What I did After Losing Brother #2 to Suicide.....

This is a re-post from LinkedIn that garnered a fair amount of likes:

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After my brother Matthew died from suicide, I embarked on a personal journey of discovery, and within 9 months of his death, I did the following:

· I hiked all 58 mountains over 14,000 feet in Colorado in just 59 days.
· I walked every mile of the Great Wall of China.
· I swam the English Channel.
· And I kayaked the entire length of the Amazon River.
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Ok, I did none of these. I was grieving and barely getting out of bed. After two weeks off, which I thought was extremely generous from my employer, Merck. I returned to work, a shell of a man. You see, Matthew was the second brother I lost to suicide. I lost my brother Mark eleven years earlier. I am not a rich man. I needed to work and try to get on with my life.
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Now, this is not a personal story—this is LinkedIn, and I don’t want to end up in the Reddit, Inc. community called LinkedIn Lunatics—yes, it exists. The corporate message here is that I then engaged my Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to get my butt in front of a counselor. Best. Move. Ever.
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Many of you reading this have access to an EAP and yet do not use it. Please explore your options when you are well, because during a crisis, it is hard to think straight. It just is. This is your homework assignment!
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I would like to thank my nameless HR folks who kept the benefits of our EAP in front of me all the time. You never know when someone needs to hear this message of hope and help in the workplace. SHRM HRCI CUPA-HR Association for Talent Development (ATD) EASTERN REGION INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION FOR HUMAN National Human Resources Association
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I now speak about my experience of these losses and how I recovered (sort of), and your team needs to hear this message. I had one participant come up to me and tell me that after hearing me speak, she felt normal again, which made me cry on the spot. Another told me that she used the lessons from this talk to intervene and save her nephew’s life. Her words, not mine.
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Anyway, if you want a speaker who hiked the highest mountain and swam the longest river, they are out there. I sat through a bunch of talks like these when I was in corporate America, and I cannot tell you a thing I learned. I do remember one speaker telling me to be the best version of myself and I looked down at my feet and noticed I had a black sock on one foot and a blue one on the other. Some days this is the best version of myself, and it is enough!
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The point is, this talk hits home for your employees and I would like to do more of them. Please find me here and have a great week!
https://lnkd.in/g_kkXn3u