In the wake of a national mental health crisis, the federal government must rethink taxes on counselling and psychotherapy services

One in every five Canadians is currently dealing with a mental illness. By the age of 40, one in every two Canadians will have experienced some form of mental illness.  

Our country is undeniably battling a brutal mental health crisis, with particularly pronounced effects on young people and low-income households. Mounting evidence indicates that the crisis is only worsening as inflation raises the cost of living.  

However, the government’s efforts to support individuals during this period are falling short.  

In Canada, counselling and psychotherapy is the most requested yet least met need for those seeking mental health support. On top of that, therapy is the only mental health service that is taxed. Besides counselling therapists and psychotherapists, all other mental health care providers, including social workers and psychologists, are currently exempt from charging clients harmonized sales or goods and services tax.  

So, why are therapists required to collect taxes? Well, it simply boils down to nomenclature

Any regulated health care professional is exempt from the federal tax. In order to meet this criterion, at least five provinces must recognize the profession as a health profession. While this is the case with counselling therapists and psychotherapists, this profession operates under different names from province to province. Due to the variable designations among provinces, a tax exemption for therapists was denied by the federal government — even though counselling therapists and psychotherapists serve the same purpose.  

Since psychotherapy is considered an allied health profession, it is also outside the bounds of provincial and territorial health insurance plans. In other words, these public health insurance plans do not typically cover the costs associated with visiting a therapist. The lack of coverage, however, forces more individuals to opt for visiting a psychiatrist for support, increasing wait times, limiting accessibility, and leading to untreated illness — all while therapists are ready and well-equipped to support these individuals. 

Canadians shouldn’t be paying the price for our government’s lack of coordination. These taxes present an additional barrier for affording support and unfairly hinder the accessibility of therapy.  

Beyond hurting people in need of support, the unnecessary requirement for HST/GST billing among therapists is also costing the economy.  

According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, untreated mental illness among Canadians costs the economy an estimated $50 billion annually compared to the $37.4 billion in revenue generated by HST/GST in 2019-20. 

Clearly, the taxes on counselling therapy and psychotherapy are benefiting no one. In recognition of this, Bill C-323 was introduced by MP Stephen Ellis, from the riding of Cumberland-Colchester, Nova Scotia, to abolish the taxes on therapy.  

Bill C-323, also known as an Act to Amend the Excise Tax Act (Mental Health Services), completed its second reading in the House of Commons on Sept. 27 – six months after its first reading in March. While mental health and well-being is outlined as a priority in the federal statement on shared health priorities, these priorities aren’t being reflected in practice. The Canadian Mental Health Association also released a statement on the 2023 federal budget for mental health, reporting concerns on the lack of investment being made in the health and well-being of Canadians.  

As communities continue to grapple with the aftermath of the pandemic and struggle with their mental wellness, it’s high time for the federal government to act on their priorities, on Bill C-323.  


If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support, please know that there are ways to get help. McMaster University’s Student Wellness Centre and the Canadian Mental Health Association offer a variety of resources, services and information that may help you begin prioritizing your mental health and well-being.   

If you are in need of more urgent services, the McMaster Students Union Student Assistance Program provides all McMaster students with access to 24/7 multilingual mental health support from professional counsellors at no cost. To get help immediately, please call or text 1-888-377-0002.  

From stigmatized to glorified, perceptions of mental illness shifted from one extreme to another

cw: suicide, mental illness

About seven and a half million children and youth up to the age of 25 suffer from mental illness in Canada. Mental illness is serious, debilitating and life-altering.  

As discussions of mental health have continued to shift away from stigmatization, there has also been a shift towards the glorification of mental illness, particularly in the media.  

Though there is a stark contrast between stigmatization and glorification, both processes inherently amplify the attention directed toward an individual’s mental illness, disregarding the other attributes that make that person who they are.  

Though there is a stark contrast between stigmatization and glorification, both processes inherently amplify the attention directed toward an individual’s mental illness, disregarding the other attributes that make that person who they are.  

Particularly, in the media and among young adults, mental illness is gaining recognition as a desirable quality. Posts on social media romanticizing and glamourizing these conditions are growing, but at a cost for those who are truly suffering.  

