Speaking of Suicide – Details, episodes & analysis

Key takeaways from this podcast

1. Don't assume that just because a family member may have been ill for some time, the grief and sense of loss is any less. It's not.
2. Talking about grief and loss for some people is very hard and crippling.
3. Find a way to get support that works for you if you are grieving.

Writer Sheila Lockhart shares some of her recent poetry collection, Brother, inspired by her brother, Simon, who took his own life 8 years ago after a lifetime of mental ill health.  Hugely bright and intelligent but reclusive and withdrawn, Simon shared little of his struggles of living with bi-polar. Despite previous suicide attempts, his choice to take his own life at the age of 62 had a huge impact on Sheila.

Moving, hugely thought provoking and beautifully written, Sheila’s work is a deeply honest study in grief and loss, and the ways in which losing Simon has haunted her.

Links: http://vpresspoetry.blogspot.com/

If you need someone to talk to, you can text Mikeysline on 07786 20 77 55 or contact via messenger, webchat or X. Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

Or come and visit at 4 Strothers Lane, Inverness IV1 1LR, Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

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Speaking of Suicide hosting is supported by D and D Paving Ltd.

Speaking of Suicide is produced and presented by Adventurous Audio

Key takeaways from this podcast

1. It is possible to recover from trauma.
2. When someone is struggling with their mental health don't ask "what's wrong with you?" Instead ask "What happened to you?"
3. There is no one way to find healing for your mental health. Everyone is different in what they find helps.

Riddled with anxiety, struggling with depression and feeling suicidal, Paul Cameron started using social media as his superpower to shift his way of thinking about himself. By recording short regular videos and sharing them online, Paul has come to realise that exposing his vulnerabilities gives him strength and helps him be positive about the world.

After a chaotic childhood Paul struggled with life that didn’t lurch from one out of control event to the next. But parenthood meant he had to try and find clarity and calm in his head to be able to bring up his child.

In this episode Paul talks candidly about how Tik Tok helped him turn a corner.

Paul Cameron The Proud Dad on Tik Tok

If you need someone to talk to, you can text Mikeysline on 07786 20 77 55 or contact via messenger, webchat or X. Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

Or come and visit at 4 Strothers Lane, Inverness IV1 1LR, Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

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Speaking of Suicide hosting is supported by D and D Paving Ltd.

Speaking of Suicide is produced and presented by Adventurous Audio

Episode take-away: The value of honesty and how to break the cycle of shame, isolation and helplessness that comes with addiction.

“We need to change how we view addiction so that people from all walks of life feel able to emerge from the shadows and seek help”. 

Open, brave, honest and seriously inspiring, in this episode Rachel Smart, a journalist and recovering addict, who’s battled with depression and suicidal thoughts over many years, shares her story and how she managed to turn life around, emerge from those shadows and get her life back.

For Rachel, her slide into addiction happened when she started working in a bar, mixed with a particular crowd and got regular access to drugs.  But, far from solving the depression which she’d been battling with for large parts of her life, her drug use made her anxiety and depression much worse.  

Rachel describes life as an addict as feeling “suffocating, overwhelming, a dark cave you couldn’t escape from, a failure”, she goes on to explain how ashamed she felt of not being able to get her life together.

Eventually Rachel moved to a new city and changed jobs but even then, her drug use continued.  Then, one day, she heard about an online ‘recovery room’ which she decided to attend and bit by bit, by listening to other people share their stories and listen to hers, she found hope and was able to make the decision to stop using.  After 2 weeks she stopped her drug taking and has now been clean for over a year.

Now she wants other addicts to know they’re not alone, not a failure and that there is help out there.

If you need support for addiction the following might help:

Addiction Counselling Inverness

Gamblers Anonymous

Cocaine Anonymous

Drug Addicts Anonymous

Marijuana Anonymous

East Coast Scotland Narcotics Anonymous

If you need someone to talk to, you can text Mikeysline on 07786 20 77 55 or contact via messenger, webchat or X. Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

Or come and visit at 4 Strothers Lane, Inverness IV1 1LR, Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

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Speaking of Suicide hosting is supported by D and D Paving Ltd.

Speaking of Suicide is produced and presented by Adventurous Audio

In June 2022 John Gibson started walking the length of Great Britain, 1200 miles from Land’s End to John O' Groats, with the aim of starting a national conversation around suicide.   His walk was in response to the moment in 2019, when John’s son, Cameron, took his life without warning. Left reeling and feeling utterly helpless in the aftermath of this devastating event John found walking a huge part of his finding his feet again so, along with founding The Canmore Trust charity, John decided to walk and talk about suicide with the mission of better understanding what can be done to prevent families like his going through the tragedy of losing a loved one to suicide #onemanwalkingamilliontalking. 

In this deeply moving and thought-provoking episode, which is sponsored by D&D Paving Ltd, Pennie Stuart meets John as he crosses the Highlands and nears the final few days of his walk. 

