Current Events

I thought it may be time to mention some more recent events.

In January, 2008, I wrote a first person account of my life with depression for the National Post newspaper. It appeared in the paper on February 20. It was part of a series called Leaps and Rebounds. The title of my article was called " How I returned to a life worth living." I think it's a great title ( it was chosen by the National Post people ), it really sums up what I wrote. However, it is no longer available online.

I know that if I can write about my depression and have it published, I must be well.

My article was well received by the Canadian Mental Health Association. As a result, I was asked by Carol Tooton, Executive Director, CMHA in Nova Scotia , to participate in a workshop at the CMHA National Conference to be held in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on August 22-23, 2008. For more information check out http://www.novascotia.cmha.ca/

As well, I was interviewed by Melissa Churly for an article in the up coming summer issue of Anchor Magazine ( http://www.anchormag.ca/ ).

I also was in contact with Daniel Lukasik , a lawyer in Buffalo, New York, who has suffered with depression. He has started a website , http://www.lawyerswithdepression.com/, for which he has received positive recognition. The American Bar Association profiled the site and the work it accomplishes to identify depression in the legal community. The site was also honoured by the New York State Bar Association. The site is well presented in looking at depression and lawyers, and combats the stigma of depression.

So, depression is certainly out there. But so are people willing to publicly discuss it.

It's been over five years since my depression took hold almost taking away my life. But now, my life has taken a positive track, and it feels real good. But, it should be noted, as I have mentioned before, I wanted to get a life worth living. It was on my initiative that I contacted the National Post with a suggestion to write an article; I emailed the article to the CMHA; I found Dan's website and made the first contact. So, one has to make one's own opportunities. I used to do that years ago, and now, here I am doing it again and the events unfolding as a result are positive. But I had to have sufficent self confidence to reach out with my ideas and contact other people, in case the response wasn't so good. Getting to that level of confidence took years of work, by many people.

I am beginning to surface in public now.