Circulating media glamourizing and misrepresenting mental illness have also promoted the notion that a diagnosis defines an individual and contributed to a culture where mental illness is trendy and something that should be coveted.  

Our society has the tendency to extract a few socially acceptable traits from prevalent mental illnesses while completely overlooking the larger associated range of clinical symptoms. For instance, anxiety is reduced to simply being shy or introverted and depression is characterised as sadness. These stereotypes obscure the reality that anxiety and depression — the most common mental illnesses in the world — severely impair an individual’s ability to perform daily tasks. 

Even in day-to-day conversations, comments like “my OCD is so bad today”, as an expression to convey a desire for tidiness, minimize the experience of having a mental illness such as obsessive-compulsive disorder which can involve immense fear, stress and doubt that make daily life challenging and miserable. These comments can have grave consequences and may be potentially triggering to those who are suffering from the illness.  

Viewing mental illness as something to be sought-after is a detrimental mindset even for those who are not affected by it. Studies have found that alluring depictions of mental illness in social media and other forms of media can lead to a strong yearning for mental illnesses and associated behaviours among young adults. Specifically, with suicide and self-harm, aesthetic posts with quotes framing suicidal individuals as “angels that want to go home” romanticize and encourage the perception that mental illness is something that is “tragically beautiful”.

Clearly, there is still a lack of knowledge surrounding mental illnesses among the public and the misrepresentation and glorification of these illnesses is only setting us back.  

Clearly, there is still a lack of knowledge surrounding mental illnesses among the public and the misrepresentation and glorification of these illnesses is only setting us back.  

With World Suicide Prevention Day having just passed and this week being Mental Health Awareness week, along with declining mental health among post-secondary students, we need to recognize the harms of glorifying mental illness and work to continue de-stigmatizing the issue by promoting awareness, acceptance and more importantly, advocacy for action. Our governments, institutions and organizations also have a tremendous role to play in making mental health supports accessible for all individuals.  

If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support, please know that there are ways to get help. McMaster University’s Student Wellness Centre and the Canadian Mental Health Association offer a variety of resources, services and information that may help you begin prioritizing your mental health and well-being.  

If you are in need of more urgent services, the McMaster Students Union Student Assistance Program provides all McMaster students with access to 24/7 multilingual mental health support from professional counsellors at no cost. To get help immediately, please call or text 1-888-377-0002. 

Reflections on accompanying loved ones in pain

By: Serena Habib, Contributor

cw: Mentions of self-harm and mental illness

In The Vampire Diaries, the vampires had an inner mechanism called a “humanity switch.” This allowed them to turn off any emotions that made them human so they could completely and carelessly follow their desires.

While I am grateful for my sense of empathy every single day, I sometimes wish I had a little knob I could turn to decrease the pain love brings when people around me are hurting.

While I am grateful for my sense of empathy every single day, I sometimes wish I had a little knob I could turn to decrease the pain love brings when people around me are hurting.

However, empathizing with others allows us to build connections and make a difference in the lives of people around us. 

In an interview with Self magazine, Gottman Relationship Institute Co-Founder Julie Schwartz Gottman said that a person’s ability to empathize with others is what makes friendships last.

Psychologists Daniel Goreman and Paul Ekman outline three forms of empathy: cognitive empathy, the ability to understand another person’s perspective; emotional empathy, the ability to share the feelings of another person; and compassionate empathy, which allows us to understand the other person and moves us to take action to help them.

But what happens when your friend has been suffering severely for years from a mental illness? You can see from their perspective, you are agonizing in their pain and you have already tried everything you can do to help, but it doesn’t feel like it makes a difference.

I am scared. I am tired. I dream about her dying and I awake to her messages about how they are hurting themselves. Yet, if my friend was dying from cancer, I would stay with her until their dying day. How is it any different with a mental illness?

I am scared. I am tired.

The definition of love as understood in our society can be summed up by the famous Bible passage from 1 Corinthians. I think about that quote when I think about our friendship.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

I am being patient and I am being kind. I do not want to be friends with anyone else. I do not think I am a better friend. I am not prideful about what I have done in the friendship for I know we have helped one another.

“It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” I try not to be angry, but it enrages me to see people suffering so gravely due to circumstances they cannot control. 

