Have you ever stood at the edge of life, teetering between the will to live and the temptation to end it all? Kevin Hines faced this chilling reality when he leapt from the Golden Gate Bridge, only to embrace life fiercely during his fall.
In this astonishing conversation with Kevin, he describes the raw emotions and struggles with bipolar depression that brought him to the brink of death, the miraculous series of "coincidences" that saved him, and the extraordinary new life he has discovered on "the other side."
Through his own battles with nutrition and gut health, Kevin connects "mind" with "body" as he explains how our physical health affects our mental state, and vice versa.
Kevin says we each have a tale to tell, a personal narrative that can shake the world. His message is clear: life's value is immeasurable, and hope is a lifeline we can extend to one another, one story, one moment, one outreach at a time.
========================
Website: KevinHinesStory.com
Social Media: @KevinHines
========================
Chances are, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't need to change your life and get healthier.
So take action right now. Book a call with Dr. Ovadia's team.
One small step in the right direction is all it takes to get started.
How to connect with Stay Off My Operating Table:
Twitter:
Learn more:
Theme Song : Rage Against
Written & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey
(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings
Have you ever stood at the edge of life, teetering between the will to live and the temptation to end it all? Kevin Hines faced this chilling reality when he leapt from the Golden Gate Bridge, only to embrace life fiercely during his fall.
In this astonishing conversation with Kevin, he describes the raw emotions and struggles with bipolar depression that brought him to the brink of death, the miraculous series of "coincidences" that saved him, and the extraordinary new life he has discovered on "the other side."
Through his own battles with nutrition and gut health, Kevin connects "mind" with "body" as he explains how our physical health affects our mental state, and vice versa.
Kevin says we each have a tale to tell, a personal narrative that can shake the world. His message is clear: life's value is immeasurable, and hope is a lifeline we can extend to one another, one story, one moment, one outreach at a time.
========================
Website: KevinHinesStory.com
Social Media: @KevinHines
========================
Chances are, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't need to change your life and get healthier.
So take action right now. Book a call with Dr. Ovadia's team.
One small step in the right direction is all it takes to get started.
How to connect with Stay Off My Operating Table:
Twitter:
Learn more:
Theme Song : Rage Against
Written & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey
(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings
Well, welcome everybody. It's a stay off my operating table podcast with Dr Philip Ovedia. Today we have a guest. I have really been looking forward to hearing from Phil set it up for us and let's get this thing started.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, this one I'm going to warn the audience this one's going to be a little different. Our guest today, kevin Hines, is someone that I kind of crossed pathways with on the interwebs as it is and he just has an amazing story that needs to be heard and needs to get out there. It is an amazing and inspiring story and you know it's not really necessarily on our major topic of focus, but I think it is very important and I think I know that the audience is really going to enjoy this one. So with that, let me turn it over to Kevin to give a kind of brief introduction about who he is, and then we can get into that amazing and inspiring story.
Kevin Hines:Sure you bet, and thank you both for having me on. I really appreciate it. Glad to be here with you. My name is Kevin Hines and I live with bipolar depression, the very same brain disease both of my biological parents, as I'm adopted, had before me when they called it manic depression in their day in the 70s and 80s, and due to bipolar depression and what I call what I term to be lethal emotional pain at the age of 19,.
Kevin Hines:In the year 2000, some near 24 years ago, I leapt off the Golden Gate Bridge to try to end my life. One of less than 1% of the time survived the fall. The fall is, by and large, 99.9% fatal. So I am very lucky and very blessed to be alive. And I'll tell you this a few things saved my life that day. Well, I believe it was a miracle. I believe God saved my life. That's my product. But I'll tell you this I fell that day 220 feet, 25 stories, closing in on 75 miles an hour, in four seconds, and in those four seconds I prayed to God that I would live.
Kevin Hines:I was driving by in a red car, something over the rail at the moment of my attempt, called her friend in her car phone in the United States Coast Guard, who happened to be manning the waters of the bridge at that moment.
