Nick Jonsson
#1 Global Thought Leader on Executive Loneliness, International Bestselling Author and TEDx Speaker
Nick Jonsson Podcast Episodes
Better To... Podcast with D. M. Needom
Executive Loneliness - Nick Jonsson
October 21, 2022
About this episode
Nick and I discuss his book Executive Loneliness
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
Executive depression, anxiety, and isolation – and the substance abuse, family breakdowns, poor physical health, self-harm, and suicide that can all too frequently result – were a major issue long before most of us had even heard the word “coronavirus”.
I know this for a fact because three years ago, I myself went through a severe breakdown. At the time, I was performing very well in my career and had recently been placed in Singapore by my company.
Over the previous decade, however, I’d been unexpectedly laid off from senior roles working in Indonesia and Vietnam.
I couldn’t shake the paranoia that no matter how good my performance was, I could be retrenched at any moment. I lived on edge – and drinking took the edge off.
When I first moved to Singapore, I was all alone in a foreign country, so I sought solace in alcohol and the superficial social circle of my local bar. I stopped exercising and gained 20kg within a few months of arriving in this country.
It wasn’t the wonderful food here that did it – no, it was the booze. Drinking heavily at the end of most days was, to my mind, a reward and a form of therapy, but in fact it only left me feeling more imbalanced, lonely and disconnected.
Psychosomatic disorders and my unhealthy lifestyle began to affect me physically.
I felt I couldn’t get any more down and even made a will in preparation for my death, which I thought could come at any time, despite being only 43 years of age.
I’d hit an all-time low.
Finally, I acknowledged that I had to do something.