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” I am grateful for the honesty in our relationship and I want to be there as a listening ear. Our friendship was built upon rawness and mutual support. 

“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” I always refrain from saying things that will be triggering or telling my friend how much this is hurting me because she already feels guilty for it. I do not give up and I never will give up on her being okay.

I always get excited at little glimmers of hope when she messages me about recovery or when we text about mundane things all day, but then I am dejected when the illness re-emerges and I once again see myself losing my best friend.

I get swept up in this whirlwind of pain and hope and confusion and I feel like I am trapped by the friendship that has brought me so much life and liberation.

I get swept up in this whirlwind of pain and hope and confusion and I feel like I am trapped by the friendship that has brought me so much life and liberation.

But then I realize that friendship goes both ways. I am not being honest with myself or patient with myself. I am expecting myself to do everything perfectly and blaming myself if anything goes wrong.

I need to follow these rules for myself. I need to be honest when I need time to put on my oxygen mask so we can both make it through these tumultuous times. Seeing as I can’t flip a switch to make this change, I’m not quite sure how to do this, but I am working on it.

The mental illness label can have tremendous impacts and we should approach it with more care

By: Frank Chen, Contributor

CW: mentions of mental illness

Veterans of university know: this late-November to mid-December stretch is not a good time of the year. As midterms wrap up and exam season ramps into full gear, this is the point where students become overwhelmed, burnt out and exhausted. Yet, we have some of the most important examinations ahead. Especially in this “unprecedented” year, the burden on students is massive, and the McMaster University community has been vocal about it.

At the forefront of this is a discussion regarding student mental health. Over the past year, the ideas of mental health and mental illness have been thrown around a lot by students. Students are increasingly expressing loneliness, reporting frustration with coursework and burning out. As a result of those feelings, I’ve seen more and more people labelling themselves as depressed or anxious. But “mental illness” is a term with a lot more weight than many people realize. 

When the “mental illness” tag is put on you, it’s often seen as a fixed state — a never-ending onslaught of “bad” mental health. It becomes easy to stop appreciating the good parts of your life when you fixate on the idea that you are “mentally unfit.” Regardless of illness or not, there can be real harm done just by the label itself. 

As an example, in my first year of university (which was in person), I bought into the idea that my stresses and insecurities were a form of generalized anxiety disorder. Due to this, I put boundaries on how I could or could not act based on what I thought of my own mental state. This took away so many possibilities. 

Instead, I now realize how my stresses in my first year could be reframed as a normal response to a change of environment and an adaptation to university life. But regardless, my belief of having anxiety limited me and it can be incredibly easy to misjudge these negative emotions to mental illness. 

Both my personal experience and some of the nuances in how students talk about mental illness illustrate an important idea: that our view of mental illness can be incredibly individualized. In stressful situations that evoke emotional responses and actions, we often miscategorize our failings to ourselves rather than a product of our environment.

For example, students often blame themselves for their grades, for not being prepared enough or for not being that star student who can simultaneously juggle many commitments. However, what we fail to consider are the social contexts that we are in that often make it difficult to achieve these standards, such as home conditions, family duties or socioeconomic status. 

In stressful situations that evoke emotional responses and actions, we often miscategorize our failings to ourselves rather than a product of our environment.

Similarly, students also often talk about mental health as a dichotomous issue, as either having good or bad mental health, which inherently puts pressure on themselves to “fix” their mental states. But realistically, everyone has good and bad days, largely influenced by the events and activities taking place that day. Mental health is less a fixed state based on your own failures, but rather something that is constantly fluctuating largely influenced by your surroundings. 

Our individualized view of mental illness poses danger for those caught up in it. Mental health when approached from the view that it’s the fault of the individual can often lead to a vicious cycle where mental illness can lead to self-doubt and self-hate, furthering negative self-perceptions. The label of illness can be hard to escape from, but social context is key when approaching the way you feel. Understanding that the vast majority of signs and symptoms of what you may think is illness can actually come as normal responses to stressful contexts.

It can be hard to step back and convince yourself that social contexts can play the role it does. Historically, mental health as a discipline has been rooted in individualism, harkening back to the days when disabled people, 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and others who were deemed socially undesirable were blamed for their “mental illness.”

