Empowering Journeys: Interviews on Sobriety, Suicide Prevention, and Reentry Support | Episode 132

Empowering Journeys: Interviews on Sobriety, Suicide Prevention, and Reentry Support | Episode 132

Chapter Markers
0:00 Voices for Voices® TV Show and Podcast
20:43 Reentry Support and Suicide Prevention

Addiction doesn't discriminate. In today’s powerful episode of the Voices for Voices® TV show and podcast, I, Justin Alan Hayes, use the recent case of Hunter Biden to illustrate how substance abuse affects even those with significant privileges. I open up about my personal journey, celebrating seven years of sobriety from alcohol, to highlight the importance of genuine commitment to recovery. We also share heartfelt stories from the 2024 World Voices for Voices® Day walk, focusing on the emotional toll of losing loved ones to suicide. Through transparency and real-life experiences, we aim to offer guidance and support to our community, encouraging listeners to seek help and support one another.

Facing the complex issues of reentry into society after incarceration? This episode is for you. We tackle the pressing issues of mental health, substance abuse, and the stigma surrounding them, stressing the vital role of the 988 suicide hotline. You'll hear about the misuse of opioids and the responsibility of medical professionals in prescribing them appropriately. We introduce our "Day of the Interview Seminar" on YouTube, designed to boost confidence and aid in job interviews for those reentering society. By celebrating small wins like securing employment and stable housing, Voices for Voices® provides critical support on the path to a brighter future.

Voices for Voices® is the #1 ranked podcast where people turn to for expert mental health, recovery and career advancement intelligence.

Our Voices for Voices® podcast is all about teaching you insanely actionable techniques to help you prosper, grow your self worth and personal brand.

So, if you are a high achiever or someone who wants more out of life, whether mentally, physically or spiritually, make sure you subscribe to our podcast right now!

As you can see, the Voices for Voices® podcast publishes episodes that focus on case studies, real life examples, actionable tips and "in the trenches" reports and interviews from subscribers like you.

If that sounds like something that could help you grow personally or professionally, then make sure to join me by subscribing!
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Voices for Voices is the number one ranked TV show and podcast where people turn to for expert mental health recovery and career advancement intelligence. Health recovery and career advancement intelligence. Our Voices for Voices podcast is all about teaching you insanely actionable techniques to help you prosper, grow your self-worth and personal brand. So if you are a high achiever or someone who wants more out of life, whether mentally, physically or spiritually, please make sure to subscribe to our TV show and podcast right now. As you can see, our show publishes episodes each week that focus on case studies, real-life examples, actionable tips and in-the-trenches reports and interviews from subscribers just like you. So if that sounds like something that could help you grow personally or professionally, then make sure to join me by subscribing and sharing. Pass it along to friends, colleagues, family members. Again, we have over 130 episodes. There's something for everyone. We have a wide variety of guests, from right here in Northeast Ohio to as far as New South Wales, australia and areas in between. So this episode we're going to be touching on addiction, suicide, stigma and reentry, and so those are several topics, but we feel that it's important to continue to share information and experiences about that and about these, because these things are still happening. It's still part of society, part of us as a community here in Summit County, as well as parts across the nation. There's no demographic or zip code that is immune to what we're speaking about. So, first off the top, about a current event that has occurred. First off the top about a current event that has occurred. So keeping politics out of it, but talking about president joe biden, son hunter biden. And so there was a case that was filed that just finished up, the jury just came back with a verdict, and what is at the heart of this particular case is drug addiction and, again, just being addicted to illegal substances and having that cloud a person's mind as opposed, in addition, to clouding their judgment. And so there is a form that was signed, and one of the questions on that form for Hunter Biden was are you currently, I believe, have substance abuse, addiction to illegal substances? And he filled that out incorrectly. So that's where that case comes from.

