Voices for Voices®

Panic at 100 Feet: Why We Need to Talk About Mental Health | Ep 277

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 277

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Panic at 100 Feet: Why We Need to Talk About Mental Health | Ep 277

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What happens when anxiety spirals into a life-threatening crisis? This powerful episode explores the devastating consequences of panic attacks through the lens of a tragic parasailing accident in Montenegro, where a young woman experiencing severe anxiety made a fatal decision.

Anxiety manifests uniquely for each of us. Host Justin Alan Hayes shares personal coping strategies—from therapy and medication to simple mantras like "I'm safe, I'm okay in this instant"—while emphasizing the importance of finding what works for your individual needs. The episode delves into how we gather information about mental health solutions much like researching a major purchase, taking what resonates and leaving what doesn't.

The heart of the conversation centers on a heartbreaking story from Montenegro, where a tourist experiencing a panic attack while parasailing unbuckled her safety harness, resulting in a fatal fall. This tragedy highlights how drastically panic can alter our perception and decision-making capabilities. Rather than judging this reaction, Hayes invites listeners to consider the unpredictable nature of anxiety responses and the vital importance of accessible crisis resources. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline offers 24/7 support through multiple channels, providing anonymous help for those reluctant to seek face-to-face assistance.

Beyond crisis intervention, the episode explores broader themes of embracing imperfection and pursuing passion despite life's challenges. We all face unexpected situations—from minor inconveniences like spilled gas to major life upheavals—and developing resilience means acknowledging our humanity while continuing to follow our dreams.

Join our growing community by subscribing, sharing, and reaching out if you'd like to be a guest on a future episode. Together, we can create a world where mental health struggles are met with compassion rather than judgment.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome and Mission Overview

2:00 Anxiety and Coping Mechanisms

8:30 Montenegro Parasailing Tragedy

15:45 Crisis Resources and Support

18:40 Embracing Imperfection and Following Passion

28:40 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

#MentalHealthAwareness #PanicAt100Feet #TalkAboutIt #MentalHealthMatters #AnxietySupport #EmotionalWellbeing #BreakTheStigma #MindfulnessInLife #SelfCareStrategies #MentalHealthAdvocacy #OvercomingAnxiety #CopingWithFear #TherapyJourney #MentalWellnessTips #SpeakYourMind #TikTok #Instagram #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion

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Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you so much for joining us, whether this is your first episode or you've been with us the whole way. We just want to thank you for supporting being a part of Voices for Voices and, if you're able to give us a subscribe, a thumbs up and share this show, this podcast, with your networks, we'd greatly appreciate it. I have a huge goal, as those who have been with us from the beginning already know, of wanting to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. Those who have been with us from the beginning already know of helping, wanting to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond through Voices for Voices, the nonprofit organization that has this show. And thank you again. Here in the United States and across the world, it's really humbling to think that we're touching so many people's lives, both here in Northeast Ohio, hudson area, western Reserve, united States as a whole, and then over 50 countries outside of the United States. So it's incredible and we don't take it lightly that we're coming into your living rooms, your dorms, your offices, your earbuds, on an airplane, on a subway train, what have you? We just thank you that you would take any time out of any of your days to join us. So thank you again.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We're going to be talking about anxiety, which we've talked about multiple times, but we're going to talk about anxiety and how that can lead to potential life-threatening situations, and so we'll just jump right in Recently. So when this airs, when you're first watching and listening to this, this story will be a month or a month and a half old. But I'll just ask you know, how do you react? How does your body react when you're in a stressful, anxious situation? I know, for me there seems to be always a stressful situation that makes me anxious, and for me, there's just a multitude of ways that as far as how I work through that, and two of those ways one is therapy, another is medication, and you know we're not advocating one way or another for medication. I'm speaking about me personally and my experience about me personally and my experience as well as through past therapy, past group therapy sessions that I've been a part of Something as simple as just saying you know, I'm safe, I'm okay and this instant I'm safe and I'm okay. We don instant. I'm safe and I'm okay. We don't know what the next instant or the next minute, the next hour, next day is going to bring us.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