Mental illness was used as a tool to control those who didn’t conform to social standards set at the time, their purpose was originally to condemn the individual. In part, it’s this long-standing history of individualized mental illness that contributes to why so many people still think of it this way today.  

With the impending exam season, we need to be more aware of the implications of a term like “mental illness.” As we move into a stressful time for students and educators alike, I hope that we can all consider whether those negative thoughts and emotions are truly arising from mental illness or something else — because it can be very easy to misattribute feelings as disease, when there can be bigger and broader social contexts in play.

Calling for university policy changes should be top priority for mental health advocates

By: Anonymous, Contributor

At the request of the contributor, a student who went through McMaster’s mental health services, the Silhouette has chosen to publish this piece anonymously over privacy concerns. We believe giving this person a platform that does not damage their reputation allows us to share an important first-person account.

CW: suicide, mental illness, policing

September is suicide prevention month and businesses and institutions are turning to social media with sentiments like it’s “okay to not be okay.” As someone who has been through challenging university processes during my undergrad at McMaster University as a result of my mental illness, which included cycles of intense suicidal ideation, these words never sit quite right with me. 

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day -- and during COVID-19, times are difficult for many. @STJOESHAMILTON and @SuicidePrevHam are collecting messages of hope and photos for a community photo mosaic from folks in #HamOnt. Here's how to participate: https://t.co/J53iRQtsrO

— McMaster University (@McMasterU) September 10, 2020

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Talking about suicide can be difficult, and we want you to know that support is available on-campus if you'd like to talk. Student Health Services, located in UCC 11, is open from 9am to 7pm. @WellnessWestern pic.twitter.com/FuE2Ejqubc

— Western University (@WesternU) September 10, 2019

Although I seemed like a “model student,” for much of my undergrad I was constantly struggling with my mental health unbeknownst to those around me. But because my struggle didn’t seem apparent, counsellors often told me that I was just experiencing normal school stress and suggested band-aid solutions like meditation and walks even though I knew that something was very wrong.  

At the end of my third year, I reached an all-time low with my suicidal thoughts and couldn’t keep up the act that everything was fine anymore. As a result, I completely unravelled and verbally lashed out at people who I cared deeply about, with one of these individuals being a faculty member. 

This brought me into contact with the Student Support and Case Management Office because even though my actions were a result of mental illness and the complainant acknowledged this, I had engaged in behaviours that violated the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Initially, part of me felt relieved because I thought that this meant that Mac would understand how much I was struggling and I would finally be able to get the support that I needed. Unfortunately, this was not how things played out over the next two years.

I came to learn that despite having behavioural challenges as a result of my mental illness and having a psychiatrist verify this, going through a code-related issue incriminates you regardless. The Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities does have a specific section of how to address violations where a health issue is involved, but this doesn’t benefit students. In reality, it puts unwell students in a position where they have to advocate for themselves and be put under scrutiny of whether they are faking, attention-seeking or have malicious intent when they are none of the above. In fact, I was required to have an independent medical evaluation with a psychiatrist and they concluded that I was low risk for violent behaviour, yet I constantly felt like I could never do anything right in the eyes of the SSCMO. 

I had desperately tried to get more holistic, effective support my entire university career but couldn’t because I didn’t seem “sick enough.” However, when I was finally pushed past this threshold to the point where I was engaging in problematic behaviours, I was met with intimidation and punishment when I was in distress or didn’t voice my concerns in what the SSCMO deemed a “proper” manner. Despite being told that the contents of my behavioural contract and wellness plan were in place with the intention of facilitating my success, it was about the interests of the institution instead of my wellbeing.  

 However, when I was finally pushed past this threshold to the point where I was engaging in problematic behaviours, I was met with intimidation and punishment when I was in distress or didn’t voice my concerns in what the SSCMO deemed a “proper” manner.

I was actively suicidal at many points during this time and yet, contrary to what we are told, I felt ashamed when I vocalized this because the appropriateness of my tone was more important than my distress. Don’t get me wrong, I think that taking accountability for behaviours is important even if they are the result of mental illness, but the way that my case was dealt heightened my distress levels and made it much more difficult for me to be successful at improving my symptoms and behaviours.  

