Gerry Friesen, AKA the Recovering Farmer, is a co-founder of the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program. He comes from a diverse background of experience, learning and discovery through farming and as a stress and conflict management specialist. Gerry’s passion is in helping others find solutions for the various issues that life throws at us. A combination of his own journey with anxiety and depression, training in conflict resolution and intensive counselling training provide him the tools to help others who are struggling. To learn more about Gerry visit his website at www.gerryfriesen.ca.

In this episode, Gerry shares his story about and the aspects of his life as a farmer that contributed to his mental health, positively and negatively. From his experiences with mental health struggles and alcoholism, comes the book, “The Recovering Farmer: A Journey Through the Labyrinth of Anxiety and Depression.” Gerry shares some of the stories, tools and strategies that can be found within his book.

We also talk about some of Gerry’s blog posts. This is a quote from Gerry’s blog post titled, “The Hidden Risk: How Mental Health Impacts Farm Safety” published March 16th on your website, “Farmers deal with countless factors outside of their control—commodity prices, weather, equipment failures, and market uncertainty. This constant unpredictability wreaks havoc on our minds, leaving us feeling powerless. And yet, the pressure to “push through” remains. There’s an unspoken expectation in agriculture that you work until the job is done, no matter the toll it takes on you. But at what cost? When exhaustion sets in, mistakes happen. A missed step, a moment of inattention, or a delayed reaction can turn into a life-altering accident.

The culture of farming has long been one of resilience, but resilience doesn’t mean suffering in silence. We need to start having open conversations about mental health in our farm communities.”

There is another quote from Gerry’s blog post titled, “Coming Out of the Closet” from October 20th that is discussing the stigma attached to mental health, which in part reads,

“Talking about things that are keeping us in our closet takes courage. The word most used to describe the ability to open up is vulnerability. I have used it lots but, for interest’s sake, I looked it up in the dictionary and realized that perhaps I had never fully understood the meaning. I always assumed it simply meant that we let our guard down, to be open and honest. But there is more to the definition, something a little more nefarious.

To be vulnerable is also the susceptibility to an emotional attack, to be open to criticism and to potentially be emotionally wounded. That makes it sound scary and I suspect that’s why many avoid being vulnerable. Its bad enough that we experience mental illness and often question our value. Our self-esteem is fragile so by opening up and being vulnerable we run the risk of having our values questioned and risk our self-esteem taking another blow. So it feels safer to stay in the closet.

The good news is that vulnerability breeds vulnerability. I found it interesting that when I started openly talking about my journey others opened up to me as well.”

We wrap up the show talking about the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program, and what that program offers to farmers and farm families here in Manitoba.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Gerry Friesen: The Recovering Farmer: https://www.gerryfriesen.ca/

National Farmer Wellness Network & National Farmer Crisis Line: https://ccaw.ca/national-farmer-wellness-network/

Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program: