'Leaping' for Life

By Róisín McManus

As part of a campaign to raise awareness of mental health, a Bailieborough native will be undertaking a skydive in support of Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland (YSPI) at the end of the month.

Paul Curran, who now lives in Virginia, will complete the skydive at the Irish Parachute Club in Co Offaly on Monday, June 29, to raise vital funds for the life-saving work of the Kerry-based charity. Having previously completed a skydive for fun, this time, Paul is "leaping for life" to spread awareness of mental health, a topic that has personally affected him for years.

In the past 12 months, Paul, having struggled with his own mental health since his early teens, has embarked on a journey of opening up to people, receiving counselling and accessing services. Now, the east Cavan man is on a mission to remove the stigma surrounding mental health and make it part of a wider conversation.

“That taboo and that stigma is why I held everything in for so long,” Paul explains, adding that it took him “15 years of struggling” to finally open up.

Feeling like a new person, the 33 year old is in a “good place” now and wants to pursue a career in counselling, something he has “always wanted” to do but has never been in the “right headspace” for.

He has recently completed a Level 6 course in Counselling and Psychotherapy and will start his Level 8 degree in September.

Paul came across YSPI while researching charities that promote mental health awareness and facilitate early intervention.

The organisation provides services nationwide, including mental health education in schools, sports clubs and community groups, a crisis help-line and support for people who may not be able to afford counselling.

Launched in May during mark Mental Health Awareness Month, Paul’s campaign has raised €1,670 to date in an attempt to provide education on mental health and seeking to help young people through “open and honest” conversations in schools that could prevent an “awful lot of issues going forward".

Paul’s own life started to spiral into a “vicious cycle” during his mid to late twenties as he turned to substance abuse to escape long bottled-up emotions.

He would talk about his issues while under the influence and then would have “the fear of God” in him the next day.

Looking back, Paul believes if there was more information on mental health available, it might have prevented him from continuously hitting what he describes as "rock bottom".

He has been sober for eight months now.

Despite more than a decade having passed since Paul first started experiencing mental health concerns, he feels that not much has changed.

Since his campaign began, he has had a lot of people with similar experiences thanking him for speaking so openly and starting a much-needed conversation on a complex subject.

“You would have never known they were struggling. It goes to show how much people are hiding it.”

Asking for help, Paul says, takes a lot of courage and accessing mental health services in Ireland can be difficult with long waiting lists.

Last year, YSPI took more than 30,000 calls and they had 5,000 urgent crisis requests from people who were “on edge". Of those 5,000, 95% were stabilised within the first phone call. For Paul, YSPI's crisis phoneline serves as a bridge between asking for help and receiving it.

“When you’re in that frame of mind where you want help, you want it immediately,” he says.

“If one person reaches out to me who's struggling, that’s my job done,” he continues.

“There’s no rush in talking about anything, reaching out and letting people know that it’s okay to not be okay is the most important message.”