Ex-Beirut hostage John McCarthy: My tips to ease workplace stress

The former journalist was speaking at a conference on health, well-being and stress in the workplace

Advice: John McCarthy says he found resilience in himself and others around him

Glenn Copus

18 November 2015

Former Lebanon hostage John McCarthy has told how he “found resilience from himself and the people around him” as he suffered physical and psychological trauma during more than five years’ captivity.

At a conference on health, well-being and stress in the workplace, the former journalist recalled his ordeal of being chained to a mattress and kept in solitary confinement when extremist group Islamic Jihad held him captive in Beirut between 1986 and 1991.

He now draws from his experiences to provide advice on how to combat stress, and to give motivational talks. Firms including Google and Saatchi & Saatchi, and charities such as the Movember men’s health campaign, gathered at the Good Day at Work conference at Millbank yesterday.

Mr McCarthy said: “When the workplace gets really stressful — as it did for me in 1986 — if you are lucky you find resilience in yourself and the people around you. In my case it was with fellow hostages. I was not doing anything for months on end. I was chained to a mattress but because of the situation, I was in an adrenaline rush all day.

“[My experience] does not compare to anything since. Having to be beaten up in an underground cell is different to dealing with stress in an office.”

He said he had to avoid angering his captors and tries to do the same with other people now — but he admitted suffering road rage after his ordeal.

Mr McCarthy, who lives in Teddington with his wife and daughter, compared his experience to that of contemporary hostages held by groups such as Islamic State: “We were sort of lucky; [our captors] had clear ideological aims. Most of them did not take advantage of us; they did treat us as human beings. They weren’t brutal or malicious.”

Kevin Roberts, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, told the conference: “A lot of people in big cities like London have just forgotten to be optimistic. You don’t need money to live in London or New York, you need attitude, ambition and belief. Money is not a factor here, it’s all about making things happen.”

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