentence for helping his wife die. We don't treat dogs like we treat some humans.

 

[littlespark]

There was that guy who just got a suspended 2 year sentence for helping his wife die. We don't treat dogs like we treat some humans.

I saw this. So called “suicide pact”

He slit her throat. That’s murder…. Whatever the reasoning.
Then botched doing it to himself.

Why didn’t they go to that Swiss place?

 

[DPG]

I saw this. So called “suicide pact”

He slit her throat. That’s murder…. Whatever the reasoning.
Then botched doing it to himself.

Why didn’t they go to that Swiss place?

Must admit the throat slitting thing seems an odd method for a suicide pact. And although notes had been left, it seems that the wife hadn't signed them. Got to be careful with this sort of thing. I'm sure it was all innocent, but it might not have been.

 

[Aaron b]

Took no nonsense that generation though. Born late 19th century. Expect 2 world wars will often do that to you. I sometimes wonder if he was as tough on the inside as on the outside. I’m sure his life was many times harder than mine?

I think this is the issue. Problems and struggles are relative to what we're used to. I personally felt much more relaxed about COVID when compared with nuclear war. Things improve but we feel the same hardship over smaller things instead and it doesn't make the struggles any less real.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Nuclear was is not something I can do anything about, but the Covid epidemic to a certain extent I can, I still don't go out anywhere there are crowds and have everything I need delivered, including food, I suppose I am extra vigilant as I have a condition that makes me vulnerable to infections of any kind.

 

[mattg4321]

My mum started smoking at 15 and died of lung cancer at 51.

Sorry to hear that you lost your mum at such a young age.

To clarify, I wasn’t suggesting that smoking was in any way a good idea/healthy. I refuse to even try it after seeing what a state it got some of my other family members into.

 

[LukeD]

Nuclear was is not something I can do anything about, but the Covid epidemic to a certain extent I can, I still don't go out anywhere there are crowds and have everything I need delivered, including food, I suppose I am extra vigilant as I have a condition that makes me vulnerable to infections of any kind.

Mike ..where you living the same way before Covid ?

 

[Mike Johnson]

No, even when at our holiday home we avoided contact with other people, traveled by car to our holiday home and had food delivered.

 

[telectrix]

My mum started smoking at 15 and died of lung cancer at 51.

i stated at 13, mainly due to buying 5 Park Drive with Fridayy's school dinner shilling ( it was fish or nothing). now 75, had some issues with emphysema but lungs improved since i cut down on the smokes: from 20/dayto 6-8/day. lucky or just nature? as for the mental health side of things, smokes and beer sort my demons out. once told by a work colleague that if I was any more laid back, I'd be horizontal.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Nuclear was is not something I can do anything about, but the Covid epidemic to a certain extent I can, I still don't go out anywhere there are crowds and have everything I need delivered, including food, I suppose I am extra vigilant as I have a condition that makes me vulnerable to infections of any kind.

@UNG why the optimistic tag?

 

[timhoward]

I have to admit I didn't see this one coming. He's very local to me and the OAP's all tell me what Stuart used to charge, I think at one point 50 years ago he had a monopoly in the area

Retired Oswestry electrician died after giving himself electric shock

A 93-year-old retired electrician took his own life after struggling with physical and mental health issues, an inquest heard.

www.shropshirestar.com

It goes to show that outward appearances can't be relied upon to measure mental health.

 

[LukeD]

I have to admit I didn't see this one coming. He's very local to me and the OAP's all tell me what Stuart used to charge, I think at one point 50 years ago he had a monopoly in the area

Retired Oswestry electrician died after giving himself electric shock

A 93-year-old retired electrician took his own life after struggling with physical and mental health issues, an inquest heard.

www.shropshirestar.com

It goes to show that outward appearances can't be relied upon to measure mental health.

100% right : My friend called me roughly 4-5 hours before he hung himself and we chatted about cars and Hifi , design etc for 2 hours , laughing etc etc .I did have concerns and knew he was in a bad place .But what the hell happened after the call ? I dont get that bit .Unless he just wanted us "to part on a nice memory and happiness " ?

 

[swaRRR]

I think if someone wants to die and genuinely wants to kill themselves there's not much you can do about it. It's like severe alcoholism, it never goes away and it's something you have to fight inside yourself, nobody can say anything that will ease it for you it has to come from you.

 

[OnlQQker]

I can't speak for anybody else but suicide is a very personal experience.

I struggled with it big time just over 6 years ago now, I planned my despise with great calculation and by the time everything was in place I have never felt such inner peace.

The thing is NOBODY knew a thing, I had 24 hours to myself to go through with what I had planned.
Nothing in this time ever flashed through my mind, not my kids/family or anything else, I thought they would just vanish when I was gone so it wouldn't bother me. (it's really selfish ground I suppose, but I guess dying naturally or of illness is ok to some extent to other people, just not suicide)

I didn't feel any sadness, in these 24 hours, in a strange kind of way I actually felt excited to leave this planet and all my sh*t behind. I had youtube Ibizia club classics playing on my laptop, I drank coffee and smoked tobacco, never touched any alcohol or anything else. It was as if I was about to step into somewhere which would just be nothing. Nothing but emptiness, no stress, no problems, just nothing.

And I did go to sleep when the time came, only to be completely horrified when I woke up hours later with everything around me totally different to how it was before hand. I can't go into detail but it was an exit plan which was to leave nothing of me and the 'out in the middle of nowhere cabin I was staying in alone'.

After I came outside and the oxygen hit me I immediately passed out, and I felt like I had drank 20 litres of strong vodka when I came too, I don't know how long I was out for.
I had researched my method for 3 years prior to all of this.

