Sometimes when I’m driving, I see a car
stopped in the road, often with someone inside who’s trying to figure out what
to do. I’ve been in that situation more
than once myself, and know what a frustrating and even scary experience it can
be to have a car stall or shut down, so I’ve made it a personal rule to pull
over and try to help. Is it easy to do that
every time? No. I don’t know much about engines, and I’m
almost always hurrying to something important.
But I know what a relief it is to be in that situation and have someone stop
and offer to help. No matter what each of
us has going on, we’re all in this life together, and it’s important to remember
that when we see someone in need of help.
Like in this week’s story...
Jonny was ten years old when he first started
experiencing the symptoms of schizophrenia. It was also around that age when he first began
to feel attraction to others of the same sex.
But these weren’t happy, pleasant feelings. In fact, what he felt most was an enormous
sense of shame. Being Jewish, Jonny had
been taught that homosexuality was a sin, so he did his best to deny any
existence of his feelings for other young men throughout his teenage years.
At the age of twenty, Jonny became
deeply unwell with psychosis. He
believed he was being possessed by the devil, and that it was happening to him
because he had done something seriously wrong.
After being admitted to a hospital, Jonny was diagnosed with
schizoaffective disorder. And as
treatment began, his psychiatrist naturally began asking questions about his
previous relationships.
No one ever discussed the possibility of
complete recovery from schizophrenia, nor had anyone in Jonny’s life ever
proposed that it was acceptable to be gay.
His background just didn’t allow for it.
But as the conversations with his psychiatrist progressed, Jonny began
to recall the memory of being a ten year old boy experiencing attraction to
another male. The feelings were
unbearable, and his immediate thought was, "I'm going to kill
myself."
At around 10am on the 14th of January,
2008, Jonny went to Waterloo Bridge in central London, feeling distressed and
hopeless. Unable to come to terms with
his circumstances, he had decided to end his life. He climbed over the railing, readying himself
to jump off the bridge.
Before he could jump, he was approached
by a passerby. The man, a total
stranger, was on his way to work when he saw Jonny. It was clear what Jonny’s intentions
were. The man was very calm as he walked
up, and he simply said, ‘Please don’t do this.
I've been where you are and you can get better. Let's have a coffee and we can talk about this.” The man’s words reminded Jonny of what people
do every day, and he found the normality of it inviting. He climbed back over the railing to safety,
where police were waiting to take him for medical attention. He never got to know the stranger’s name.
Exactly six years after the incident,
Jonny Benjamin, who has since learned how to manage his mental illness, undertook
a campaign to find the good Samaritan who helped save his life, in hopes of
finally being able to thank him. Calling
the man “Mike” because he couldn’t remember his actual name, Jonny spread his #findMike
mission through social media, where it was soon trending worldwide, augmented
by TV, radio, and newspaper interviews.
Within two weeks, “Mike,” whose real name is Neil Laybourn, had been
located.
Speaking about the incident, Neil says,
"I did what anyone would do. I
wasn’t trying to fix his problems that day, I just listened."
"He was the first person to give me
hope," Jonny says. "His words
actually prompted my recovery, and I can safely say now, on my 27th birthday,
that I am truly the happiest I have ever been.
It means the world to me to have finally had the opportunity to say
thank you.”
Today, Jonny Benjamin works as a mental
health campaigner with an organization called Rethink Mental Illness, and his
outlook sums up the We Are Connected Mindset perfectly: “The impact of someone planting even the
tiniest seed of hope can have a profound impact upon the mind that had no hope
before.” When it comes to living your
dreams, just remember that we need each other… because if you can achieve your
dreams alone, you’re probably not dreaming big enough.
Until next week...
Live Your Dreams!
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