No Talk Day: Triple M host Lawrence Mooney’s plea about suicide

Triple M funnyman Lawrence “Moonman” Mooney has gone completely out of character to deliver an important message to Australia.

I’ve been thinking a lot about suicide lately. Not in a prejudicial way just that suicide has been there, around me, the whole time. I can name seven suicides where I knew the person. The stuntman, the comedian, the actor, the dancer, the commentator, the model and the storeman. People: sons and daughters, wives and husbands, mums and dads that have killed themselves.

As Triple M embarks on another No Talk Day, an initiative designed to draw attention to the fact that men often find it difficult, or are discouraged, from talking about their feelings, I’ve been again reflecting on how mental health issues have surrounded me.

How they are slowly emerging from the shadows, slowly losing their stigma, coming into the light and being recognised as widespread and critical.

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Radio presenter Lawrence Mooney is talking about suicide for No Talk Day. Picture: Instagram @moonmaninthemorning

In Australia, eight people a day take their own lives. I’ve been blessed with resilience, I’ve been down but I’ve been able to pick myself up. I’ve also been able to accept that resilience is a blessing.

Like a penetrating right foot, a brain for quantum physics or an ear for music, not everybody has it. But before I learnt not everyone has this, I lacked empathy – I’d always been from the “just snap out of it” school of mental health. Now I know that mental health is not that simple or easy.

Suicide is such a tragic, lonely and awful way to die. The pain is too immense, you see no way out or worse, you think that it’s best for everyone. None of it is logical, of course it isn’t, it’s suicide, it defies all of our natural instincts to survive.

In my experience of those seven suicides all that is left behind is devastation and questions. The questions can never be answered and they never end. Why, why, why? That is the word most repeated and whilst people grieve, they try and rationalise something that is beyond their comprehension. The why is answered then asked again forever. Why?

Talk. Tell somebody how frightened you are or overwhelmed or sad or lost. Tell somebody you need help because you can’t do it anymore.

Mooney’s breakfast radio show on Triple M will have no talking on July 1 to raise awareness of mental health issues. Picture: Instagram @moonmaninthemorning

Maybe I’m straying into the territory of an optimist but I truly believe that if the seven people I knew were given a second chance they wouldn’t choose suicide. Whatever head space you’re in, whatever decisions you’ve made nothing could be further from the truth than suicide is the way to go.

Saying you’re frightened is a tough thing to say. It’s up there with sorry, I was wrong, I forgive you and I love you. Tough yes, but it could save your life and make the lives of everybody around you so much better because you’ll still be here. Talk. All you have to do is talk.

Today (July 1), on all 43 Triple M Stations, there will be no adverts, no announcers and no news for No Talk Day in partnership with Beyond Blue.