As some of you may know, the last couple of months have been incredibly difficult for Anita and I. I can’t go into too much detail in a public forum, but it looks almost certain that we won’t be looking after our foster daughters in the very near future. As this process has gone on, I have had troubles sleeping, I’ve been withdrawn, antisocial, struggling to concentrate at work, and generally in a bad mood almost constantly.
Thankfully, I have had some wonderful people around me who have helped me significantly throughout this period by allowing me to talk without judgement, and generally just being there to listen and offer support, for which I will always be grateful. One of the biggest issues people have with opening up when they are going through tough times is that they don’t want to be a burden to other people, and when these issues continue over a period of time, it becomes more and more difficult to talk about them.
When you don’t want to be a burden to other people, you turn to other crutches to try and get through, and for me, the first thing I turn to is alcohol, something I’ve been doing more and more as things don’t get better.
It's time to make a change.
I posted on Facebook a while ago about a group called Mates In Construction who visited our work and discussed depression and suicide prevention, especially amongst the construction industry. Having sat through a lot of corporate wellbeing sessions, I was expecting more of the same, as people lectured about statistics and how we need to do better and so on. I was incredibly surprised to see how in tune they were with how easily things can go wrong, how issues compound, what to look out for in people and what to say to try and address the issues before the situation gets worse. It was a genuinely impressive session, about a topic I am very passionate about.
A lot of people are doing Movember at the moment, but no one wants to see me clean shaven, least of all Anita, so instead, I'm attempting to give up drinking for a month, and raising money for Mates In Construction WA.
I can't change the circumstances that I'm currently in, but I can certainly change my attitude towards them, my behaviours, and how I deal with the situations and stress that arise, and that's what I pledge to do.
I will be donating $150 for every time I fail, and while the plan is obviously to not fail at all, with everything that's going on, this is going to be extremely difficult, and even if I fail a couple of times, this will still be an incredibly worthwhile exercise, and I will have hopefully raised a decent amount of money for a wonderful cause.
Way to go duck!