But that's one of the things I took from one of our group therapy sessions that I was in in 2017 and 2018, and in a group setting as well. As you know, there's you know, adult coloring books. There's. There's a multitude of ways, and what I would say is just find what works for you. What works for me probably isn't what works for you. Maybe a part of it is and a part of it isn't.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Because I had to. I had to find that out because I I couldn't sit around a table of 10 other individuals talking about my mental health and how things were going for me and think that, oh well, this is working for them or this isn't working for them, so I'm not even going to try it because it's not working for them, and so I didn't want to project myself and my thoughts on another individual's thoughts and how they were handling the situation. I look at it much like when you have a big decision to make you want to have as much information as possible. So, say, if you're looking to buy a house, you want to have as much information about the neighborhood, the safety, any other homes that were sold in the area, what they sold for when were they sold, what school district and the like. And so you're gathering a lot of information and some of it you and I would look at more than others, that we would put more weight to it.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And those are the things for therapy, for anxiety and really anything that you're talking about, and I'm talking about my situation, my experiences. If it's an individual session and then my therapist is giving feedback, if it's a group setting, then there are going to be others that are in in that therapy with you and we're each going to have an opportunity to you know, share and and speak, and so there's going to be a lot of information, a lot of things that others have and are going through that I'm not or I haven't, and I have to remember that. It's about that information gathering of like oh well, maybe I'll try this or maybe I'll try that. So we want to think of things kind of in that sense of is anything working now when you're in an anxious or a stressful environment? And then are there other ways. I mean we can obviously head to our phones or our laptops or iPads and we can obviously do a search and find some things that others are doing and have done, but again, we just want to take those with a grain of salt because we don't want to automatically jump into. Oh well, this person is getting through their anxiety by doing this and that and the other, and that's really helpful to again just gather as much information and find out what works for you.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

The other thing is we don't know how others are going to react in those stressful situations, whether we think of it as maybe something more special, or maybe traveling. If we've never flown on an airplane before and the destination we're going to we have to fly on an airplane, how are we going to work through that? And so those are the things that you want to think about. So we're going to transition from the stress, anxiety, fear, panic, panic, attack to actual situations, and so the story that I referred to at the beginning is what I want to talk about now is in Montenegro, is what I want to talk about now is in Montenegro, which is another area, another country where people go to visit for vacation, and, if anybody's been around an ocean.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

There are different activities that you're able to partake in, whether that's just hanging out, having a cabana to block some of the sun out and reading a book, listening to music, just listening to the waves, just taking things in. Or there's also, you know, you could jet ski or parasail, and then the parasail is, you know they? Basically you're connected with a harness that's connected to a parachute on a boat and the boat goes, and then you and if you're by yourself or if you're doing tandem, go up into the air, maybe 100 feet, whatever that tops out at, and you go through that, and so that's something that is available. And so in Montenegro there is a story and it's very, it's heartbreaking where there was a young lady that went parasailing, read and heard in the news stories. Once she got her harness and everything connected, it was her turn, Because usually you're on a boat with maybe like I don't know four or five or six others, and so you know you take the turn. So it's like, okay, well, we'll go first, we'll go second.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so when it got to be her turn and she got into the harness, she started to have a panic attack. She started to like freak out, and, and so the boat started going. She started going up into the air with the parachute, again connecting to the harness, for safety precautions, obviously. And at a particular moment she was many feet above the water and she started having a panic attack. And so we say, well, I would handle it this way and I would handle it that way, and why would somebody do this? Well, what ended up happening was she ended up having a panic attack and started to unbuckle the harness that was to keep her safe, to keep her connected to the parachute. And so she did. She disconnected the harness and she was removed from the harness, removed from the parachute, and she fell to her death into the water. And this is a very, very yeah, it's heartbreaking, really to just think about that.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so there's, you know, a lot of people out there that are like, well, why would she do that?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Like, why would, if you're going through stress and the panic attack, why? Why would you try to get yourself out of something that is meant to help save you and help keep you safe? And that's where I go back to. We're all human beings, we all react different in different situations. So we don't know what was going on in her mind.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

