‘Jump, you coward’ Mental health advocate shares story at Holland College

Cutline: Mark Henick speaks with Holland College students during a presentation on Feb. 28. Henick grew up in Cape Breton, but now lives and works in Toronto.

By Daniel Brown

March 15, 2017

        Mark Henick had made multiple suicide attempts, the first when he was 12 years old.

But this time, things would be different.

It was the middle of the night. Henick climbed over the edge of an overpass in Cape Breton, making sure not to trip.

        In the distance he saw the abandoned steel plant. He looked down and saw a fence.

        He calculated how far he’d have to jump so not to land on the fence. He didn’t want this to be painful.

        He hung from the railing, so all he’d have to do is let go.

        “You don’t look like you’re doing so good there,” said a voice from behind.

        Henick looked behind him. He saw a man wearing a brown corduroy jacket, and a car parked in the middle of the overpass.

        The man began chatting with Henick, asking about his life and his passions. The two talked for a while, and Henick saw police lights coming toward them.

        Soon, a crowd formed. A group of high school boys stood behind a police barricade. One of them yelled out.

       “Jump, you coward.”

        It was the push Henick needed. He let go of the railing.

James Reddin has heard many stories like this one.

        The UPEI counsellor meets with people dealing with mental health problems regularly. It’s hard to say how far things have come in regard to mental health awareness, Reddin said.

        “It’s one of those things that doesn’t have one right answer.”

        People who consider or attempt suicide tend to feel like they’re not normal. They believe they’re supposed to be feeling a certain way, or not feeling a certain way.

It’s hard to find a clear solution to this shame – and to mental health stigma – when people all have different life experiences, Reddin said.

       “People will be sad, people will be angry,” Reddin said. “We seem to attach judgment to emotion.”

       Reddin thinks Canada could do a better job at serving mental health in both rural and urban areas. Rural areas may have a better sense of community, but urban areas have more options, he said.

        Henick’s rural hometown didn’t have any options for mental health support.

        After letting go, he didn’t feel anything. He looked down and saw an arm wrapped around his waist.

        The arm was wearing a brown corduroy jacket.

        He was lifted over the railing and put into an ambulance. He was sent to the hospitals psychiatric ward, which he was familiar with by this point.

        Henick thought a lot of the two strangers on the overpass.

He decided he didn’t want to be like the boy who yelled from the sidelines. He wanted to be like the man who talked with him, whose name he never got.

        Someone who is dealing with mental health problems wants the opportunity to talk. The best thing to do if you think someone is considering suicide is to bluntly ask them, Reddin said.

        “People are surprisingly honest.”

        Someone who’s having suicidal thoughts may not trust themselves, so it’s important to make a plan and help them seek professional help. This may mean admitting them to a hospital, Reddin said.

        Becoming trained to respond to those dealing with mental health problems is also a good idea, Reddin said.

        “All of our mental health would do a lot better if we thought of it as health,” Reddin said. “[Not] this outside thing that’s less significant.”

        For Henick, mental health awareness became his new passion.

        Once he was let out of the hospital, he approached his school principal to discuss giving a presentation to the school.

        “I want to talk about suicide.”

        The principle responded quickly.

        “No, no, no, no.”

        Soon after, Henick wrote a letter to the editor, relating his high school to communist Russia. The next day, there were news crews at the school.

        Henick continued with his advocacy. In 2013, he gave a TED Talk that today has over three million views.

More than a decade after his last suicide attempt, he found the man in the brown corduroy jacket. His name is Mike, and after this incident he also starting working in mental health.

“You might not know that you’re that person who can help others, but I guarantee that you are,” Henick said.