After taking a voluntary gap year, things didn’t get better with the SSCMO. It came to a point where although the interpersonal issues that brought me into their office were resolved a long time ago, being required to be involved with them as I continued my studies kept me in a toxic cycle. Having to continually be aware of a really low time in life through my obligations to work with the SSCMO had my mental health spiralling downwards again. I put on a “brave face” with peers and supervisors throughout the year but I once again found myself in a position where actions put forth by the university to supposedly help me counterproductively created more distress. The primary response by staff was punitive and the “support” that came afterwards felt more like an afterthought.  

When someone is struggling deeply with a mental illness, they need to feel supported, valuable and should not be defined by how they respond to things that they find distressing. When I was in this process, I believed that how I was being treated by the SSCMO was what I deserved. I began to internalize the prejudices and biases that these policies and staff have towards individuals who are in significant distress and began to feel like I was a bad person who didn’t deserve actual help or compassion. This made me feel isolated from the people in my life who truly cared about me. I kept so many secrets about what I was going through because I was ashamed. 

When someone is struggling deeply with a mental illness, they need to feel supported, valuable and should not be defined by how they respond to things that they find distressing. When I was in this process, I believed that how I was being treated by the SSCMO was what I deserved.

By my final term, I wasn’t myself at all. Despite being part of an amazing lab for my thesis and being involved with equity-related activities on campus, I wasn’t emotionally present and just felt like I was going through the motions of every day. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was truly a bad person instead of someone struggling with an illness that unbeknownst to me at the time, was actually rooted in a serious hormonal issue. I felt so disillusioned by the narratives that university staff were there to help. If this was the case, why did I feel so invalidated and criminalized for something that we are told to seek help for? If I was a “good” mentally ill person, would I have been treated better? If I didn’t advocate so heavily for my own ideas of what would help me, would this have ensured that I was seen as sick and not a non-compliant discipline case?

Now that I’m removed from the McMaster environment, I have been able to heal in a way that makes sense to me and honestly, I haven’t felt this good in years. But it shouldn’t have taken me having to graduate to have control over my own recovery. I would never discourage anyone from seeking support, but I am left feeling weary over how institutional policies related to mental illness are carried out. 

I would never discourage anyone from seeking support, but I am left feeling weary over how institutional policies related to mental illness are carried out. 

McMaster’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy implicates policing into significant mental health concerns and takes an approach where the person who is struggling has little agency in the support they receive, despite those with lived experience being experts in their own illness and life circumstances. Situations like mine will continue to occur unless there are significant policy changes that centre lived experiences and makes space for the entire spectrum of how mental illness may manifest.

Although my experience has pushed me to help others and advocate for change, it’s going to take me a lot of effort and time to heal from the impact of systems that were supposed to help me. This should never be the case. We have raised enough “awareness” about mental health and illness, now it’s time to push for policy changes that ensure those who are vulnerable are supported rather than punished. 

By telling my story that I had once felt so ashamed of, I hope that I can shed light on mental health policy issues at Mac and make students who are currently experiencing or have been through similar issues feel less alone. I want students to know that contrary to what it may feel like at times, they deserve to feel supported and have a safe, accepting space to overcome their struggles.

Winter can be a time of wondrous snow days, evenings by the fireplace, and Hallmark holidays. But in addition to the cheerful, colourful festivities of the season, the cold weather also brings forth an onset of cloudy, dark days that can be mirrored in emotions of hopelessness and depression.

The current school year has brought forth several candid confessions from Silhouette staff members and volunteers outlining the effects of an ongoing battle with mental illness. If you find this time of year tends to bring you down and affect your mood, here are a few tips that have worked, and continue to work, in helping me feel more like myself when dealing with depression and anxiety. I cannot guarantee that these will work for everyone, but making these changes have definitely helped me reduce my frequency of panic attacks, and revive the spring in my step when SAD has left me feeling hopeless.

Make time

When I first started speaking with friends who were also struggling with mental illness, one of the things we always seemed to have in common was an inability to keep a schedule. Sleeping was a challenge, making it to class was a burden, and for reasons unknown, we always forgot to eat. This year, I’ve started keeping a schedule that reminds me to keep up with my commitments and my necessary daily habits. It may seem like a pretty basic plan, but keeping a day planner and setting reminders on your phone will help you feel more organized and less stressed.