Kevin Hines:The only reason the Coast Guard got to me in a Tommy manner in which they did In the water before the Coast Guard board arrived. I was drowning. I couldn't stay afloat. I kept going down. I go down one more time and something very large and very sliding began circling beneath me, bumping me up. No longer was I waiting or treading in the water or trying to fight to get to the surface. Now I'm lying atop the water on my back, being kept buoyant by this creature circling behind my elbows, knees and shoulders, bumping me to the surface, and so I think it's a nice shark. This whole time it turns out to be a sea lion and the people above looking down, I believe just keeping my body afloat to the Coast Guard board, arrived behind and many people went to the British patrol. Many people went to the Coast Guard office to recount that story. So we had a testimony.
Kevin Hines:But after that one of the foremost back surgeons in the world, dr Jonathan Levin, who I just got reunited with a year ago after 22 years of not seeing him, saved me the ability to stand, walk and run. He performed a back surgery on me as I shattered three of my lower vertebrae and, missed that day, severing my spinal cord by two millimeters. Dr Levin and his team saved me the ability to do what I'm doing right now, which is stand here and talk to you. So I always say, doc, that I get to be here, and getting to be here is both a privilege and a gift, no matter the pain you might be in and I'm in a lot of pain. I have a lot of physical pain from what I did to myself 23 years ago, but I need no pity.
Kevin Hines:I took those actions, I take responsibility for them and today I live with some regular thoughts of suicide.
Kevin Hines:But instead of acting on those thoughts, I do two things. Every time the ideations come and this can be taught, and because it can be taught, it can be learned, so I'll tell your audience. Every time these ideations of suicide come, I do two things. I find a mirror any mirror anywhere I look into that mirror and I say my thoughts do not have to become my actions. They can simply be my thoughts, their own rule or define whatever I do next, if they're dangerous to myself or others. The next thing I do is I turn to anyone willing to listen and I say four simple but very effective words I need help now. Difference between me and people who attempt to die by suicide is that I don't stop turning to beat and saying those words until someone's willing to help and I've stayed alive for 23 years doing this and to anyone struggling with suicidal ideation, it does not have to be your end. It can be the beginning the beginning to asking for help, the beginning to finding hope and the beginning of your beautiful future.
Jack Heald:Wow yeah.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:It's going to be hard to just follow up on that amazing story, but maybe what you just talked on, because I think it may be hard for people who don't experience this to understand what suicidal ideation is like. So give us your perspective on that.
Kevin Hines:Sure, there are people all around the world that go for their entire life never having these kind of thoughts, but there are millions and millions who do, and we want to normalize the conversation, we want to conquer these thoughts and we want to ask the questions to someone who's contemplating them. Are you thinking of killing yourself? Have you made plans to take your life, and do you have the means? Those three questions tend to get a more honest answer than even the questions, even the question that you're thinking of suicide, because by nature, the word suicide has a taboo on it already. So by asking the directed, honest question are you thinking of killing yourself? Have you made the plans to take your life? Do you have the means? You're opening the door to a person sharing their pain and I always say a pain shared is a pain halved. To answer your question, though, to those who can't quite understand what a suicidal ideation can come from, it comes from the deepest and darkest pains we've ever experienced and traumas, and anybody can go through it, of any age, of any background, and people who can't comprehend it think of it like this you have this internal voice, this internal narrative that's telling you you're worthless, you have no value and then you don't belong here and that narrative becomes a loop in your mind. It becomes a perseverating loop in your mind and you start to believe the words that your distorted reality is saying, when you think to yourself I'm a burden, you're wrong, you're not. And that feeling of burdensomeness to others is what can often lead to a suicidal crisis.
Kevin Hines:I wish people who had that perception of self-burdenfulness could realize their true value, how words truly they are of love and how much they actually do matter and how important they are.
