Can't Escape Work? You're Living in Survival Mode | Episode 418

Can't Escape Work? You're Living in Survival Mode | Episode 418

We celebrate the community that fuels Voices for Voices while opening a candid talk about the weight first responders and upstanders carry after life-or-death moments. A raw story of a near-final note turns into a plea for support, presence, and practical ways to keep hope alive.

• gratitude for listeners and global growth goals
• free access to resources and why scale matters
• the role of first responders and upstanders in crisis
• limits of training versus real-life stress
• the struggle to separate work from home after traumatic calls
• a first responder’s near-suicide story and choosing “not today”
• practical support, peer care, and therapy as lifelines
• simple actions anyone can take to help and share hope

Hit that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up, follow, like, share, subscribe. Reach out to the 25 your closest people in your phone and share the Voices for Voices podcast and TV show with them

Chapter Markers

0:00 Gratitude And Global Mission

1:18 Community Support And Sharing

5:22 Free Access And Nonprofit Impact

7:21 From Ledge To Loving Arms

12:20 Training Limits And Real-World Weight

15:58 Separating Work From Home

19:24 Upstanders Versus Bystanders

25:08 A First Responder’s Breaking Point

31:10 Choosing Not Today

34:48 Purpose, Goals, And Hope

41:42 Closing Thanks And Calls To Action

#SurvivalMode #WorkLifeBalance #MentalHealthMatters #YouAreNotAlone #FindingPeace #BreakTheCycle #EmpathyInWork #StressReliefJourney #SupportEachOther #RediscoverJoy #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices418

Chapters

• 0:00 Gratitude And Global Mission
• 1:18 Community Support And Sharing
• 5:22 Free Access And Nonprofit Impact
• 7:21 From Ledge To Loving Arms
• 12:20 Training Limits And Real-World Weight
• 15:58 Separating Work From Home
• 19:24 Upstanders Versus Bystanders
• 25:08 A First Responder’s Breaking Point
• 31:10 Choosing Not Today
• 34:48 Purpose, Goals, And Hope
• 41:42 Closing Thanks And Calls To Action

