[denham]

Bell Let's Talk (http://letstalk.bell.ca/)

Mental health isn't very glamorous, and it's often swept under the rug, so I don't expect this post will garner much attention, but I figured I'd make it all the same.

I'm not trying to promote Bell here, but I think they are doing a good thing and to me any reason to talk about mental health is a positive, as it's something we don't generally talk about enough.

I hope you don't mind if I share my story...

In 2006 I was diagnosed with depression. My father had been depressed for a long time, and occasionally suicidal. He attempted suicide a couple of times over the years. In 2007 he took his own life. It was completely without warning. We had no clue whatsoever that he was any worse than usual. Sure we knew he was down, but not visibly any more so than at any other point. Dad dying hit us all pretty hard, and I fell into a deeper depression than I had the year before. I contemplated suicide for a long time, and was very depressed for a couple of years. Unfortunately my doctor didn't really get me the right meds or a lot of help, and my family didn't have much luck helping me either.

In 2011 I went totally off the rails with a manic episode, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I spent 3 weeks in hospital as I went through the episode and then went home to continue getting better. It took 6 months before I felt close to normal, and another year or so to get over the depression that followed the manic episode (which is quite common so I've been told).

Fast forward to today and I'm happy and healthy, on a lot of meds and seeing my psychotherapist monthly. I've learned a TON from all of this and now I'm starting to share my story and volunteer my time to work with others with mental health issues.

I think we all need to talk about mental health with the ones we care about, and not just when it's obvious something is wrong. In an ideal world we should be as open about mental health as we are about a broken leg or pneumonia. Maybe it'll never happen but I hope we will continue to get closer to that.

Fire away if you have any questions, and feel free to share your own story if you so wish.

[Zordon]

Hey denham,

Thanks for sharing your story and I do agree it's important for people to be more aware of mental illness.

Here's my story from a different perspective.

My experiences of mental health is from a different point of view. My wife was diagnosed with a severe case of OCD less than a year after we were married. It first started off as a mental break down and she was unable to stop her thoughts from repeating. It was so bad that she was unable to leave the bed panicking about contamination.

At first, I was optimistic that maybe drugs and therapy could help her recover quickly. That definitely wasn't the case as I soon found out after buying books to study her condition and how her mind works. Her symptoms include counting rituals, contamination phobias, insomnia, and general anxiety. As much as I want to be strong and force her to do more things by herself, I became a crunch in some ways. Having seen how fast her mind can spiral, i did my best to try to reduce her anxiety episodes.

A year and a half later, she is still battling with OCD but I can see that her therapy is helping her cope with her struggles. I'm helping less and allowing her to expose herself to different triggering events.

There were times where i thought to myself, what did i do to deserve this? On the opposite spectrum, I thought maybe i'm the only one strong enough to stay and help her through this. Having friends to talk with help but it's hard to find someone who truly understands what i'm going through.

I'm not an expert by any means but if anyone is experiencing mental health issues, you can always PM me for a chat/support.

Please retweet #BellLetsTalk today and raise some money for mental health initiatives.

[shawnly1000]

$1 million donation from Bell Let?s Talk caps fundraising for new mental health centre at Vancouver General Hospital | Bell Let?s Talk (http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/news/163/1-million-donation-from-bell-lets-talk-caps-fundraising-for-new-mental-health-centre-at-vancouver-general-hospital)

[denham]

Thanks for sharing, bklam! I know what you mean about wondering what you did to deserve it. I went through the same thing during my manic episode. But I (and many people going through the same thing) turned it into something different, thinking that I was supposed to suffer and then come back to help others, a lot like Jesus. Because of this, "The Jesus Delusion" is a thing, and I actually thought I was Jesus at one point. It was hugely empowering but at the same time incredibly overwhelming. It's just the brain trying to make sense of what seems like a really fucked up situation.

As for how I feel now about what I did to deserve this. Well I don't think of it like that any more, and I try to give purpose to what happened by volunteering and making posts like this trying to raise awareness etc.

That $1 million donation is fantastic. I know it will be put to good use. A lot of people complain about the state of our hospitals but I found the psych ward in Maple Ridge to be very good during my stay there. I don't know what would have happened if I wasn't able to stay there.

[quasi]

Thanks for sharing guys.

[Inaii]

Does anyone know what the final total was? As someone who has been dealing with severe depression since I was 19 (possibly before that, but was officially diagnosed at that age) I would love to see the mental health community get a boost. The waits to see counsellors/psychologists are ridiculously long if you can't afford to find your own, and extremely expensive if you can.

[Zordon]

"A spectacular day for Canada’s mental health: A record 122,150,772 million tweets, texts, calls and shares on Bell Let’s Talk Day – and a new Bell donation for mental health of $6,107,538.60"

[Inaii]

Wow, that's fantastic! There was a lot of activity on my twitter feed. Everyone was using the let's talk hashtag (including celebrities) in every post they sent out. I'm glad there was no cap like I've seen on previous fundraising attempts.

[denham]

Wow awesome :) Glad to see this gaining so much traction.