One man saved his life, and now Jonny, who has schizoaffective disorder, is working to save lives too.
On January 14th, 2008, Jonny Benjamin went to the Waterloo Bridge in London and walked towards the precipitous edge, ready to jump to his death.
That all changed when a passerby saw Jonny, approached him, and calmly encouraged him not to jump.
That man saved Jonny’s life.
When Jonny stepped closer to safety, the police quickly whisked him away and he never got the chance to thank the kind stranger. Six years later, Jonny set out to find the man who saved him. With support from UK-based organization Rethink Mental Illness, Jonny launched the Find Mike campaign. The campaign quickly became viral across social media, and the hashtag #FindMike blazed across Twitter. It wasn’t long before Jonny found ‘Mike,’ otherwise known as Neil Laybourn.
The Finding Mike documentary about Jonny’s story was released today! Check it out here -> https://www.youtube.com/findmikefilm
In honor of the launch as well as Jonny’s tremendous courage, I spoke with Jonny about his story.
Shayna Darling: What is schizoaffective disorder, and what is it like to live with it?
Jonny Benjamin: Schizoaffective disorder is typically described as a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. For me, though, it’s more of a combination of schizophrenia and depression – I never got the ‘highs’ that often come with having bipolar. I was diagnosed when I was 20 and gradually overcame the depression and learnt to manage the schizophrenia. I experience a range of different symptoms associated with schizophrenia, such as paranoia, intrusive thoughts, delusions and hearing voices. It makes day-to-day living tough and I often lose touch with reality but I am much better than I was when I received my diagnosis. I use techniques that I’ve learnt over the years like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness to help manage these symptoms.
SD: Tell me about that day on the bridge, and the man you encountered.
JB: I was in the hospital at the time, having just been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. I felt like I’d been handed a life sentence and I couldn’t see any point of going on. You never hear any positive stories about people living with schizophrenia. So I ran away to the bridge intending to take my life. I was standing on the edge when I was approached by this total stranger. He was determined not to let me jump. He kept telling me, “It will get better,” and invited me to go for a coffee. His kindness, patience and lack of judgment stopped me from what I was about to do. Eventually, I agreed to step back over the edge to safety. As soon as I did, though, the police came and grabbed me and took me away. That was the last time I saw the stranger.
SD: What inspired you to launch the Find Mike campaign?
JB: I wanted to say thank you to this stranger for what he did that day. More than this, though, I wanted to raise awareness of suicide. Suicide takes a life every 40 seconds somewhere in the world, totaling 3,000 deaths every single day. We don’t seem to want to address the issue though, which is frustrating as I believe there is so much more we can do in terms of suicide prevention.
“Suicide takes a life every 40 seconds somewhere in the world, totaling 3,000 deaths every single day.”
SD: What are your thoughts on the stigma against mental illness?
JD: Stigma attached to mental illness is getting better, in my opinion, at least in the UK thanks to the work of charities like Time To Change. We have got a long way to go, though. Society still seems to regard physical illness as different than mental illness, despite the fact that the brain is an organ too! I really think we need to be going into schools and giving young people mental health education. So many people get in touch with me via my YouTube vlogs, who are suffering in silence because they’re too afraid to talk about their mental health. Stigma is literally killing people and I know we can change this. I strongly believe that in the future, mental health stigma will be eradicated. I just hope we see it in our lifetime.
“Stigma is literally killing people and I know we can change this.”
SD: Tell me about your movie that was just released today.
JB: The movie follows my search to find the stranger on the bridge: from launching the campaign, to following leads that came forward, to eventually finding the actual ‘Mike’ in what was a pretty emotional reunion. There’s a lot of frank discussion about suicide in the film. I hope the film will show people that having suicidal thoughts and feelings is human, and that it is possible to overcome any adversity, even if it seems impossible at the time.
SD: Any other words?
JD: Mental healthcare seriously needs to improve. Mental healthcare seems to come secondary to physical healthcare, and this is causing people to suffer unnecessarily.
Also, I think the media needs to take greater responsibility for their reporting of mental health and suicide. They have a key role to play in terms of reducing stigma and preventing suicides, and could do so much more to help with this.
[divider] [/divider]You can learn more about Jonny and Rethink at http://rethink.org/. Find them on Twitter at @MrJonnyBenjamin and @Rethink_ .
Photos via Rethink.org & The Rethink Mental Illness Facebook page.
For information on Allyn’s personal mission to raise awareness for suicide prevention, check out La Nuit Noire.