From acceptance to action
Harald Walter Azmann
CEO at World Mental Health Forum, a global exchange of top transformational thought leaders and pro bono keynote speakers for your event. Inquire. Because Public Mental Health and Wellbeing are everyone's business.
Everything we say pales in comparison to what we do. And everyone, if at all, talks about suicide prevention. Humans – children, young adults, middle-aged and old people – are supposed to continue living under any circumstances, without any better reasons why, apart from the ones that aren't working already. They are to simply hold on and endure the unbearable life that we created for ourselves, as if their recurring deathwish was merely some weakness of their own and not rooted in the deplorable conditions of their immediate surroundings and society at large. How much more cynical and further from an intelligent approach can we get? Simply enduring and trying to bear the unbearable is no solution, and we are always left by the most sensitive and gifted. How much longer? We must thoroughly upgrade the quality of life on this planet altogether, not just for some, but for everyone, or the "silent epidemic" of mental health problems the EU has finally acknowledged across all of its member states in 2023, will relentlessly continue. — Harald Walter Azmann
I believe it's time to shift the conversation from acceptance to curiosity and from curiosity to action. Let's ask ourselves why so many of us don't feel okay. What external forces are at play? What societal norms need to be challenged? —Debi Roberts MA Ed , CEO of The OLLIE Foundation , dedicated to delivering suicide awareness, intervention and prevention training. https://lnkd.in/dDBdCVf8
Perfect. Whenever Debi, Co-Organizer, Advisory Board Member and Keynote Speaker of our A Chance for Happiness London Mental Health Week October 3-10, 2023 presents something in writing it's brilliant, and the proof of our insights is of course in our actions. So here is my suggestion: All of my life, I have been surrounded by mostly untrustworthy fellow human beings who, if they didn't inflict serious pain on me themselves, at least didn't do anything whenever they saw it happen, and acted as if they didn't even know. What's your experience?
Over the last 40 plus years, beginning with my Mum in 1980, when I was 20, I survived the heartbreaking chain reaction of five immediate family members dying by suicide. It wasn't them. They were bright and motivated and brilliant people. It was due to what society put them through, personally as well as part of an apparently suicidal family.
No matter how motivated and defiant, in spite of everything, you may have still felt just yesterday, one day the unbearable load all of us are needlessly carrying is simply too much and, suddenly, we break. It can happen to everyone and it does, in fact, happen to everyone, regardless of age, background, and privileged station in life. And I am suggesting needlessly, because that inhuman load usually consists of merely the pride and arrogance and vanity of our oppressors.
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We'll never know when ours or someone else's breaking point, that day of reckoning, will be. One day we'll wake up and it's right there, having breakfast with us. Yet we continue with this literally goddamn personal and systemic bullying of each other as if we didn't know, or even insist on not wanting to do, any better. Mark my living experience advice that there can NEVER be any effective suicide prevention as long as those who claim to be actively engaged in it do not change themselves along the way.
Life is a gift, not a prison sentence. And if it feels like that, what have we done with it and why? Have we gone mad? — Harald Walter Azmann
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8 个月The more we talk, explore, be curious, the more we uncover the hurt, the pain, the anger. Being curious will bring the solutions Harald Walter Azmann thank you for your mission ??
Experienced Wealth Planner and portfolio manager
8 个月Thank you for the post and conversation. Just this week I have been dealing with extreme cyber bullying directed at my 15 year old son by his peers. He goes to a great school filled with well rounded kids and respectable parents yet the direct malicious attack he received on Saturday after a sports game still happened. I am grateful that the school authorities responded swiftly and take the matter seriously. A long time ago I was in that same situation just without social media and things were delt with by fighting and not telling my parents or anyone in authority. Different times but the same effects on Confidence, self esteem etc. What I have learnt from this latest incident is that these teens have no clue about the emotional effect their social media attacks create. They seem emotionally detached from reality and this in my view is the real danger
I help B Corp Founders, Ethical Business Owners, Sustainability Practitioners & Social Entrepreneurs become Bestselling Authors and Thought Leaders | Publisher, Bestselling Author and Keynote Speaker
8 个月You make a powerful point, Harald Walter Azmann. Suicide prevention is crucial, but it's a bandaid on a larger wound. We must build a society where life feels less like a burden and more like the gift it should be. Let's challenge the systems that create despair and focus on creating genuine well-being for all.
?? Leading Expert on Relationships in Business | Author | Founder of Relationship Paradigm | Psychotherapist | Business Leader ??
8 个月Harald Walter Azmann, you've hit the nail on the head. It's crucial to examine the societal constructs and pressures that contribute to our collective mental unease. In my work, I've seen how the quality of relationships within organisations directly shapes the culture and, ultimately, success. It's about time we take action to foster environments where mental well-being is a priority, not an afterthought.