But it just wasn't to be, and everybody in the family found out, my sister was the first one to turn up the next day to see me and the site deeply upset her. Then the kids and everybody else found out, she told everybody in complete panic.
And it's then and only then that you suddenly think how it would of affected them, so much so that you start imagining them doing the same thing because Dad did it when things got totally overwhelming, so I will as well.

This is not easy stuff to talk about, but all i wanted to say was nothing at all comes into a suicidal mind but the thought of complete peace.

Today I don't think about it, I just wander around trying to help out where I can and try to get out in nature as much as possible, when things ever feel as if they are tipping, I just say death/peace will come naturally sooner or later, and that's more acceptable to everybody when it does come.

So to anybody else who feels they are falling into these waters, just blag your time, get out into nature as much as possible, help out where you can cuz this does help to give you some inner peace.

 

[littlespark]

That couldn't have been an easy thing to write.... but thank you for your insight.

 

[LukeD]

Jesus ....Thats a hard read

 

[Mike Johnson]

Wow that was! a hard read, hope you are better now and in a good place, depression leading to suicide is not something I understand the turmoil that leads to it must be so overwhelming to think that the only way out is to switch off, I feel for those that are left behind, what must they think, how did I not notice? how could I have helped?

 

[OnlQQker]

Probably the hardest thing I've ever written tbh.

There is still a massive stigma attached to suicide and mental health. And if I'm to be honest I wrote the above and very nearly not posted it.
But I do know of others that have gone through with suicide and succeeded, when I've been asked what I thought I would just say 'I can't understand it' yet I knew the ground only to well and did understand it. But didn't want anybody else to think I had come so close.



All that works for me these days is just telling myself life is not forever. That way I can move forward with some kind of internal peace and nobody is going to be left hurt.
I know life is what you make of it, I don't blame anybody now for how I ended up at the bottom of that pit. Yet I did at the time.
It was everybody's and everything's fault, but I understand now it was how I absorbing things said to me. I had totally lost the 'take it with a pinch of salt' teachings.

I came through 40 years managing not to look to closely at anything, in a way I ignored things, kind of not focused on anything and lived in this bubble which I felt protected in.
But then I started to wake up and look around me at everything, and this is where the internet did me no favours whatsoever. The news was always bleak, misinformation was spread left, right and centre. I started to wonder if anything I had ever been taught at school, home media was actually correct.

I've learnt now to stay away from social media, twitter, facebook etc. I've learnt to stay in the moment and not dwell over the past which is a classic sign of depression, I've also learnt to not dwell on the future and what could happen and go wrong therefore reducing my anxiety.
I'm glad I've managed to do that because every day now something doomy is thrown out in the media. Covid, Russia, Politician Scandals etc etc.
I'm to the conclusion now that what will be will be and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. But that has took what happened to me to get to this point, so I write this in hope it may help somebody who is at the very bottom of the pit.

It is true that the only person that can do anything about it is yourself. I was on medication 5 years before I even attempted suicide, I must admit the medication did work, but it took a little part of me away, I was no longer interested in anything, and if I tried to do something like play the piano for example then I couldn't even remember the notes anymore. It takes away your creative side, and leaves you a bit like a zombie, I just ended up wanting to sleep all the time. And for those 5 years that's all I did.

Then you get mental health people that would talk to you once a week, and this helped a lot for the hour I was sat there with them, but once you left and went home I was stuck in exactly the same place all over again till the next week.
When they did realise how bad I was they put me in a hospital I could not get out of, and tested more drugs, the sleeping pill was my favourite, yet watching others in there being held down and injected because it did kick off daily, made me realise it's really not much different to the victorian era, but the beds are probably more comfortable now days.

I don't have the answers for anybody that is or close to the very edge. And I realise that a lot of people stay completely trapped within themselves because they don't want to hurt there family or anybody else.
Yet that is equally tough ground because they live in a world where nobody has a clue how they are really feeling. And speaking to family or friends then most of the time its, 'pull yourself together' or 'people had it way worse in the war' or 'there are millions of people worse off than you' etc etc.
And though they are trying to help there are no magic words, the best magic words are the ones not spoken and someone just listens, but that's not great especially for the person listening. It's dark ground. And very draining.
It's a lot easier to do if you're walking though, the exercise is part of the cure in itself!

The only real advice I can give to anybody fighting these sort of demons is, when that internal voice starts telling you that you're useless, not worth it, alone because nobody likes you or anything else that cause you to start judging things and making you feel you might not be capable of anything and hating yourself, then you literally have to start fighting back, tell yourself you can do it, you're not a loser, you don't hate yourself etc, this does take time

You have to challenge it every day and slowly that internal voice gets quieter, it's not easy, but it is doable.

 

[Megawatt]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah totally agree with all points but when you go through your time and with more studying you find out the advice given is wrong. Anxiety shoots through the roof as it’s not like you can go back to job and fix it years later. This is the issue with my OCD it latches onto things like this as I worry that my work could harm someone, this was mainly when I was in my apprenticeship or just out my time. The company I worked for was all go go go get the work done as quick as possible. I don’t like to work like that anymore I like to take my time and do a job properly now even if it takes longer. Totally easy in hindsight.

Hang in there my brother, we all have some sort of anxiety but that also says that you are a perfectionist and care about your work. I have to take one of my Xanax in the mornings just to leave the house. Good luck my friend

 

[littlespark]

Ref. My post #42 The funeral today of “Mick”

A lot of people in the cemetery between work colleagues, running and cycling clubs, neighbours….

The eulogy spoke of his “demons” which only confirmed what we all suspect the cause of death was… only the family will know for sure.

The service was simple… starting and ending with recordings of his favourite bands…. Pink Floyd, The Beatles and The Who….

Something peaceful about a sunny blue sky and the opening bars of Baba O’Riley…..