Kevin Hines:I know a lot of people that struggle with self-love, but they struggle with self-love because they never believe they can be loved by anybody else. And when you don't believe you can be loved, you lack all self-care for yourself and you go down that rabbit hole into a suicidal crisis and ideation. So I think that helping people understand who don't have the ideation that just because someone you love does doesn't make you a bad person, doesn't make what they're thinking wrong In fact, it's so commonplace around the world what you must do is embrace them, listen to understand not to respond and be there in the moment. You don't always have to have a solution to their problem. You don't always have to have an answer or advice. Sometimes you can just physically be in attendance and say I got you, you don't have to do this, it's not the answer and you're safe with me, and that's all people need sometimes to get past that moment to get to a brighter day.
Jack Heald:How did you get from being picked up by the postcard just a few minutes after deciding to end your own life to today, to this particular message Talk through that transformation? Sure, so, obviously, jumping off a bridge was a pretty transformative moment.
Kevin Hines:Yeah, and then surviving, because most people don't. But it was in the psych ward after my physical recovery, or the start of my physical recovery, because I went from a wheelchair to walk in a back brace to a back brace in a cane and then ran to my first psych ward. It was in that psych ward that I met a man named Brother George Chair. He was a Franciscan friar of the Catholic faith. I'm Catholic and he comes into my room one day and this is a guy who wore the black robe and the white robe and the brown sandals and stark white hair. It looks like Saint Francis, but no birds. Yeah, and this is a man who was a chapter of the hospital for about 30 years and he would always read the chart, so he knew what he was getting into when he walked into a room. But on this day he just walked right in while reading the chart. He felt compelled to just walk right in.
Kevin Hines:He walked in and he looked at me and here I am putting on my back brace for the first time that I've put it on myself, actually and my cane is to my right side on the bed and I'm putting on my back brace, I'm struggling. And he goes hey, kid, what are you in for? I said, brother, I jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. And he goes yeah, and I'm the pope. He didn't. Yeah, he thought I was delusional. And I said no, brother, that's what happened. That's why the back brace, that's why the cane.
Kevin Hines:And he goes oh, so sorry, I feel so silly. Let's pray. And he comes by my side and sits down next to me and he says prayers, I'm very familiar with it, I repeat them with him. And he turns to me and he says kid, when you get better, you want to talk about this. And I looked at him and I said about what? To who? I didn't understand. He said you'll see, every single day of my month long stay there, brother George, would come into my room, he would pray with me and he would say kid, when you get better, you want to talk about this every day.
Jack Heald:I would ignore him on the final day of my stay.
Kevin Hines:Brother George cherry comes in and my father's helping me hobble out of the hospital with my back brace and my cane and a lot of pain, and he says, kevin, as I'm walking out the door he says Kevin, I expect you'll talk about this. And I was like see ya. And I get out of the hospital and my father very shortly thereafter takes me to church, the same church I grew up in school. I went to next door and I'm in the service and I felt like the priest was talking directly to me. It's as entirely possible. My dad was on his board so he could just say this is Kevin. But the priest comes out after the service and he says Kevin, so glad you came to church today. How are you feeling? I'm like, ah, you know he goes, kevin, we're so glad you're here, we're so glad you're alive.
Kevin Hines:How would you like to come and talk to our seventh and eighth grade class about your experience this good Friday? I was like, oh, you've got to be kidding me. I was like, father, I don't have a speech and I wouldn't know what to say. And my dad shoves me forward and goes don't do it. I was like what are you doing? And he goes you'll do it when you close. I'm like you need to close. Your old man, I didn't know when to lay down, but I didn't say that he sticks one and I'm not, so so, uh, I go home and you know, good Friday rolls around and I write a speech till three in the morning on good Friday. So it wasn't meant to be held in but it was 17 pages to read. A lot of time did that morning and it was a 17 pages, 45 minutes, and my dad kind of edited it a little bit.