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Speaking of Suicide is produced by Adventurous Audio

In this episode of Speaking of Suicide Dan joins Kev Stacey from Inverness’s 42 Cycling to explore the benefits of the wide-open environment on our mental health. Former Black Watch soldier, Kev takes Dan on a #RespiteRide and along the way talks about his experience of being injured in Iraq by an IED.

The aftermath of the attack led Kev to struggling with his mental health and a gambling addiction. It was the power of the bike that helped him pull himself back from the dark places that came in the aftermath of his injuries.

Today, he is using his experiences and love of cycling to help other people with their own mental health. His Respite Rides are a way to widen your horizon, to focus on one thing, to find calm in the chaos.

To join Kev on a Respite Ride or find out more visit 42 Cycling

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Remember it’s okay not be okay and MIkeysline is here for you if you need immediate help and support.

Speaking of Suicide is produced by Adventurous Audio the podcast platform is supported by D&D Paving Ltd.

Mike McCathy’s son wrote him a farewell letter. Ross asked his dad to campaign for better mental health support for people like him, people in need. That was all Mike needed to pick up the baton and devote himself to developing one of the biggest suicide awareness and prevention initiatives the UK has ever seen - The Baton of Hope.

Dan Holland talks to Mike about Ross and the aim of The Baton of Hope to create a society where suicide and suicide prevention are openly and widely discussed. Where we inspire hope through action and support. Where we remove shame, stigma and silence.

Find out more about The Baton of Hope

Support or get help from MIkeysline

Speaking of Suicide is produced by Adventurous Audio the podcast platform is supported by D&D Paving Ltd.

Imagine you are a cancer doctor who starts to worry that you too have cancer but that worry then grows and grows into an all-consuming obsession. Every day, day after day you go into work where you are having to diagnose and treat people with cancer, which all the while feeds your own horror that you might have it too.  Sounds like a version of hell but that’s just what happened to Russell who Pennie talks to for this episode of Speaking of Suicide.  

We don’t often hear from doctors about their own health problems - perhaps we’re so often worrying about ourselves that we don’t stop to think about the pressures that caring for us all might have on their mental health - but in this episode we’re going to hear an utterly open and honest chat about what it feels like to become mentally ill when you’re a health care specialist. 

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This episode of Speaking of Suicide is sponsored by Travis Perkins Inverness

Speaking of Suicide is produced by Adventurous Audio

International Shinty legend, BBC Radio Scotland presenter and acclaimed musician Gary Innes was 16 years old when one of his friends took their own life. At school it wasn’t talked about, it was moved silently to the side. Over the next 20 years a further 5 of his Lochaber Shinty Club teammates would do the same thing. This horror shook not just the world of shinty, but the whole of Lochaber. It left Gary feeling frightened about what would happen next.

Today Gary is trying to talk as much as possible about his teammates and our mental health, about remembering it is ok not to be ok, that there is no shame, no stigma and there should be no silence.

Mikeysline and The Camanachd Association have started working together to raise awareness of mental health issues, and in this episode Dan Holland speaks to Gary about his six teammates and what he feels the world of Shinty should be doing to help further support players and their families.

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Gary Innes

Camanachd Association

This episode of Speaking of Suicide was sponsored by HSBC UK and is produced by Adventurous Audio the podcast platform is supported by D&D Paving Ltd.

At 18, Sandy Clunas left Nairn in the north of Scotland and headed off to Australia to become a windsurfing instructor.  In the following 10 years he travelled the world competing and teaching windsurfing, on the surface of it he was living the dream until it all came crashing down and he found himself in a very dark and difficult place, contemplating suicide.  In this honest, open and engaging conversation Sandy shares how he’s managed to climb back up and start to love life again. He talks about his new career away from water sports and about how he came to start a podcast The After Hours Lounge aimed at supporting more men to talk about their mental health. 

If you need someone to talk to, you can text Mikeysline on 07786 20 77 55 or contact via messenger, webchat or twitter.  Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

Or come and visit at The Hive, 19 Academy Street, Inverness, Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

This episode of Speaking of Suicide is sponsored by D&D Paving Ltd.

The music is by Tom Ireland with special thanks to Dave Martin

Pennie talks to Dylan Cathcart about how he managed to transform his life and ability to be open about his ups and downs after he decided to take the brave step of talking to a therapist.  In Dylan’s words therapy has been ‘a tornado of an experience’ but he’s really passionate about how it’s helped him, and it’s fuelled his hope that he can help others too.  As well as being open and honest about his own struggles Dylan’s set up a clothing company ACTIV3 Clothing which will help raise money for charities in the Highlands. 

If you need someone to talk to, you can text Mikeysline on 07786 20 77 55 or contact via messenger, webchat or twitter.  Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

Or come and visit at The Hive, 19 Academy Street, Inverness, Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm & Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm.

This episode of Speaking of Suicide is sponsored by D&D Paving Ltd.

The music is by Tom Ireland with special thanks to Dave Martin