When The Winter Blues Don't Leave

By Reprint with Permission

Got the winter blues? You're not alone, especially if your blues stay around long after this season's snow is gone.

Depression affects a lot of people, and it can feel pretty awful when it hits. Even so, individuals who experience ongoing depression often don't seek help because they think others will see them as "weak" or "crazy". 

As a community, we need to do more to break down the stigma around mental health counseling, which is a huge barrier for people who need to receive services.

Many people often see mental health in black or white terms. If you have "good" mental health, then you're unlikely to experience issues that need support. If you have "bad" mental health, then you're somehow responsible for your situation and
should be ashamed to admit it or seek help.

In my personal and professional experience, dealing with mental health issues isn't so simple. I believe we all strive to be mentally healthy. Some refer to this as personal happiness or general contentment with life. But let's face it. We can't
always be happy and content.

At times, we'll feel sad, depressed, angry, and frustrated. We might be stressed from family, friends, or work. We might have difficulty sleeping, eating, or concentrating on simple tasks.  Have you ever felt this way?

No one is immune to bouts of depression or anxiety. In fact, 20 per cent of patients visiting their family doctor have depressive symptoms. Past Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau suffered with depression. So did Hollywood comedian Jim Carrey. Yours truly has received treatment for anxiety in the past.

Should those who need help be chastised by or shunned from their friends and neighbors for seeking help? Of course not. It takes courage to reach out to others. At any given time, three million Canadians struggle with depression. But only a
third of them seek out help. The remaining two million or so suffer in silence... many because they fear being labeled by the rest of society.

We can deal with this problem by changing the way that we, as individuals and as a community, look at mental health and mental illness. People experiencing mental illness aren't "crazy."  Like other physical health problems, mental health issues
are in part, biological. We wouldn't blame someone for their cancer diagnosis, so why should we blame anyone for having a mental illness? When someone needs support and understanding, we can't greet them with additional stress and ridicule.

I think we can better help individuals and families experiencing mental health issues by giving them more community support. After you're finished reading this, spend an extra few minutes to inform yourself about mental health issues. If we all
know more about mental health, we'll be able to better understand how to help our friends and neighbors dealing with a mental illness.

For more information about depression and other mental health issues, contact your local mental health office or health unit, or try such resources as: 

•  Public libraries, which generally have a variety of good resource materials.
  
•  The BC Health Guide online at  www.bchealthguide.org (keywords: mental health,
  depression)
•  Websites such as the Canadian Mental Health Association at http://www.cmha.ca/ or
  the Northern Interior chapter of the BC Schizophrenia Society at http://bcsspg.org
  (this organization provides educational workshops on mental health issues throughout
  Northern B.C.)
  

Sean Tobin
Case Manager, Mental Health and Addictions
Northern Health

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