But what ended up happening was she did have a panic attack because, as the boat was getting started and she was connected, she was allegedly and again, we're not theirs, we don't have boots-on-the-ground coverage but what has been reported in some news outlets is that once she got connected and then the boat started going and then the parachute started doing its thing and inflating and that she was, you know, like you know, get me out of this, get me out of this or something to that, that effect, and and that, like you know, one of the worst times to to have a not just to have a panic attack, because I, I, I parasailed with with my wife and it was scary. It was like, oh yeah, this is cool, like I can't wait to do this. And then, when I did it and you're going up and then there's this, at least for me, there was just that moment like okay, like I'm still buckled in, we're still connected my now wife, because it was years before we were married, we did this, and so then I was able to enjoy, you know, the few minutes that we were at kind of the max height of the parasail and I know I was stressed and it was one of those things where I just thought like, okay, well, the boats gonna start going and we're gonna start going up, like there's no getting around it. That's what. That's what this is, and so that's an instance that I can relate to a little bit of having some some stress around that activity. And so, unfortunately, this young lady passed away, and was she going to therapy? We don't know and that's not really for us to really judge.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We're just sharing this information, sharing this story because it has garnered national and international attention, and it gives us another reason to keep stressing, which is how our organization, voices for Voices, was founded Around mental health, trauma, addiction, recovery, those types of areas. So this gives us another way of saying okay, if I'm in that situation, or maybe I know somebody, let me reach out. And so we'd say who do we reach out to? We're going to, we can reach out today or any day here in the United States, and so that's where country to country, city to city, township, province are going to have their own protocols, but here in the United States I can say that there is help available if you or somebody you know is going through a crisis, and that is the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline that's available 24 hours a day, also in English and Spanish, and what you can do is you can either call 988, you can text 988, you can chat on their website, which is 988lifelineorg. And we know that life's challenges are definitely some are harder than others and we just want to have a way to help, if we're able to, and so to know that that's available here in the United States, which that's recent, the last couple of years, that this has become kind of a federal, so like all in the United States is covered versus one town, one city, one township, and so we hope that more countries adopt a policy that's similar to at least have that lifeline out there. We can't control whether somebody uses the lifeline or whether they don't, but we can have the resources and resource available that, if somebody, again, it's much easier.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I've found when you're kind of like behind your phone that you're not like face-to-face, you know with somebody and speaking and you know you're talking about, you know very sensitive topics and experiences, and so that's why this 988 Lifeline is so ingenious, because it gives so many ways and really all of them except I mean maybe the chat, maybe do kind of like a FaceTime thing or a Zoom where you see them and they see you, but texting or calling you're able to, in a way, remain anonymous and so you don't have to tell friends, family, others, friends, family, others. We, just as a human race, we just want to see people that are going through tough situations, because we all do and we handle again that stress and anxiety and that panic and panic attacks. Some of us have them, some of us don't, some have them driving, some have them, like I mentioned in a prior episode, in a conference room or in a meeting, whether you have a speaking part or whether you're just there to take notes, that there's just so many. Let's just say life's not easy Growing up. I wish that I would have learned a lot more about the mental side of stress and anxiety and fear and panic, of how to manage that in those situations.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Life or really just any job, life where sometimes restructurings you know there's not enough money for a particular project and so the project may not be able to continue, and so if there's three people working on that project, maybe those three people are unfortunately going to lose their job, and so that's going to create a lot of panic and trauma and that, oh my gosh, like it's a huge, it's a, it's a milestone, a major milestone in our lives, like being born, being married, having a, having a child or children, being baptized or certain life events that that happen. And you know, getting that job offer and accepting it is one of those. That's in that positive light. But then we also have to think of the flip side. As we know, everything's not rosy and sunny and unicorns out there.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

There is from time to time, and some individuals, more than others, seem to go through tough time after tough time after tough time, and it's just and it's not a bad thing. Don't feel ashamed to ask for help. This young lady that passed away in Montenegro on vacation that was her conference room really for me. So me being in the Corps of America, or even having our shows and our podcasts, I still get nervous and I'm anxious and I say like a lot I say and a lot, and I stutter sometimes. But it's authentic, it's who we are as human beings and I wouldn't want it any other way. And so an individual who is on vacation and decides to do the parasailing we, we don't know how that person felt. We don't know what led up to that we don't know that there was trauma she was dealing with from the past or or recently. We just, we just don't know, was she bullied?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Because we know that is a big, big, big problem, especially with, as we know, with social media, of looking at videos and photos and saying, oh my gosh, these people, they're always at the beach, they're always doing all these great things and how, how's their face, you know, so clear and their body, they so, I'm saying so close to perfect. It's like, uh, you know, we start to judge ourselves against something that is not really realistic because, uh, you know, from from our position, from my position, you know, nobody's perfect, god's perfect, god's perfect, and we're all going to have things that we're going to do well at, we're going to have things we're going to fail at. And really, to harken back to an early episode with Jason Simpson, we had kind of in the entertainment industry, actor, voiceover actor, regular physical actor he talked about, talked about that himself've made mistakes, and so he was looking at those situations of how they, how does you know, like a, an a-lister, making millions and millions, and you know in all this, what we would think, I like, oh well, they're getting, they have the life, they're able to do whatever they want with the money and that. But he's watched people at the top of their game make mistakes and he's seen how they in his industry, how they react with that, and so that's the same thing really here that we're going to be in situations and we're going to. We're going to make mistakes. We make mistakes every day.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Uh, just on on the way to the studio I got some gas and, you know, did the card, uh the tap, and picked the theaded, opened up the gas cap, the door and then the gas cap on my car, and then, as I took the, let's say, the gas filler off of the place it hangs See, I'm at a loss of words right now, it's funny. But anyways, I took it off to go to put it into the gas tank to be filled up, and so I picked it up and the handle wasn't pulled, but there was a decent amount of gas liquid that just spewed out of the gas handle thing. And so here I am, coming to the studio to film some of our shows and the last thing I wanted is to spill something that's going to be noticeable, and even at that there's going to be wrinkles on clothes, no matter what it's, it's just the way it is. There's a wrinkle on my uh t-shirt, uh and jacket and it's just who we are, and so that that gas situation, so that happened. Luckily I was able to step back and not get any on me, uh, because, uh, I I'd be smelling like gasoline and nobody wants that. So anyways, I didn't really have control over it.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Somehow the mechanism had a little bit of gas left in it that when the next person, which was me, went and went to fill up my gas tank, that some of it came out and there was nothing I can do about it. I couldn't have really prepared any better. I mean, I did take a little bit of a step back, but I think I did that more because I, I was going to the studio, coming here to the studio, and so that probably helped out a little bit. But anyways, there's going to be stuff. We're going to be opening the cupboard to maybe get cereal out and something else is going to fall and hit the floor and maybe spill, and you got to pick. Things like that just just happen, and and so for me, I, I just have to go. Well, you know I, you know I, I can't help it, I there's nothing I can do. I mean, I could go in for the gas situation. I could go in and talk to the attendant and say, hey, this happened to me and it might not happen ever again at that pump, at that particular gas station. So we just kind of go with the flow and try to, as much as possible, try to minimize some of those things that might not go our way and to go after those things that we feel passionate about.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Again, I go back to one of our shows with Jason and he said that he wasn't good at anything. He knew he wanted to go into film. He didn't know what that looked like when he was growing up, but from an age of 10, watching Transformers, that was something that he knew that he wanted to do. Didn't know how it was gonna happen, but he had that passion, he had the dream to do it and that's something that he knew that he wanted to do. Didn't know how it was going to happen, but he had that passion, he had the dream to do it. And that's something that we want. We want you and everybody who is touched by Voices for Voices to dream, go after your dreams and do what you're passionate about.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We only have one life here on Earth and and so that that's been helpful for me with our organization is just because I'm just so passionate about you know, the mental health and the trauma and recovery and and all those things. That is it work to put on shows and to without a teleprompter and that. But it's just how I am. It's like I, like I've grown where a lot of episodes end, so I've just I guess I've just learned as I've gone.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Sometimes the intro is one way, sometimes it's another, sometimes the outro is one way, sometimes it's the other. It doesn't matter. What matters is we want to be a voice and a place for you to share your voice, and if you would like to share your voice and be a guest on our show, definitely reach out, comment. We would be happy to have a conversation and help share your voice and help inspire others, and that's what we're here for. And help inspire others, and that's what we're here for. So rest in peace. The young lady who passed away, montenegro, who just had a panic attack at not a good time. So until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need.

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