John MacDonald: Mike King was right. But he was wrong too

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

It’s Gumboot Friday tomorrow and the guy behind it, Mike King, seems to have put his foot in it. Although, I’m a little bit torn on this one.

So what’s happened is we’ve got this charity fashion show being held in Dunedin to raise money for suicide prevention and mental health awareness. And, like most events, the organisers wanted to serve alcohol as part of the hospitality offering for guests.

The police, though, weren’t too fussed about that and they opposed the application for a special alcohol licence. They did that because they don’t think it’s appropriate to serve grog at an event that is all about trying to raise awareness and reduce suicide rates, and the reason behind that is the growing evidence linking people drinking and taking their lives.

So yesterday, Mike King tells Newstalk ZB that alcohol isn't a problem for people with mental illness. It is a lifejacket.

Now here's where I'm torn.

Mike King is a guy who not only works tirelessly to raise awareness of mental health issues and raise money —with things like Gumboot Friday— but he’s also someone who has been there and done that.

Unlike some of the experts, he’s been there himself. And I know he’s right when he says that people turn to alcohol when they’re in mental distress, in fact, even people who you wouldn’t consider to be on the edge turn to alcohol.

If you say you’ve had a bad day, people will invariably tell you to have a drink.

So, of course, people turn to alcohol. But the scary bit is all this research coming through that shows how people can actually decide to take their own life – but only do it after they’ve been drinking.

Whenever I read or hear about that it terrifies me, because we all know people can think they’re capable of all sorts of things once they’ve got a few drinks on board.

So the link between alcohol and suicide makes perfect sense.

Which is why we’ve got Otago University health professor Rose Crossin poo-pooing Mike King’s comments today. She says alcohol can give you temporary relief from your problems, but it can also be a depressant and it can make your problems seem worse. And I’m not going to argue with that, either.

But I’m not going to crucify Mike King because I believe him when he says that alcohol is a lifejacket for people with mental illness. And if he thinks that alcohol does actually stop people taking their lives, then who am I to argue with him?

But given he is the face of Gumboot Friday, a charity which, remember, received $24 million in government support this year. And given that a lot of people probably consider him to be the most credible mental health advocate in the country, should he have said what he said yesterday?

My answer to that is “no”. He didn’t need to. We know he used alcohol and drugs to get him through. We know he knows what he’s on about.

And even though I know full well that alcohol gets a lot of people through their personal nightmares - it didn’t need saying. So I think he was right and he was wrong.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.