Kevin Hines:And I go on good Friday in front of 120 seventh and eighth grade kids sitting cross late on the floor in the same Catholic uniform I used to wear and I'm like what am I doing here? Who is this going to help? What a waste of time. Well, I start, I start rolling off the speech. Now, here I am with my back, brace on holding my cane, while leaning my back, brace up against the lip of the table behind me so I can stand barely, and I'm in a lot of pain and I'm dropping page by page to the floor with my thumb, while reading it from the page, while crying aloud, while, you know, while really emotional and like really raw and shaky and I dropped the last page to the floor and my first thought was like what am I doing here? And then eight hands go up. I say did?
Kevin Hines:I just make an impact. I call him the first kid in the back and he asked the most inappropriate question and then none goes out. There's a chance it wasn't going to. But then seven more intuitive, empowering, important and moving questions. I was like, wow, that did sell. Okay, whatever, I go home and I stop thinking and I think, well, never do that again.
Kevin Hines:I get a call two weeks later from Father Michael Heron. He calls me and says Kevin, would you come to the rectory? I've got something for you. So I huck up two miles in my back brace and my cane sweating through my back brace, having an asthma attack. I get to the rectory, I walk into his office, he sits me down, I take mine in Hailler because I'm having an asthma attack and he goes Kevin, here, this is for you. He hands me a vanilla epilogue and I open it. Inside it was a sacred heart drawing, a beautiful pencil color drawing of the sacred heart of Jesus by one of the kids. It was beautiful, really beautiful. I still have it. I open that and there's 120 letters from 120 kids. I don't make a mistake. They were mandated to write the letters.
Kevin Hines:A bunch of seven to 90 grade, kids did not get together and go, let's all write to the sweet side of guys simultaneously, but because they were minors under the age of 18, counselors and parents listened up because they were minors under the age of 18 and they were not given any parameters on what they could write.
Kevin Hines:They were told to write me to their hearts content and six of them wrote of their active students several crisis Because the letters were screened by the parents and teachers. They were given the care they were needed and they're alive today, and two of them are therapists. Wow. And so that was one speech in one year. That's all I did the same school next year and then I started going around to schools and organizations and hospitals and all around the city of San Francisco in the greater Bay Area and giving a business card that I really printed off my computer and cut myself out of and telling people I wanna speak for you. And it became what it is today 250 to 300 presentations a year, key notes around the world, and I'm so blessed and so lucky that I get to exist, that I get to do this work and then I get to stand here and talk to both of you Wow.
Jack Heald:So tell us about the lemons.
Kevin Hines:Oh, the lemons. This is a foundation my friend created Taylor Lautner Taylor, it was the werewolf in the Twilight films. Taylor Lautner, our husband and wife, that are incredible and have a lemons foundation for mental health and it's lemons by Tay on Instagram and they give free mental health care to people in need across Los Angeles and beyond and they're doing some great work in mental health and they have me on their podcast and they give to me the sweatshirt. I wear it so often I didn't realize I had it on.
Jack Heald:You forgot you had it on. We'll make sure to link that in the show notes. Yeah, I got it All right, good deal.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:This is gonna be, I don't know. I guess this is a challenging question to answer, but if you could go back, would you do it again, Knowing what happened since?
Kevin Hines:Yeah, it's not a challenging question to answer. I wouldn't change a thing. What I would say to everyone else thinking about it is don't take the step. Your life is too valuable. You matter too much. Suicide and suicide attempts are not the answer. No problem. Suicide ideations are the greatest liars we know. We don't have to listen to them. Suicide does not take the pain away. It makes it virtually impossible for things to ever get better.
Kevin Hines:So, that being said, then my podcast is hindsight. In hindsight, I wouldn't change anything because it's led me here to you and hopefully this podcast changes someone's life. That's the goal, right? So every action we take, everything we do, it has a ripple effect in our lives. Did it devastate my family? Absolutely. Did it destroy some friendships? Yes, but here I am today, alive and well and thriving, trying to help other people heal, and that's a gift and I wouldn't wish it on anyone else and I hope that you are able to recognize that and understand that.
