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Rob Mokaraka, Mental Health Advocate - “You Didn’t Choose to Hurt, But You Can Choose to Heal”

October 21, 202306:50
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and now I get to meet you know I meet
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people like you Dom we've never met so
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what I really cherish is meaning
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like-minded Souls who are happy to talk
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about these very crunchy things so other
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people out there in the world who don't
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have the words or the courage yet can
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breathe a sigh of relief and go okay
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maybe I can get to that stage I'm just
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right down here at the moment struggling
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yeah so I appreciate you brother that's
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what I'm trying to say I I appreciate
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you too and as I was saying before from
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doing this podast C you realize that
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everyone's carrying a bag of [ __ ] it's
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just how big that bag of [ __ ] is and um
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and I'd like to think people can go can
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can hear your story and go okay well he
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got through that I can get through this
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relationship breakup job loss you know
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this guilt that I've got for whatever it
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happens to be absolutely and and if I
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could just give I just try and drop real
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simple gems for people I was like you
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didn't choose the hurt but you can
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choose to heal cuz we get stuck in here
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yeah well that's it can't change
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anything well I was like well you're not
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a tree bro you can move so um I was like
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oh I can move too I can move to help but
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it's just trying to it's easier said
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than done when you're when you're in
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that fight or flight all the time and
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you're it's like you're literally
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walking through a storm that no one can
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see yeah when do you start to come right
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how long is it so July 2009
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yesterday oh I'm sorry I understand
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you're still a work in progress if
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you're if you're um suffer from mental
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illness it's it's never going to fully
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go away and it's a constant on um but
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when did you start to feel like your
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your old self again or your new self
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again well it's interesting because you
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as you're healing you have to change
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your ways because can't physically do
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this can't physically do that mentally
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it's hard because your body's not
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working you have to evolve and now as I
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got better physically I started to go
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back to my old dumb ways like let's have
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some beers let's get on it and I
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mentally started to fall down again I
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went what's wrong I'm back I'm like I'm
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feeling fit again what's wrong with me
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it's like oh you idiot you can't go back
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to the old ways now in my Evolution and
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anyone's healing Evolution you have to
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keep moving forward if you try to go
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backwards you're going to sink back down
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to where you were yeah and that's that
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happened to me a few times that's okay I
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mean I was I was with with good people
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but when I realized that I was like oh
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[ __ ] this is not good for my mental
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health I share this with everybody I've
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got a tight three three people that I
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trust with my life I can text or call
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anytime night or day and I encourage
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other people to get a tight three
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because it's too much for one person to
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hold and the good thing about my tight
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threats grow to five people that I trust
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in my life um is that if you're swirling
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that person there to help you and if
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you're the person helping the one
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swirling and it's too much for you you
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call in the other people so you're
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you're putting a circle of UT heart and
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hope around that one person and the
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three of you or five of you can navigate
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it better than one so it's basically to
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even the load I think that's a good idea
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as a formal sort of I mean you hear
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about people that go to Alcoholics
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Anonymous and they have a sponsor you
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know someone they can call anytime day
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or night but we don't do that for mental
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health do we and um and but everyone
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says everyone says like if you're ever
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feeling down you give me a call day or
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night but it's feels like it's just lip
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service yeah and that's why I've taken
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this I took it that step to go I'm going
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to nominate these people and formalize
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it and formalize it and you know it's
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okay if they go oh actually it's it's a
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bit too much for me bro go okay thanks
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now I know uh this person over here this
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another person so you just build and
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I've heard people say I don't have a
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tight I don't have a tight one in my
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circle and I've actually said to them
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sounds like your circle is crap um if
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you can't ask one person in your circle
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to be you know a guardian a kitak you
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better change a circle bro cuz that
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means you it's not a safe place to be I
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like that so when did the when did the
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decision come to tour it and do shop bro
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as I said at the beginning I I watched
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this on YouTube last night and anyone
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can watch it um it's it's a hard watch
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and after watching it last night I
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thought you know it must be exhausting
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for you to even come over here today and
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like chat about this for an hour no no
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no this is my every day because it's not
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heavy for me it's not it's not heavy for
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me it was heavy for me it's light for me
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do I still have shed some tears about it
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sometimes yeah but it's nowhere near as
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heavy as it's ever been for me I'm at
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probably the best shape mentally
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physically spiritually that I've ever
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been at but I know that I got to keep
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working on it I can't just stop like
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going on cruise mode because I'll start
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to slip backwards I've actually the
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thing about prevention is you've got to
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be actually putting into action you got
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to be actioning it's great to have all
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these tools but if you're not practicing
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any of these tools daily then it's just
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great thoughts and ideas oh yeah and
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then when when the [ __ ] hits the fan and
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you go and grab the tool you don't
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actually use it before you're like oh
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well I dropped it oh oh grab the other
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one oh dropped it too oh God and all of
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a sudden you've got had a great you
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think you've got these great tools which
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you've never practiced using and I had
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to figure out that the hard way bro that
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happened to me so many times yeah yeah
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that's great that's a great one that's a
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great one and then when the [ __ ] the fan
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they'd all fall out on the floor and I
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got I was lost again yeah but that's the
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thing I mean the easiest time to do the
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work is when you don't need it eh but
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it's like I mean who does that you know
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what I it's like I don't need it I'm all
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good totally until you're not and that's
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what I I used to do that all the time
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but now I've had to use these tools and
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I encourage other people to use whatever
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tools you need cuz we're all same same
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but different and you might need a
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little different variation of this so
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figure out what you need and when you're
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swirling in that storm of suici a
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suicide audiation and you're brave
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enough to go bro I'm spinning out I need
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help right now the best advice I've ever
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got and it's from my first cousin Clint
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Edmunds he said to me on the phone what
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do you need cousin cuz you could hear
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that I was distressed and I'd never
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everybody have ever heard anyone ask me
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what I need and I realized why cuz I
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never told anybody I've been suicidal so
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to have somebody actually listen without
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judgment not go oh man we we better
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medicate you or jeez we better call the
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cops or call the ambulance it's like
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there's no Panic the person who I trust
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in my life number one on my dining list
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is my cousin just asking me what I need
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and what I really like about that is it
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puts the ball back in that person's
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Court to figure out what do I need
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because no one's ever asked me do I need
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to cry do I need to go to the gym do I
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need to hit the punching bag go to the
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ocean I don't know but at least now
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someone's put it in your court to ask
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what you need so it's actually having to
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build the capacity getting the person to
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build it for themselves but giving them
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a platform to to work off

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