If you’re finding it difficult to make time for sleep, reschedule your life accordingly. If it takes you two hours to fall asleep, schedule in an extra two hours at bedtime. If you know you’re going to wake up at 3:00 in the morning, have a show queued on your laptop so you have something to lull you back to sleep again. Or even if you have the opposite problem and are sleeping too much, have a trusted friend or relative give you a call to remind you of the world outside your bedroom. Making time for sleep may require you to cut the time you spend on other commitments, but if you’re well rested, you’ll have more time and energy to get caught up the next day.

If you find that you’re forgetting about other important details in your life, such as eating or attending class, write everything down and check off each item as you go. It’s been about a year since I was diagnosed, and I still write down “Eat Lunch” in my day planner- but now I’ve yet to forget! Getting thrown off my school and eating schedules last year led to a drop in my grades and a rise in my weight. Not staying on schedule ended up giving me more worries on top of my pre-existing anxiety conditions. Having a visual outline for your day written on a calendar or in a planner will give you a better understanding of how much time you realistically have in a day.

Treat Yo’ Self

When you’re feeling down, you can’t waste time blaming yourself for your problems. Instead, treat yourself. Make yourself feel good about something rather than berating yourself into feeling worse.

Once a week, I schedule a two-hour time slot where I do something just for me. Put on some inspiring music (pro tip: avoid the Adeles and Lana Del Reys of the world), paint your nails, watch a movie, try a new recipe, do whatever it is that you wish you had more time for during the school year. It will be an instant pick me up that you’ll begin looking forward to every week.

Talk it Out

Talk to someone- a friend, a family member, a professional in the field, or even call a hotline if you don’t feel comfortable speaking with someone who knows you personally. If you’re bottling up your feelings, you’re hurting yourself and hurting others. Not only are you hindering your own chances of speaking about your problems and accepting them, you’re also preventing those around you from gaining a better understanding of what you’re going through.

Talking to yourself can even be a positive option. Don’t necessarily talk to yourself out loud, but writing in a journal or talking out your problems in your head can be beneficial in gaining a better understanding of what your stresses and upsets currently are.

Good Day Sunshine

Getting enough sunlight is crucial in keeping your mood bright. But if like myself you find yourself living, working, and spending a considerable number of classes in basements, you may need to resort to some synthetic forms of sunshine.

Going outside can be cringe-worthy when the term “Polar Vortex” has become a CP24 regular and frosted eyebrows have become a daily fashion statement. An alternative to the classic glowing orb is a sun lamp. I’ve recently ordered one (a little over $100 from Wal-Mart) and I’m highly anticipating its arrival. I’ve heard great things about its ability to both literally and figuratively brighten your day, and living in a basement, it’ll help my body rise naturally with the sun and create a natural schedule to follow.

If you find the darkness of the current weather is really affecting your mood and how you feel about getting out of bed in the morning, a sun lamp can be a beneficial step.

Be nice

Be nice to yourself and be nice to others. Have an inspiring quote set as your desktop background, or reflect on your accomplishments at the end of the day. Complimenting yourself may seem lame, but it will boost your spirits and help you look towards the positives of each day.

And while you’re flattering yourself, let those around you know how much they mean to you. Complimenting someone else will make you feel like a genuinely good person and will leave you feeling more grateful for positive relationships in your life that you may sometimes overlook. You’ll feel good about it, and any recipient of a validating comment or complimentary text message is bound to also benefit from the flattery.

Dealing with depression, anxiety or seasonal affective disorder can leave you feeling hopeless. But taking a few steps in the right direction may have you turning down a path of new hope.

 

The winter blues can be more than just craving the sun gracing its presence at your desk when you’re working, which can make the stress of academic life a bit more bearable. For some, weather marked by cloudiness, little light, and a drop in temperatures affects them to the point of serious debilitation to both their academic and personal lives. This is known as seasonal affective disorder.

In light of a seemingly endless bout of wintery weather, it’s understandable to find yourself in a bit of a funk. However, it’s important to be able to recognize when you’re dealing with something more, and recognizing that SAD is a treatable disorder.

