23/04/2024
For most of his adult life, Shay Concannon spent every waking minute on his family farm in Galway — sometimes on days when he fell out of love with being a farmer.
“I was always on the farm,” he says. “If I wasn’t milking cows at certain times of the day, I’d be getting a phone call from my family asking ‘What’s wrong with you?’.
“It had me wrecked. The pressure of working on the farm was so much that I was tired all the time — I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t want to go anywhere and I didn’t want to see anyone.
“My parents didn’t understand what depression was. I had serious issues for years and I didn’t know how to fix it. I knew I needed to talk to someone — and I felt I couldn’t talk to my family.
“It got so bad that I was standing at a river-bank ready to jump in and I made a phone call to my sister to say goodbye. She talked me down and said I needed help. She rang my wife, they got me to a GP and that’s how I got the help I needed.
“They knew I was in trouble, so they took me to a psych ward in Galway and I talked to doctors and nurses there every week for 12-13 weeks. I’d just talk my problems out and it was a big, big help.”
A recent DCU study found that farmers face significant mental health issues compared to the general population. At the link in the comments below, two farmers reveal the extent of their struggles – and how they turned things round.
📸: Ray Ryan