Transcript

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 0:02

Hi everyone, it's Justin here with Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices podcast and TV show. We're so grateful to have you with us. If you can do us a big favor, you can hit that subscribe button, if you can give us a thumbs up, follow, like, share, subscribe. That would be very helpful. We have big goals. We want to uh we want to reach and help uh people in over 300 countries and over 3,000 cities. Uh we have achieved over 100 countries and over 1,000 cities, and we're only able to do that because of you. So thank you very much uh for all that uh help. And it would be very uh very gracious if if you could do that, and if you uh are able to, uh again, while we're on the subject of doing things that are free, uh that that help uh voices for voices, help others and help even more if you can reach out to the 25 uh your your closest uh people uh in your phone, uh let them know, share the voices for voices, podcast, TV show with them. Uh and I would be so uh so gracious if you would do that. Um that is so awesome. We've had so many uh so many listeners and viewers that have done that specific thing just the last uh last few days that we've seen our uh our numbers skyrocket, which just is it it's like an Elon Musk based text uh rocket. It just it's amazing. Uh and you're the one that's amazing, not me. It's it's all you, it's all you, our viewers and listeners. So thank you so much for all you do for Voices for Voices and for helping people uh when we have a uh what could be considered a very divisive time uh in our um in our history. Uh you're helping us bring people together and unite, what which is what we uh which is what our main goal is to help. Uh so helping people is to bring people together and let them know that they're not alone, you're not alone, I'm not alone. Uh life is always worth living. And thank you so much for uh all the all that you have done and all that you um you are doing and will do in the future. Uh as you probably know by now, uh we have dropped episode number 417. Uh just saying that that uh takes my breath away. So we just dropped episode 417. Uh nothing, nothing short of miraculous. Uh again, it's all because of you, our viewers, our listeners. You're the reason we have a show. Uh the demand uh from from you is uh such that uh it keeps uh keeps us on our toes, and we want to continue bringing top flight uh content to you and to those who you bring and share voices for voices with. Thank you very much. And it doesn't matter where you where you watch, uh if you have internet connection, you can watch on YouTube and Rumble if you have internet connection, you can listen to on a variety of uh listening apps. And uh yeah, it's uh it's hard to say it's hard to take my breath away when it comes to talking because you know you've you've seen me and heard me, uh, you know, on some long-winded shows. Uh uh, but it's all in good fun, good humor. I I get it. I uh I laugh I have to laugh at myself because you know if we don't laugh, uh then uh it's it's better to laugh than the alternative um methods or you know options out there. Uh so we are again voices for voices. We're a nonprofit here in the United States. If you donate, if you buy any of our books under Voices for Voices publishing, uh you will uh be able to use uh the dollars and cents in your tax return as 100% tax deduct federally tax deductible. Uh so we wanted to share that as well. But all of our shows, they're free. So you can watch, you can listen to our shows, and they're they're all free. You can uh you can watch our TikTok lives and they're free. Uh so we uh we believe in you know doing the work, putting the work in uh to earn the trust, earn the uh the ability for uh us to be an organization or a show that uh entertains you, uh helps you, uh gives you tools to help others. And that means more than any donation, any amount of purchases of anything. Um, I'd rather help people uh step away from the ledge and into the arms of a loving person, a loving first responder that just wants to see just wants to see people live and have a happy, healthy, uh, joyous, prosperous life, whatever that looks like to uh to you, to others, to me, to others. Uh and so that really that takes us into the uh the topic and the area uh that I like to focus this particular episode on. And uh as I as I just mentioned, uh talking about you know individuals that have either thought about it or have literally been on the ledge and like you know, life's not worth living. And and then you have and you don't have to be a first responder, it can be it can be any caring, loving human being. Uh first responders generally are the are the ones that get a call depending on where things are at and and in this situation. And uh I'm not a first responder. I'm not trained in for for anything, any first responder actions. Uh, I'm just trained in being human and wanting to help people. Uh, and so that could be a first responder, or could be could be you, could be somebody you know. Uh please share this episode if it is somebody you know uh because I wanna I want them to hear me say thank you if they've ever uh I mean it's just so hard to think about. Um sorry, I'm getting a little a little emotional here. Um so I just want to say thanks to anybody that's ever helped somebody who was at that point of should I do it, shouldn't I do it? What what's what's life for me? Um why why should I go on? And and so whether first responder or not, if you've been involved in any facet, even of in a family member or a loved one, uh significant other of a person who that's crossed their mind, uh, not only do one do we want to say thank you um you know to the people that are out helping day in and day out, the best that they can. Uh you know, we're talking about mental health, and so it's not just the mental health of the individuals what what what their next what their next step is is their next step into loving arms or there's something much much different that we we don't want ever and so from the mental health side you know person who is though has those loving arms that is helping talk somebody down into a safe place. There's that mental health of you know you can't unlive that particular situation. And I know there's I know there's training. I've never been in the training, I don't know what's all in the training, I just know that there is training. But training can only take you so far. Just like just like generally most uh most jobs, you know, the if you want the school or even if you didn't, if you want to put an apprenticeship, it doesn't get real until it gets real. Meaning you can read all you want, you can listen, you can go to as many training sessions, hours a year, and it's it's not really until you're asked to really step in and enact those things, those processes that you you've trained so hard so long over and over again. So when you or somebody else is in that situation, that situation has passed, and hopefully again that the person who had the had those thoughts uh didn't didn't go further and you know and and their life that they they came down into those loving arms. And so I can I can only imagine whoever that's a first responder, a friend, who whoever is that that person or persons that is part of that rescue crew then once their shift is over and they go home, how do you how do you how do you separate the two is I guess what I'm I'm trying to get at. So let me get let me give you an example. Let's say you're uh not you, but let's just say uh somebody, not you or I, and it's hypothetical. Say somebody's working in a marketing department, and they're working on a new product launch, and so there's right, you know, labeling, there's you know, pack other packaging, there's what the product is, and all the testing and all the things that come with that before you can go to market, there's the pricing, there's the costing, and so you have all these aspects. And so a day in the life of somebody like that in marketing, generally speaking, they're able to say at a certain point in the day this will be here when I come back in the morning or the next day, or if you're on vacation when you get back from vacation, but you you get get what I'm talking about. And so you that person is able to separate. Maybe not all the way. Maybe there's still, you know, thoughts running in the mind. But when we look at that versus the other, when somebody's just just saved a life. Or maybe it maybe it ended up on on on the other side of things and it and it didn't and didn't work out. How does a person separate again what they're you know, if they're able to see and and hear, and the conversation, and you know, there can be second guessing if the situation turned out in a not so great way. Even if the situation turned out where the person did come into those loving arms and uh how how does one separate that from going home with a significant other and family? Or maybe maybe somebody's single. I don't know. What whatever whatever the person's family life is like. So the person ends their shift and they go to their residence and right and say, Oh, well, I'm gonna get something to eat, uh, you know, change out of my clothes and and something more comfortable, or you know, so you're thinking about those types of things, but how does a person think about those when the mind could still be clouded, that mental health, whether somebody has a mental illness or not? I couldn't even imagine what it would be like, you know, being a first responder or a bystander. Actually, not a bystander, because a bystander would probably just walk by. So you call it what uh my friend in Australia uh calls upstanders, where you know somebody's gonna do something about it. Um whether that's you know the first responders or whether that's again an upstander that walks by and sees what's going on and and they jump into action because that's just the type of person that they are. So how how how would a person like that anybody that's been in a situation that's like, oh my gosh a true life a true life or death situation I was in involved with today. I I don't I don't know I don't have the remedy. I don't I'm not laughing, it's it's not funny. I'm um that that's just my I guess my reflex to like I I I I don't even know where where a person would start. Obviously with you know therapy, counseling, the lot, you know, that would help, I think. But I I I I I don't I don't know, you know, day to day if a person is being exposed to those types of situations, you know, day in and day out. I I I don't know. I mean maybe maybe we we we would change your career, I don't I don't know. It's heavy. And so that person I talked about earlier, you know, that this hypothetical marketing individual who is able to separate a little bit better the work from home, or they call that you know work-life balance. Is it really a balance? I don't know. It's wishful thinking at the at the minimum. Because there's a lot of people out that are hurting because their line of work, or maybe they were that upstander and decided to step in and help. And again, even if the situation ends as positive as possible, the steps to get to that point for the individual that's helping, like there would probably be maybe words that would be expressed. You're worth so much to all the people in your life, you know, so much more to live for, so much more left to do. And they get into their residence, and then they hear above, they hear commotion, and they go up to see what's going on, and then they see that they're able to help, and so that's what they try to do. And so when you hear me talk about oh, these you know, these huge goals we have, you know, we want to help people in at least 300 countries, at least 3,000 cities, overall at least three three billion plus people across the world, at least or more. These are the things, some of the things I'm talking about, where a person could feel like they're having the worst day of their life, and they could end up going, wow, I didn't realize I wasn't alone, that right there that doesn't have money tied to it from voices for voices, that has just a human being tied to it, and so the more people we can make aware that maybe we find ourselves in that type of a situation, and we have a choice to be a bystander, just walk right by, pretend it's not happening, put in our headphones, or see what we can do to help and be an upstander. Or if you're a first responder, you know, a firefighter. And so we just want to send out when we say we we're praying for everybody across the world, no matter if they're a believer in God or not, these are a group of people when we say that you know we're we're praying for ourselves and everyone across the world. These are a group of people that have this all wound up in their mind when they see it, and then that repeats, and then it repeats, and then it repeats, and then maybe maybe they become one of the people on the other side, and they're the ones contemplating, and the only reason I bring this up, not the only I said that wrong. One of the reasons I brought this up, and it's been a while, so I'm not I'm not gonna say names or anything. I ran into a a gentleman one time, and he was a first responder, and he shared some of the different scenes he had seen during his shifts, and then he would come home to his family, and his family would just wanna you know, think like at more that marketing, like have that separation. And for the longest time, he talked about how hard it was. He said I come I'd come home from work seen this and that, and he explained some of the things that he'd be called out to, and not everybody made it, you know, over the course of many years, but yeah, when he would come home from work, he'd be expected just to kind of like well, work's work, and you're not at work, you're at home, and so he's going through a lot mentally, as anybody would. Now, speaking for me, and so there was one day or a period of time, like it's been it's been a little bit of time since the conversation was brought up in the meeting, so I'm not sure if it was like one specific day or if it was over time. Well, there was one specific day, but before that, that he was just having a hard time coming coming back from work and supposed to just be that jovial, happy-go-lucky. Like you said, that separation occurred. Work was work, and you're not at work, so you're at home. So let's be at home, and he was finding it harder and harder and harder to do that because of the things he was seeing with his job. Being involved with trying to rescue, trying to help. That was his job, but true upstander. He'd walk by the scene now after he's retired, and he'd he'd spring into action just like that. So time goes by, it gets to be harder and harder until one day until one day he literally is writing his note his suicide note like the plans and then the note, you know, to the family and makes me think it was on video Friday that he was starting to go through like starting to put things in motion. Wasn't letting anybody know. Anyone shared with the group we were at? We're not sharing anything, and I'm not sharing names, location none of that. So the day, you know, it gets closer to the day that this is it. This is what we have written down. I I just I I can't go on. I mean, this is a grown man. Not that it matters, doesn't matter what age, male, female at all, doesn't that doesn't matter, but this is grown animal family, married children and the things that he had seen that pushed him over. Pushed him over the edge, basically. So got closer to the day. And I don't even know what intervened or how in a good way that he was so close to just calling it a a day, called it a life. And say, you know what? Stuff's tough. But not today. Not now. Ripped out the note but the notes. Got rid of them somehow. And he's still alive today. Still alive. And so through all that, his family never, at least from my understanding, his family didn't find out, didn't know, didn't have a clue. Maybe that's changed over the years that the conversation came up. But from what I understand is that the family didn't at least up until the time that he was sharing with us. The family didn't know how close her husband, her dad was and so I I was just in disbelief when he when he was telling the story, like again, it's one thing to read in a book, it's one thing to you know, the training and all that. But if you're going through something yourself how hard it has to be. Even if it seems like that's not the case, that's not true. It is we're all here for a reason. I don't even know why I'm still alive. I mean, I yeah, we have voices for voices, and this is so awesome. And I I guess it it's why I am so passionate about the organization, about the work we do, about the shows we do, all the things. It's because I remember stories like that. And I know that there's somebody somewhere that could be hurting, and just needs to hear that you're not alone, there's more things to do on earth, and it's not all work, there's fun things left to do. I'm not gonna pretend to know what those fun things are because it's different for everybody. But there there are. Something that we look at as so insignificant, it could be something as basic as that. I didn't think anybody there was any nice people left in the world. And then some somebody like Like yourself or another person. So that's when I say about these huge goals we have. It's one of the reasons I bring them up because I already know we're helping people on scale, meaning we're helping people in large groups over time to where we're at now. I don't know where we're going to end up. I don't know the exact number. I'm not going to be handed a number before I pass on and say, all right, Justin, here's what you said, and here's here's the number that you you have the voices for voices. But it's having positive goals like that. It keeps me going. Let the world know about voices for voices. Let them know. Hit that subscribe button. Give us the thumbs up. Follow, share. Hit up all our social medias, profiles, handles. And we'll we'll be here for another day. So let's celebrate all the voices in the world. And until next time, be a voice for you or somebody in need. And remember, we love you. That's a fact. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.