Advice From A Farmer Who’s Been Through It All –Country Folks
By Courtney Llewellyn
“When we talk about tough situations, the conversation about suicide and mental health is tough, but it’s even harder to have that conversation when you lose someone.” That’s how farmer Jeff “Ditz” Ditzenberger began his presentation during a recent Rural Mental Health Connections webinar, hosted by the National Grange.
The webinar series is presented by Rural Minds and the National Grange. Both organizations have missions of education to impact people and their communities in positive ways and with opportunities to address mental health challenges.
Ditz grew up on small dairy farm in Wisconsin. After high school, he joined the military, and throughout boot camp in the summer of 1988 he said numerous times that he wished he was back on the farm. He married his high school sweetheart – but they only spent 32 days together in their first year of marriage. Ditz spent almost a full year on his Navy ship – a refueling ship, on which the potential for disaster caused him high anxiety.
“I came back to work at a cheese plant that wasn’t entirely above board, which was also anxiety inducing,” he explained. “I was also working for a local farmer at the time and was having some problems in my marriage. I started drinking heavily. I asked my friends if I could talk and was generally met with ‘suck it up, buttercup.’”
He noted that many are taught to sequester those “bad” emotions, and that bothers him. He tried to see a therapist on the sly – and then found out his wife was cheating on him. That’s when Ditz started to plot his suicide. “I presented the classic signs we know about today, but no one talked about them then,” he said.
Watch a video recording of Ditz sharing his story in the Rural Mental Health Connections Webinar series.