Letter: Teaching us about Mental Health Awareness

Letter to the Editor

More often than not, there is someone in our family who is dealing with Mental Health issues. However, many of us do not understand or know how to help our loved ones with the issues they are facing, we are not trained.

There are amazing programs and people out there that can help for little or no cost. We show our support by going to appointments with loved ones and allowing them to talk out the thoughts they are trying to process without becoming defensive over what they are saying. 

Every year at least 1 in 5 Canadians will experience mental health issues and by the age of 40, half of our population will have experienced a mental illness.  

Addiction issues are usually an unhealthy coping mechanism for dealing with mental health issues. Learning the “root” of the addiction is what can save them from that addiction.

Chad Kennedy, a retired Sheriff for the Alberta Highway Patrol, has been courageously sharing his story with the world about PTSD in first responders by walking across Canada. 

He is also teaching us about mental health awareness in men and trying to end the stigma by being open about his journey. He is teaching people that it is “OKAY, to not be okay”. That asking for a hand-up is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength and courage.

The stigma of mental wellness has to stop, and it stops when we start opening up and sharing our stories. It stops when we admit our communities suffer from these issues, and that each of us reacts in a different way to trauma. What may work for one person, might not work for another.

If a thousand people were diagnosed with one type of Cancer in our area we would demand attention be brought to that health concern, and we would demand to know why it is happening. We need as much attention to be brought to a health concern that is killing people from the inside on a daily basis. Suicide is not a choice, suicide is just another death sentence, one that we can prevent by being proactive about it instead of hiding it from the world.

It is okay to not be okay, It is okay to ask for help from those who are trained to help. 

— Alana Brown