Speaker 1: 3:50

The reason why I want to start that as the top of our show is because, again, addiction and substance abuse is not immune to people at the highest levels. And so, besides the President of the United States, again just keeping politics and how we feel about one party or the other out of it, we're talking about human beings. This human being has, per se, as many resources well, I'd say, more resources available than just us as a common person, given being in the public life for so many years. And so if somebody at that level is and has been dealing with addiction and substance abuse, talking about myself and past alcohol abuse, I am not the president of the United States, I'm not the son of the president of the United States, but I am just an individual. And so, from again, from the top to the bottom, you know, addiction and substance abuse is still out there, it's still happening. And so, from Voices for Voices, our point of view, we hope that not just Hunter but others are reaching out and getting the help that they need, are reaching out and getting the help that they need and they're being sincere about it, because that's one way that I have been able to get to be seven years sober is to just go full speed at recovery, and it's hard to do at times. Uh, there are times that are easier than others. Uh, and again, I'm not just the host of uh, you know, the voices for voices TV show podcast and the founder and executive director, but I'm also a person in active recovery. So check out episode 106, and that episode shares the complete history of my, say, mental illness is because having depression, anxiety and then the low-spectrum autism Check those out as well.

Speaker 1: 6:21

As I published a book, the House of you Prescription for Living, and what we did there. Not only is it available everywhere you know on Amazon, barnes, noble, then also the audio version but we also, as an organization, we publish each chapter. Organization, we publish each chapter that is available not only on the audio platforms, but is also available on the. Now YouTube also has an audio platform besides videos, and so that's out there for free. And so that's one thing that I looked at as paying it forward, that I wanted to have content that was real. We talk about in the trenches reporting. I wanted it to be real and transparent with everybody as they see our organization, what Voices for Voices has done and what we're continuing to do, that the organization is being led by somebody in active recovery. So I'm not talking down to anybody, I am talking at the same level, as I like to think that, even being a professor, that while I am teaching content to students, I am still, at the end of the day, a human being and human beings, we have emotions, and so those are things that I like to think that I am doing, or I'm in the right direction of working to help others.

Speaker 1: 8:09

So addiction, substance abuse, can affect individuals at the highest levels. We had a very successful 2024 World Voices for Voices Day walk that took place on May 25th, and one of our entrants, who I had never met and been in contact with before, who I had never met and been in contact with before, joined us that day, and this will lead us into the suicide topic, and this individual I won't share the name or any details of location for anonymous, unless they want to come on the show and share that themselves, but this individual, their significant other, died by suicide, and so that has to be very difficult. In the last couple months, my father passed away, as well as my aunt just a couple weeks after my father. So just having somebody pass away that's close to you I've seen my father is the closest and it's close, but my father is closer, so to have this individual talk about the experience of having their significant other die by suicide was just powerful to hear, because this individual was sharing the story of kind of how it happened and how of kind of how it happened and how, as the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because it's so powerful and moving.

Speaker 1: 10:05

You know, when a person dies by suicide, it doesn't just affect the person who dies by suicide, it affects and impacts their family, their co-workers, community members if they're mentoring somebody or they're a mentee, and so we look at a very tragic event happening and it's not just impacting one person. Again, it can impact maybe one person if it's just a significant other or, as I mentioned, it actually spreads kind of like an umbrella and touches individuals' lives outside of the household, and so I bring this up for another reason with this individual. But there was a family member of theirs that, say to be transparent out front, had a plan for their suicide and once they saw and are feeling the impact of the other individual in their family that died by suicide, that it didn't just affect the person that died but that it impacted and is still impacting and will continue to impact members of the family community, as I mentioned before, and this individual basically took their plan and ripped it up because they didn't, which many of us, and I say a lot of people. We may think again that somebody dies by suicide. It just affects one person, that person, but it affects others. And this family member was another that was affected by the person in their family that died by suicide. And so this individual, again because of the impact that the family member who did die by suicide that impacted them, to say okay, well, if I do it, then it's going to impact friends and family and community members too as well, and I don't want that. And so that's important, I think, to share that story because it's a real story. It's not some book, it's written in fiction or some sensational story. It's not some book, it's written in fiction or some sensational story. Somebody's trying to make a quick buck by grabbing onto a hot topic and share that, which is appalling. This is again one of those in-the-trenches reports and it was very important to me and our organization to share that story with you Because the education out there is, as a previous show we've talked before.