Kevin Hines:If you're going through these kinds of thoughts in this moment right now, take a breather, just stop. Take a breath, do in forth through your nose, hold for four seconds, release pursed lips like a whistle, but no sound for eight seconds. Do that 30 more times 30 resonance, deep breaths. Sit with yourself in a calm place, bring your brain, your mind and your body to a cool and recognize that there are so many other options besides attempting to take your life or die by suicide. There are so many pathways to healing and to recovery from whatever you're dealing with and that there are people who genuinely care about you and want you here. You know, if maybe you don't have that kind of family, that's got your back.
Kevin Hines:Maybe you don't have that kind of support network that you need so desperately. You have an opportunity to become your best advocate. You have an opportunity to change the way you see the world. Don't let your pain defeat you. No, let it build you, brick by brick, from the ground up until you're stronger than ever. I have regular thoughts of suicide. I've never attempted to get out of the Golden Gate bridge. You don't have to start. You can stop it right now and stay right here and be here tomorrow and every day after that.
Jack Heald:How did you learn these skills?
Kevin Hines:Time, effort, energy and hard work. Nothing good ever came without it. My father taught me that I just was too stubborn to listen until it was nearly too late. I'll never forget my father coming into my hospital room and I could hear his feet clacking down the hallway. Clicking to clack it, and he comes into my room. This is a man who played years of semi-pro hockey as the goalie with no mask. Okay, he's a tough.
Jack Heald:SOB.
Kevin Hines:Oh my God, he comes in the room and he had never cried a day in my life in 19 years up until that point, and waterfalls flew from his eyes and he said Kevin, I'm sorry, guilt. I said, no, dad, I'm sorry. And here I am in a bracing structure, I can't even move, and he puts his hand on my forehead and he says words I'll never forget. Kevin, you're going to be okay, I promise they didn't know if I lived through the night.
Jack Heald:Oh.
Kevin Hines:But he and his words kept me here and I fought. You know it was a hard road. I pray I'll never be lost in that darkness. Go ahead, alright, let's go, you bet.
Jack Heald:You know, I that brief little story about your dad reminds me of the underappreciated power of just our words. I don't want to lead the witness, but I'd love for you to talk more about the words that have made a difference in your.
Kevin Hines:Let's talk about that. Let's talk about the words that make a difference in a bad and a good way. Words have the power to do one of two things Damage and destroy, or help and heal. What will your words toward those you love do to borrow them for the rest of your life?
Jack Heald:This is very very important.
Kevin Hines:Those words my dad said kept me here. You know my mom. My mom came into the hospital and she is the most optimistic woman on the face of the planet behind and she comes in and she just says I guess God wanted me to win that Oscar and I had done high school and college theater. And I was like mom, it was high school and college theater. I don't think that's going to happen, but thanks. But her words were still inspiring in me and now I make documentary films. So, who knows, maybe it could happen someday, who knows, who knows? But those words made a difference. And then my brother came to it. He was 13 at the time and he said how could you do this to us? We love him, I hate him. And he walked out. He has no recollection of this, but I have witnesses. He was in so much pain because I didn't know that my brother actually looked up to me and I shattered his vision of me. I destroyed it In one fell swoop, literally. And so our words and our actions mattered, and I want to change the trajectory of this conversation just a bit.
Kevin Hines:All around the world, wherever I travel to grade schools and high schools and middle schools. This is the most common theme I hear. Number one I'm being bullied all day, every day in school. When I go home, I'm being bullied online and it's destroying me. And people are saying to me, online and otherwise, you should just go kill yourself. Let's stop right there. Your words, young individuals that you are sharing with the people, your peers, and the fact that you're telling them quite callously to just take their lives. They have mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, family and friends that need them and they are dying because of your words and that's appalling, it's disgusting and it's downright evil. Stop it. Stop it. You have the power to stop it. Hurt people, hurt people. All right, I get why you're hurting someone else because you've been hurt. You don't have to perpetuate the same situation you're going through. You can change the narrative and change the trajectory of your ethos, your life, and give kindness to someone else so they can go have a good life. You don't have to hurt other people just because you've been hurt. You can break that cycle right now. Right now. Anybody listening that's ever done that, anybody who's ever been a bully knock it off. What are you doing? You're destroying lives and it's not worth it. It's not.
