Extraordinary People Living Extraordinary Lives
Last year, I was sitting in my living room listening to the radio when the DJ and his co-host started discussing celebrities. They made the comment that, “celebrities are just ordinary people living extraordinary lives”.
At the time, I was in the process of preparing a presentation for the First Responder Suicide Awareness conference in Calgary, Alberta. I wanted to send a message that we need to be proactive about our mental health care.
I thought about the DJ’s use of the word extraordinary and decided to look up the definition. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it as “going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary”. The Collins English Dictionary says, “exceptional to a very marked extent” and finally the Cambridge English Dictionary describes it as “very unusual, special, unexpected, or strange”.
Right away, I thought about how those definitions describe the very people in first responder and front-line worker roles. They are protectors, and caregivers; they run in when others run out, they are critical thinkers, problem solvers, they are passionate, resilient, and have high expectations of themselves. They put our well-being before their own. They do it because they care, they do it because they want to make a difference, and they do it because they want to serve. Doesn’t that also make them, extraordinary people?
It doesn’t mean they are better than anyone else… just different; and because they are different, because their jobs confront them with the messy side of life and death, they have extraordinary struggles and their families have extraordinary struggles too.
If you want to help them make it through these very difficult times, and help them make it through their careers, in the best way possible, please, please reach out to them. Check in with them. They are so busy looking after everyone else, they forget to look after themselves.
To the first responders and front-line workers, please understand if you don’t look after yourselves, or accept that you are at a higher risk for mental health issues, you let yourself down. You deserve to be cared for. By not acknowledging that what you do is extraordinary, you tend to ignore things, brush them off and not recognize the red flags.
How do I know this? I am a retired first responder who spent twenty-five years in the RCMP. Two years after my retirement, I was diagnosed with PTSD. After many years of struggle and treatment I am doing much better, but when I look back now, knowing what I know, there are so many things I would have done differently. I would have focused on my mental health with the same intensity I focused on my physical health. I would have educated myself and sought out answers, I would have made more time for myself and my family.
To all of the First Responders and Front-Line workers I say… Each one of you are a gift; Each one of you are extraordinary; You are a gift to our communities; You are a gift to our country; You are a gift to the people you serve. Remember, to give yourselves permission to be human. Remember to care for yourselves, because, after all…
YOU ARE EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, LIVING EXTRAORDINARY LIVES!
