At Distract the Squirrel we have been researching for a while, trying to discover the best ways to support our community. Distract the Squirrel was created by our CEO, because sometimes she loses focus or over focuses. When that happens, she has to find inventive ways to manage the over focus, particularly if it is effecting her mental wellness. So when she started brainstorming, ideas just flew out of her mind and that is where ‘The Hand You’re Dealt’ came from.
7 men a day lose their life to suicide every day, compared to 2 for women. What are we missing that allows us to lose more men a day than women to suicide? We believe, our lady CEO has found the answer, by creating a self assessment tool for men that helps to connect emotions and feelings. The ‘Hand your Dealt’ is a tangible grounding self assessment tool to help men with mental health. Because we think 7 a day is too many, don’t you?
The idea came to our lady CEO a few months ago after another man took his own life in our community. She felt there just had to be another way to help men; because there has to be a way, to stop suicide ever being an option. The ‘why’ of how you came to be on this journey is important, but its not as important as calming the storm in your mind so you can reach a point where you can talk about it; the ‘why’ does become easier later. Once you finally reach the point where you can talk, you can start to process and slowly start living again. One day, suddenly, you’ll realise you’ve reached a milestone, where you can think about the ‘why’ and it’s just a tiny moment in your life. Don’t give up, I didn’t.