‘Lean on a gate and talk to a mate’: Craig ‘Wiggy’ Wiggins wants farmers to open up

Whatever With Wiggy Charitable Trust founder Craig "Wiggy" Wiggins, of Mid Canterbury, spoke about his work in the mental health space at the Federated Farmers event in Invercargill last week. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

Whatever With Wiggy Charitable Trust founder Craig “Wiggy” Wiggins says he lost two good friends to suicide in 2021.

Speaking at a Federated Farmers Southland event, Tips For Tough Times, in Invercargill last week, he said he wished they had reached out for help.

“Once I lost those two friends in quick succession, I put out a challenge.”

The challenge was to call someone you had not talked to for a while and “lean on a gate and talk to a mate”.

He asked people to recall the best memories in their lives, connect with those people and return to a happy headspace, he said.

Research showed the challenges farmers face had them frequently using their amygdala, the part of the brain that senses danger and signals it to pump stress hormones.

“Farmers all around the world are bred to think in that high-energy, reactive, red zone, all the time.”

The challenges could be considering the impact of future weather events, a fall in schedule price or a rise in interest rates.

Farmers could get out of the red zone by responding to potential challenges and reconnecting with people from happier times, he said.

“Take five minutes out of your day to appreciate your surrounds and look at the beautiful place we live in.”

He once asked a Young Farmers group to write on a piece of paper what was worrying them and what they would like to change and then screw it up and throw it over their shoulder.

He then picked the pieces of paper up and started reading them out.

“I could only read 11 pieces of paper, we couldn’t read any more, it was too emotionally draining.”

The pieces of paper featured suicide attempts, workplace bullying and addiction to alcohol and porn.

Young people were under a lot of stress and the “vitriol” on social media did not help, he said.

People working in the rural service industries have been telling him about the stress of seeing a change for the worse in the behaviour of some farmers.

“Your gut is the biggest instinct that someone is in need of help.”

Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Craig Wiggins on The Country below:

He used the mnemonic “Chur”, a slang term for showing appreciation, as a way to remember a process for providing help to someone in need.

Connect with them;

Hear them out;

Uplift them;

Reassure and refer them.

“Strong communities make strong people and strong people make strong communities.”

Federated Farmers Southland vice-president Bernadette Hunt, speaking at the event, said often when times were tough there was a focus on the farming bloke rather than the farming family.

“Very often what happens, the wife or partner at home, ends up bearing an awful lot of the load, trying to be everything to everybody else.”

Farming women often put themselves last, she said.

“Look out for the farming woman as well and as a farming bloke, make sure your wife or partner is getting some help and support from somewhere and encourage them to get out now and then.”