Kevin Hines:You know, when I was in grade school I'm part black. When I was in grade school the eighth graders took me as a fourth grader and shoved me in a garbage can face first and told me that's what I was, because of my race. How is that okay? How is that allowed? There was a guy I'll never forget. His name was Nick, I won't say his last name. He held my head down and he would yell swing, little n-word swing. Here I am with my head held by the eighth grader in fourth grade, swinging to try to get him away from me like this. He just would hold me there during the entirety of recess. I just, you know, I wonder where he is today. But you know what? I don't wish him ill. I wish him healing. I hope he has found peace in his life, because I know for a fact that his father beat him. So I know why people do these things. But I also know they can stop and they can break the cycle.
Jack Heald:What, if anything, have you learned about the physiology of bipolar, of these mental dysfunctions? And we'll take it from there.
Kevin Hines:Well, you know, one of the biggest things that I don't think is highlighted enough is the gut to brain health connection. Your gut microbiome has some creates all your body's serotonin and dopamine affecting your mental. Well. If you're feeding your body only poison, processed foods, you're damaging your brain's functionality to cellular level. In my infancy, before I was adopted, my birth parents fed me Kool-Aid, coca-cola and sour milk from ravaging my gut, destroying my brain.
Kevin Hines:I was, by definition, mentally ill from the very beginning of my life, and if more people can understand that what we put into our bodies nurtures our mind, we would be a lot better off society. We would be a lot more well adjusted, well rounding, safe and healthy. And I don't mean healthy from a physical standpoint, having the six pack abs. That's not what healthy is. I'm talking about healthy as a society where we have food deserts all across this country, where people can only get those processed foods?
Kevin Hines:They don't even have the opportunity to get food that nourishes their brain, and thus the violence levels in those cities, in those areas, is skyrocketing off the charts, and it has a great deal to do with the level of poison in their bodies, that they're feeding their brains.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, we've had that's pretty profound there.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, I was going to say we've had two psychiatrists on this program, Dr Christopher Palmer and Dr Georgia Ede, those of who have come to realize this interrelationship between what we eat and our mental health. So very encouraging to hear you say that and as much as my audience is probably going to think oh, Dr Ovedia knew that you would be saying that. I didn't know that was part of your messaging, but I'm very, very encouraged to hear that. What point in your life did you recognize that? Did you realize that?
Kevin Hines:You know, it was in a situation that was very dire for me. Actually, I developed secondary burns from head to toe without a fire. One of my medications, along with the foods I was eating, combined to poison my organs and I was on the tipping point of Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
Jack Heald:What is that?
Kevin Hines:If you get Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which is very rare a very small percentage of people who take medications get it. It'd be caused by any medication. If you get Stevens-Johnson syndrome, people who get it most severely they're inside, boil outside of them and they expire.
Jack Heald:They die God.
Kevin Hines:And I got to the point where bloody blisters were across my whole body, from head to toe, and the doctor said if you don't get off all medications right now, you're going to die. And I was like what do you mean? I have bipolar depression, I have asthma, I have allergies If I get off these meds.
Jack Heald:I could die from an asthma attack.
Kevin Hines:I get so panicky. But an interesting thing happened. They took me off all psych meds, all asthma meds and all allergy meds. My asthma went away. I asked one way, but here I was, going through the most physical pain to most physical pain I've ever experienced in my life. It felt like knives and needles are coming from my bones, my skin, everywhere they had to get me off these meds.
Kevin Hines:They got me out of meds and they were trying to determine, by reintroducing med by med, which medication was causing the problem. They determined which one it was. I was able to get back on segments, tell me about my brain and mental health and some asthma meds. It was a very scary time. What the doctor said was you need to radically shift your diet and the things you eat, because you're eating a great deal of inflammatory foods which are a big positive factor to these problems that you're having, along with the meds connecting to them and having some reaction. What I ended up doing was I started eating mostly anti-inflammatory foods, most meals, most days.