Speaker 1: 13:35

There is help out there, and so that 988 helpline give that a call if you or somebody you know is contemplating, thinking, exhibiting signs of wanting to die by suicide. And there's many other resources out there, but the 988 is, I would argue to say, probably the quickest way to get in touch with somebody to help. And people want to help. I want to help. I haven't experienced somebody in my family that has died by suicide, but I've had individual at least one individual that I played baseball growing up with that fell into that category, as well, as somebody I went to grade school with, and while those didn't impact me again as directly as a family member, it is just important to share that these things are happening and it's not always what people think of. Oh, the individuals that died by suicide. So, the individuals that died by suicide, they were down for so long and there was this big elaborate plan and there was this big story. But these experiences are happening over and over again A lot of times and I'll speak from anybody that's heard of the band Linkin Park.

Speaker 1: 15:21

Chester Bennington, lead singers, arguably in one of the top bands, has had an infinite amount of money. Let's call it versus me, let's call it had a ton of resources. Pictures were taken of him and his family, a day or two, I think, before the event actually occurred, and that individual died by suicide and we bring that to the PGA. So the Professional Golf Association Just a couple weeks ago one of their members, grayson Murray, died by suicide, and so this was an individual by all accounts, again had the ways, the means, the money, family that cared and loved him and still do. And this individual had won a tournament on the tour, which is hard to do. There's endorsement deals where money can be made, but to win a tournament is very, very difficult to do.

Speaker 1: 16:48

And Grayson had stepped out and spoken about his substance abuse and how he was doing better and that he was clean for a period of time. And he was playing a tournament, a PGA tournament. He withdrew from the tournament. I believe he played one round. So, for those that don't know, a usual professional golf association tournament is four days Thursday, friday, saturday, sunday and so Grayson played I believe it was Thursday and then he uh, he withdrew uh from from the tournament. So the cut hadn't been made after Friday yet, uh, so he was still slated to at least play until Friday. If he made the cut, he'd play through the weekend, and so he withdrew from the tournament, cited that he wasn on that Saturday morning, that Grayson had died by suicide.

Speaker 1: 18:07

So these things that we call and really are making up the event of a suicide are happening. So, as I've spoken many times and will continue to talk about suicide, addiction, substance abuse, we talk about Hunter Biden. We talk about professional golfers. We talk about professional musicians. Money isn't a thing to them. They have the money, they have the ways, the means, they have managers. They have probably counselors and swing coaches. They have so many amongst their families, they have so many resources out there that some of us don't have. It takes extra work for us to find individuals that are able to help us to that next step. If, if that means we need an inpatient stay to get stabilized like I I did and had a five-day inpatient stay in 2017 or whether that's speaking to a therapist or counselor we need to just continue to bust the stigma around mental health, around substance abuse, how people are judging us, social media.

Speaker 1: 19:31

We are as an organization on social media. Social media can sometimes show us things that aren't maybe real right. You can touch up a picture, you can put different features on photos and so, just to the common person that sees that they're trying to compare themselves to something, trying to compare themselves to something and maybe a person that's not real. And with AI entering the fray and now being tied in with Apple, so I believe it's going to be called Apple intelligence. There are so many ways for individuals to see things that aren't true and aren't as authentic as they should be, and so if we're comparing ourselves to somebody and we say, oh, wow, look at that person. They're living the best life To them. I wish I was them, I wish I was doing that, I wish I was at that beach, I wish I was doing that, I wish I was at that beach, I wish I was at that Aeros Tour stop, I wish I was.

Speaker 1: 20:43

And these things continue to go in our head and then we start sometimes thinking, wow, like what am I doing here on earth? Like, look at all these successful people, all these followers and I have 50 followers and I don't know what to do. And so that's why we want to share again that suicide hotline number 988. We want to support people, anybody that is going through substance abuse, addiction, whether they want to call it that or not, it doesn't matter what the terms are used. If somebody needs help, we want to get them help as quickly as possible and we this busting that, the stigma. It is.

Speaker 1: 21:37

It's crazy that we're sitting here still talking about this and, in 2024, that there are still these events that are that are happening, whether it's, you know, the opioid epidemic uh, where there it was, there is doctors that were over-prescribing opioids to individuals that were prone to addiction, versus somebody who's at the end-of-life care on hospice, like my father. My father was prescribed opioids, but for him he was at end of life, unfortunately, but he wasn't going to be addicted, getting addicted to those, and so that's what that specific class of drug is supposed to be used in limited use and limited times, and end-of-life care let's say it the right way, justin is one of the areas to have that be. And so if an individual doesn't need to be on that type of medication, it's up to us, as the individual who is at that doctor appointment, at that counseling appointment, or whether it's the counselor or therapist themselves, or the MD, the psychiatrist, that is making these calls, whether they should send the prescription in for one drug versus another. And lastly, on this episode, we're just going to touch on an area Voices for Voices is just getting started in, and that is reentry. So individuals who have and are going through the Department of Corrections have and are going through the Department of Corrections, you know again, I've mentioned before. I can, too mention we all have skeletons in the closet. I had, let's call it, 128 skeletons in the closet, which led to my mental health, mental illness breakdown in 2017.

Speaker 1: 23:55

And so there's individuals who have made not great decisions, and so this is not us saying that it's okay to commit a crime. This is not what we're saying. What we're saying is individuals who are going through, they're doing their time, they're paying retribution to society, that they want to better themselves versus where they were prior to incarceration. So if an individual gets released today and they have no family in the area and the only friends they knew are individuals that are on the street and involved with things that would potentially get them right back to where they were in jail or prison, like where do I sleep? Where am I going to find my next meal? What form of transportation am I going to take? How am I going to make money? Things that we take for granted, the individuals that are being released from incarceration, that the Department of Corrections and the judges have come to determination. Again, we're not going to get political on this.

Speaker 1: 25:18

It's just more of if an individual has gone through and put their time in and they're ready to kind of get that second chance on life or third chance, whatever that may be that we as an organization Voices for Voices we're going to help in a small way, and that is by taking, right now we have one seminar on our YouTube channel that is called the Day of the Interview Seminar. It's an hour long. Again, with my experience as being an instructor and my in and out of different careers and jobs, as well, as you know, the mental illnesses side of things, so I bring a lot of experience to the table, and so I recorded an hour seminar with sign language interpreters that we like to have when they're available, and it goes through different topics and different things and obstacles an individual might face on the day of the interview. And so this seminar is 100% free. We don't charge for it. So how are we helping with the re-entry?

Speaker 1: 26:33

We're offering that seminar to individuals that are looking to reenter as civilians into society, that are serious about getting not just off on the right foot but continuing to be on the right foot the best they can. That for each individual that takes that time and views, watches the seminar, and we're able to track that so we're able to know if the individual did or didn't, if they say they did but they really didn't. And so once they do that, we are presenting each individual with a certificate, and the certificate is from our organization, voices for Voices, and the individuals are going to be able to take that certificate with their resume and portfolio to interviews and portfolio to interviews, so when they are going through the interview process, they're able to talk about their skills and how they're continuing to make progress in a positive way, and so I like to call it making small wins. These individuals need small wins. They need a place to stay, they need a meal, they need a job, they need these things.

Speaker 1: 27:56

And so we want to help, as an organization, these individuals a place to stay, they need a meal, they, they need a job, they need these things. And so we want to help, as an organization, these individuals in whatever way we can to to get that, get that job, to be in the running for that job. And so that's an area of voices, for voices that we. We just started off here, kind of midway through 2024. And we are just grateful for the opportunity to help others in any way we can. So thank you for joining us for this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes, and until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need.