EP 20_ Ask Kev_WHO SHOULD READ MY BOOK_ Cracked Not Broken_Surviving & Thriving After A Suicide Attempt: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
EP 20_ Ask Kev_WHO SHOULD READ MY BOOK_ Cracked Not Broken_Surviving & Thriving After A Suicide Attempt: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Kevin Hines:
My name is Kevin Hines. I jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. I believe that I had to die, but I lived. Today I travel the world with my lovely wife, Margaret, sharing stories of people who have triumphed over incredible adversity. Now, we help people be here tomorrow. Welcome to the HINESIGHTS podcast.
Speaker:
So you have a book coming out July, Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After a Suicide Attempt. Who do you believe should read this book and what is the real message you were trying to get across to your audience?
Kevin Hines:
I have a book called Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After A Suicide Attempt. And the question is, who do I believe should read this book and what is the message I'm trying to get across to readers? For many reasons, everyone who has ever lived a day past five years old should read this book. The message is clear. If you suffer mentally or with behavioral health issues like addiction, drug use, alcohol use, if you suffer from both at the same time, if you are adopted like I was in the foster care system, or if you ever binge drink using alcohol to numb pain you're in, mentally, if you ever knew anyone with any of those issues, you should read the book. If you have been injured physically and it has brought on situational depression, you should read the book. And of course, if you know anybody who has ever dealt with any of these, I say, man, you should read the book. My message is that it's about showing people the power of survival. What are we here for? We're put on this earth and when we're born we're completely vulnerable to everything. For instance, we're completely vulnerable to almost anything, disease, injury. We're soft, even on the soft side on the top of our heads. If it's pressed too hard, we'll be in trouble. We're born vulnerable, we grow up, we become educated in some way, shape or form, whether it's in school or for the parents or for the people around. We learn how to act, how to behave, who to talk to. Why not to talk to strangers. Learn all this stuff. But what people seem to forget when they get older and they get a little comfortable with themselves, they forget that they're still vulnerable. We're vulnerable to terrorist attack. We're vulnerable to lightning struck and our house is on fire. We're vulnerable to so many things that we take for granted. And so my message is that yes, you are vulnerable. I was so vulnerable, but I survived. And I survived, not just because it was by design. I survived because I fought to survive. Anything and everything that came in my path, I have what's called current suicidality. I have these thoughts quite often. They're part of my life. But I had chosen. I have chosen to be responsible for my mental illness. I have chosen to accept that it is real. In doing so, I have chosen to fight every single day. And so I don't just, I didn't just survive from the Golden Gate Bridge. I survived from constant suicidal thoughts. I survived from mental illness that nearly destroyed me and my family. And I will continue to survive. And I love the belief that someday far, far away from here, I'll hopefully die of natural causes. Maybe 110. Because I don't just survive, I believe in survival. But I don't just believe in survival, I have to live to thrive. I have to do well by me and by the people around me because I care. The difference between me, I think, and people you need to see around, wherever, is that my level of empathy, since I can remember two years of age was always heightened. There's always so much more than my friends or even some of my family. What I mean by that is, you know, I see a person suffering, a homeless person. And where other people would walk by, I would hurt when I walk by. I would really hurt if I didn't do anything about it. I can't give up a homeless person a new home. I can't give them food for every day. But when I feel it, I can say hello. I could smile no matter what their reaction, and I can offer them what I can. A sandwich, a soda, coffee, or whatever there in the booth. I use the homeless person as an example because there are so many people around the world that walk by and look at that person and go, get a job. Why don't you just get a job? Do you think that person woke up at four years old and said, you know what I'm going to be when I grow up? A homeless person. No way. That person had dreams. That person had aspirations. That person had hopes. And for whatever reason, they're there on that street begging for food and money. We cannot forget that we're vulnerable and these people that suffer mentally, for a society to look at them and think snap out of it, get over it and move on is just wrong. Mental health equality is the civil rights movement of our time. It's in every movie. It's in TV shows. It's all over the place. One thing that's not, and I mean, it is there among the mentally healthy generation, it is there among the people who fight for mental illness at all levels, people who are in the field. But you go outside that field, you go to the general person and they say, what's wrong? Why don't you just get over it? We are always vulnerable. Do everything nice. I'll never forget that. I jumped off the Golden Gate bridge, I should have died, I lived. I'm not going to sit in that corner in my house, crying. I'm going to try to help someone, anyone. The message is clear. In your life, help as many people as you can, as many places that you can, because that's why we're here. We're not here for ourselves. We're not here to make millions of dollars and wash it all away. It's cold case. We're here to help those around us find help. That's how I feel.
Kevin Hines:
Margaret and I love sharing stories of people who have triumphed over incredible adversity. For more content and inspiration, Go to KevinHinesStory.com or visit us on all social media at KevinHinesStory or on youtube.com./KevinHines.
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