Podcast

He Was 30 Minutes From Gone

Eric was having a stroke on the gym floor and did not know it. Storm read the signs, said we're calling 911 on you right now, and made the call. His neurosurgeon later told him that another 30 minutes and he would not have made it.

Peter sits down with Eric Jacobowitz, a firefighter paramedic in Broward County, an International Association of Fire Fighters peer support counselor, and a software engineer, to talk about what happened after the emergency ended. The dark stretch nobody sees. The spiral. The two month wait for a psychiatrist. And the discovery that the man everybody calls in a crisis had no idea who to call himself.

He also owns the part most guests leave out. Before any of it, he was the one telling struggling men not to be a sissy. He calls that version of himself a jerk, and building HeadStrong is what he decided to do about it.

Chapters

Tap a timestamp to jump the video to that moment.

1. 0:00Meet Eric
2. 1:10Firefighter, peer counselor, engineer
3. 2:22The stroke at the gym
4. 2:40Thirty minutes from gone
5. 3:28Recovery is not the same as fine
6. 5:13A wife, a son, and the money math
7. 7:03When one salary was enough
8. 8:41Spiraling while holding it together
9. 9:24Why he could not tell his family
10. 10:06The mentor who started drinking
11. 10:42Building HeadStrong
12. 12:51Rub dirt on it
13. 14:25I was that guy
14. 16:08Success is not happiness
15. 27:54The Men on a Mission Foundation pillars
16. 30:57The firefighter they lost
17. 33:19What first responders carry home
18. 36:46An appointment two months out
19. 38:06No barrier to entry
20. 38:33What the app does in a crisis

About the guest

Eric Jacobowitz is a firefighter paramedic in Broward County, Florida, an IAFF peer support counselor, a software engineer, and the founder of HeadStrong, a mental wellness platform built to remove every barrier between a person and help. No account required, anonymous by default, with peer chat, AI support, licensed therapists and crisis resources that are always free.

getheadstrong.xyz · Open the app · @getheadstrong