Jack Heald:I'm sorry, too fast, mostly what.
Kevin Hines:Mostly anti-inflammatory meals most days.
Kevin Hines:I didn't do it every meal. I didn't do it every day, I did it most meals, most days. I saw a dramatic improvement in my skin, in my physical and mental health, in my brain health and my well-being. It's allowed me to be on an even keel now for a very long time. I follow these routines, I practice them, I educate myself as to my diagnosis. I exercise every day. I eat anti-inflammatory food most meals most days. I educate myself, I go to therapy. I don't just use talk therapy. I use talk therapy, blue-eyed black box therapy, art therapy, music therapy.
Kevin Hines:I am engulfed in these treatment modalities because I know that if I don't follow my routine I'm right back in the sidewalk. These are the things I have to do. That's what I mean by putting in the hard work, because everyone wants their betterment right now. They want that one pill or that one exercise, that one tool that's going to solve other problems. This isn't the uberification of life. If you want to be well from a severe, diagnosed brain illness, you have to do the work. You have to put in the time, effort and energy, or else it's not going to happen. Now I understand that's really, really hard for people who are in the thick of it to do it. But once you have a modicum of wellness, you need to fight for your betterment and you need to do everything you can to stay stable.
Jack Heald:Did you have any? I'm certain, just because I know human beings, that it hasn't been a continuously upward trajectory for you since then. The reason I asked this I had a physical situation, not a mental situation, but once I that was almost killed me and once I recovered from that I was gung-ho and excited and went way too far, way too fast and I had a. I reverted and kind of had to start all over again. Talk a little bit about that for people who are, who are facing that kind of thing Does that mean yeah, absolutely so.
Kevin Hines:if you look at my life's path in the last, I would say well, from 2000 to 2019, so 19 years 10 psych ward stays for Susone Crisis. In those 19 years, three of them were involuntary forced in against my will. The next seven I walked into those wards and said I need to be here or I won't be here. I took responsibility for my brain pain. I told the doctors what I needed. I was even the one letting them know what medications were, what medications didn't. I was all in on developing my brain well-being and they respected that because they saw a person that was part. I gotta just swallow the bug.
Jack Heald:Yeah, we don't recommend bugs folks.
Kevin Hines:No, trust me, huh.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Pardon me, these are sorts of protein, but you know.
Jack Heald:If you're going to swallow a bug, chew it first. That's our rule. Oh no, chew it up, good I forgot where I was, pardon me. Oh, I ask you about the trajectory and probably the ups and downs.
Kevin Hines:Yeah. So here I am, I get on this routine of wellness. I'd stop my routine right back into a cycle and then refresh, replay, repeat.
Kevin Hines:And so that was kind of the deal Until 2019, where I really made the ultimate commitment to myself, my family, my faith that I'm never going to let go of the routine again, that I'm going to stick with it because every time I utilize it, I get to a generally safe place, I'm able to function at a high level and I'm able to best give back to my communities. And so that's where we are today. I still struggle with the brain pain, but I've really got the mechanism to better be under control, and that's really I think. What's been incredible is that I go around and teach people how to build that mechanism, how to devise a mental health emergency plan that you follow innately, regularly, routinely and almost involuntarily.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:So you mentioned that you do keynote addresses and give speeches frequently. Talk about some of the other projects that you have going on to help get this message out to the people that need to hear it.
Kevin Hines:Sure, one of the biggest things we're doing right now is raising a fund for the film the Net about the harrowing, near-century long effort to end death at the Golden Gate Bridge the seven fights that failed since 1937, which is when the first fight from the Bridge Pertol of that era fought to raise the rail. It failed. Six fights after that failed. The current effort led by my father, patrick, kevin Hines, myself and many other people who fought for tirelessly really so many people, hard to name them all fought to end death at the Golden Gate Bridge. The Net has been in place as a January one of this year and it may not be 100% successful, but very few people are ever again going to die at the Golden Gate Bridge, where one person was dying there every seven to 10 days or less.
