Mental Illness Awareness Week
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PRINCE GEORGE – October 1st marks the first day of Mental Illness Awareness Week. It’s Seven days to shine a light on the reality of living with a mental illness.
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 54 percent of Canadians with a mental illness report feeling a sense of shame or embarrassment. Roughly the same amount of people have reported being discriminated against. Mental Illness week is to get rid of the stigma that not being okay mentally makes you weak or that it’s your own fault for having an illness.
Roughly 9.1 million Canadians will be affected by a mental illness during their lifetime and 38 percent are often developed during adolescence and young adulthood says Government Canada. Darren Lilley who does janitorial and peer support work for CMHA has been battling his mental illness since he was nearly 9 years old. Lilley says even after years of seeing a psychiatrist and self-medicating he had no idea how to deal with his mental illness. It wasn’t until he joined CMHA that someone took the time to sit down with him and help him really understand what he was dealing with.
“Being around people with strong mental health and a reinforcement of positivity helps because we all check in with ourselves saying ‘good morning’ to everybody and stuff. It seems so trivial but sometimes a ‘good morning’ and ‘how is it feeling’ will bring out ‘I haven’t been sleeping good’ or stuff so it’s good to check in. Every day it seems to get a little bit better and you learn a little bit more about your diagnosis and that helps too,” says Lilley.
