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Suicide continuing to affect so many young people across Ireland.
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One carolans using her own lived experience to spark important conversations.
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Sheila MacMahon, a mental health counselor, has just published a powerful collection
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of poetry written during her teenage years while struggling with depression, hoping to raise awareness
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and help others feel less alone. Sheila, good morning to you and thank you so much for joining us.
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I'm absolutely good morning to you and your listeners.
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Sheila, can you tell us a little bit more about your background and becoming a mental health
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counselor? Yeah, absolutely. So I suffered with depression and anxiety and panic attacks in my
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twenties and I didn't have a clue what was going on and I ended up I had to go into therapy myself
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because I wasn't functioning at all and what I learned in therapy absolutely changed my life.
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My life was different the same after that and and as a result of that I wanted to go on and
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help other people too and even at that time I would have been doing my stand-up comedy and that
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naturally evolved into what I call mental health comedy. So yeah, it's all kind of from lived
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experience and honestly I truly believed that unless you've been through depression or anxiety
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you can't actually know what it feels like. And the poetry writing the poetry also as you
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mentioned in stand-up comedy as well, how did all of that help you process what you were going
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through at the time? Do you know what in all day I mean it's funny you often hear about comedians
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being naturally depressed and I suppose for some people everybody has to own story but I know
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for me from a very young age, humor really got me through and making people laugh and having a
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good time so I wouldn't have realized that before but it absolutely got me through and I think
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what a poetry well like I've been writing poetry since I was about seven years of age but what
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what I didn't realize I realized that no is that's the same as journaling so where people to help
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their own mental health they might do journaling where they basically write a thought style
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without editing anything and just getting that stuff out I was doing that through poetry and
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of course I never thought of wanting I would actually publish these poems but that's kind of
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part of the stigma and unfortunately just a lot of shame around talking about how we really feel
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and I think it's important to challenge that and to be able to feel how we really feel.
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Yeah even more so because suicide remains a leading cause of death among young people in Ireland
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doing what you're doing and other speaking about their experiences is important I guess
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she in terms of opening up the conversation bringing it out into the open and ensuring that there
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is no stigma attached to it because it is something more people sadly than we would like to think
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go through. Absolutely I mean it's funny Alan when I look back in my life especially in my 20s
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when I was suicidal and I was planning to end my life and if I would have been successful with that
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at that time that people I would have been that stereotypical person of but she was alive and
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soul of the party and that's the thing you know it's challenging as kind of why people
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are afraid to feel how they really feel or to shoulder vulnerability and sometimes people are
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afraid that they're going to be talked down so what if you got to be depressed about
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I think it's well as sad one of the things I'm really proud of with this book is coming from a
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place of understanding so to give an example of this my lovely dad passed away last July god bless him
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but one of the poems I actually wrote on the morning of his funeral just to read you a few lines
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from that poem and basically it goes and but behind closed doors I am a man full of fear
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who was not taught how to show his emotions throughout his years and another part of the poem
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it reads I am the product of rules and expectations who finds it hard to change whichever new generation
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and I find myself Alan working as a counselor that people can feel that's very personal that
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family members are having to go whereas actually it's about understanding what people are coming from
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what they've been through my dad was never allowed to show his emotions when he was a young boy
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he lost his dad when he was very young that wouldn't be done at that time well as we know Alan
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that over time these emotions they they build up inside somebody and what happens is they
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implode sometimes they explode but sometimes they implode and that's why somebody can end up taking
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your life and you're taking that doesn't make any sense when it could be years of battling stuff up
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I think it's going to be important for people to read your book and get their hands on it the
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launches on the 4th of April can you tell us more about where it's happening when and you know
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what your hopes are for us and you know what I want these people I just kind of if I feel
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something is worth doing on tour and then I kind of put it out there and hope that it helps at
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least one person so that's kind of my thinking behind that it's actually going to be in the UK so
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if people want to travel over to the UK because I'm based here and new in this field so that's why
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I'm going to have to large on Saturday week but if people want to get hold of a copy of my book it
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is on my website that's mind management for you.com or the gigation on Amazon so look if you kind of
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record this and put this on the clear from website I'll give you the links if people take
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my benefit for my book brilliant stuff and just finally you know what message would you most
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like people to take away from your story but your work as well is it the the overriding message
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just it it's good to talk it's there's there should be no stigma attached to you know if you've
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been dealing with depression or suicidal thoughts. Yeah I take a step into the case of hanging
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in there because like the thing is that when I was going to episode to depression you just think
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it's never going to end and I just think it's the message of hope because my life is
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completed different though I love what I do forks and when it's well as that I'm actually on a not
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a not a not Alan as sporting moments 1995 the all Ireland and Harling final I watched clear win
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the all Ireland Harling final in Crow Park. Well I tell you what that was to be one hell of an
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occasion obviously ending in 81 year famine so Sheila that's a great sporting memory tying
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nicely into our question for our competition today so thanks for that brilliant segue and
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thanks for joining us this morning really appreciate it. Yeah thank you Alan as always. Thank
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you very much that's the mental health counselor there Sheila I'm a man with us on morning focus