Kevin Hines:Oh my god. And so it was the most frequented spot for suicide in the world and now it is a beacon of hope and it is a proud representation of reduction of access to lethal means for suicide prevention right around the world, and we're making the definitive documentary about that story.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, so that's an amazing statistic, by the way. I mean, I guess I kind of had a sense that it was somewhat common for people you know to choose this as their location for committing suicide, but I had no idea it was that magnitude.
Kevin Hines:Yeah, yeah, it is, it is. It was terrible and we fought my family and I fought for the better part of 23 years to stop that. Alongside the Bridge Rail Foundation, which I have to give credit to Paul Muller and Dave Hall, my father, patrick, the Gamboa family.
Kevin Hines:Mark and Dana Whitmer that Mark may rest in peace didn't get to see this happen, but their son died off the Golden Gate Bridge and the people that were involved in making this effort real, making the net real, never gave up, never gave in. Against all odds kept their belief in the idea that someday they would get this net up on the Golden Gate and stop suicide there.
Jack Heald:So I'm guessing, just I'm guessing, that your story alone has saved hundreds of lives, and going forward If it's one every seven days, that's. Is that what you said?
Kevin Hines:When every seven to 10 days was dying.
Jack Heald:Yeah, that's 50 people a year.
Kevin Hines:Well, I'm happy to tell you. I'm happy to tell you both, in the 23 years I've been doing this work you know my videos online that I've done with other groups or myself have amassed, I think now a little over 3 billion views and the comments alone from those videos and the comments that I receive on my social media and on the letters I receive and all that emails hundreds of thousands of people have said this story saved their life in 23 years.
Jack Heald:What an extraordinary story. I don't claim to own that.
Kevin Hines:I don't believe I saved lives. I think that I'm a conduit, I give a message. People go home, they do the work, they're saving and changing their own lives because they're the ones that are going to their families and saying, hey, I need help now. They're the ones that are going to their doctors and saying, hey, I'm in a bad place. They're the ones that are taking action to stay right here, so they're doing it themselves.
Jack Heald:Well, I want to be cognizant of your time limitations. Let's, let's one more time for those who are listening, and they desperately need this message right now. Repeat those two or three things.
Kevin Hines:Sure Okay. You desperately need this message. You're in dire straits. You're in need of some hope. Find a mirror, any mirror anywhere. Look into that mirror and see my thoughts. Do not have to become my actions. They could simply be my thoughts. They don't have to own, rule or define when I do next, if they're dangerous to myself or dangerous to others. The second thing you must do is turn to anyone willing to listen and say force, simple but very effective words. I need help now and don't stop saying I need help now to people until one person is willing to empathize with your pain, because the pain shared is a pain halved. So you don't have to go it alone. You're here for a reason it's not to die by your hands. Do you know we have a 1 in 400 trillionth of a chance to be birthed into this world. You have a 1 in 400 trillionth of a chance to simply exist. That means you're never meant to die by your hands. It's not your purpose. Your purpose is to thrive and you can find a way.
Jack Heald:There's no better way to end it than with that right there. All right, it looks to me like the best way to find out more, kevin, is at your website, kevinheinstorycom.
Kevin Hines:Kevinheinstorycom, and you can go to kevinheinstorycom, across all socials and meet me there. I'd love to talk to you, I'd love to hear your stories, I'd love to hear your journeys and I'm just glad to be anywhere.
Jack Heald:We're grateful you were here. Thank you, phil. Wrap it up for us man.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Thank you so much for joining us, for giving your important story. As Jack said, we're certainly grateful you're here, as are many others. I hope this helps people out there who are struggling to recognize how important each one of them are to someone.
Kevin Hines:Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Jack Heald:Thanks for being with us. We'd love to hear from you For Dr Philip Ovedia and Kevin Hines. This is the Stay Off my Operating Table podcast. We'll talk to you guys next time.