SAD is essentially an exacerbated form of these winter blues. It’s a perpetual feeling of lethargy, problematic sleeping and eating, and a general reduction in focus. However, this form of clinical depression only occurs in the winter months, with the spring and summer months returning them to their normal functioning. The seasonal influence behind SAD is mostly due to the lack of light, according to Dr. Lam of University of British Columbia. This makes intuitive sense. I doubt I’m alone when I say that when the sun breaks through my window even on a pretty glum day, my spirits are instantly lifted. With those affected by SAD, the lack of light on a daily basis can actually disturb the biological clock responsible for keeping hormones in check and regulating sleep and mood. When winter strikes, this disturbance is aggravated, whereas in the spring and summer, with its glorious abundance of light, the biological clock may be closer to its normal functioning.

Understandably, Canadians are more perceptible to this disorder given the shorter day lengths in winter. You wake up to darkness, you have breakfast in darkness, get about eight hours of semi-blissful light shrouded in clouds, and then back to eating dinner in the dark. And for those of us with heating systems that are only barely functioning, wearing a couple layers on top of your hoodie can be the norm. Canadians have it rough in the winter.

As someone who originally hails from Vancouver, I’ve come to accept an impressive amount of consecutively rainy, grey days. In fact, sometimes I even enjoy the rain in a sort-of Norah Jones “I want to wake up with the rain falling on a tin roof,” type way. It can be inherently satisfying to stay inside when the rain or snow is refusing to let up. But as students, we often don’t have the privilege. We need to trek outside to our calculus class or psychology tutorial. Again, Canadians have it rough in the winter.

But some have it rougher than others. My mother has identified with SAD for as long as I can remember. Walking into her office, a light looms over her computer screen designed to simulate the sunlight missing from Vancouver’s winter season. Although glaring at first, your brain settles into the mindset that the weather doesn’t hold as much gloom and doom after all, even if it’s a trick. This is called light therapy, and according to Dr. Lam of University of British Columbia, it can usually promise a 60-70% improvement in those who suffer from SAD.

It’s difficult to differentiate between the blues and depression. There can be an undeserving stigma around depression as it is, resulting in many trying to keep their suffering quiet. Too many people dismiss depression as something that is a passing phase, but it has the potential to only be exacerbated when it’s pushed aside, as though your mental wellbeing is a lesser priority than whatever happens to be soaking up your attention, be it Facebook or homework.

By Aaron Grierson

 

All the talk of mental health the last few weeks are making me depressed. It may sound like a bad joke. Many of my friends suffer from various mental ‘abnormalities’ or ‘illnesses.’ I’ve experienced first hand how useless you can be when someone breaks down because they’re having an off day while under the pressure of these mental states.

I am however glad that (at least for some) these situations are not permanent. It is only a mild reassurance especially in the face of such pressing media, but nevertheless it is a sort of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Now I’m sure that for some, all of the advertising about mental health awareness is great. To others, it may be extremely intimidating, but that’s never been a reason to stop, so I know asking would be a waste of breath.

No I’d rather look at a deeper issue. Maybe it’s one that’s been looked at hundred of times before. Not that all of us have the time or energy to be reading psychology journals. What I wonder concerning the recent bandwagon push for mental health awareness is why most of the possibilities are looked at as a disease.

The few readers that know me personally probably understand where I’m coming from. I am by no means going so far as to call myself depressed, or even really make a comparison but a lot of us feel down a lot of the time. A lot of us often have wavering self-confidence. Does that mean that we are in some way sick? Like plague carriers of negativity?

Does it never occur to the institution (not McMaster, but the medical community at large) that this is in and of itself stigmatizing in the most potentially harmful ways? Is that not a dead end of constantly paying for pills and still feeling like shit upwards of half the time, maybe?

I realize that this line of thinking has a few problems. First, half of my thoughts about the efficacy of medication are more or less speculation, but I’ve never heard anyone say that depression is something one simply gets over.

Second, and far more importantly, being depressed, manic, or bi-polar may be some of the more common mental derivatives but are certainly not the only ones. So I can hardly say that a sociopath feels like crap. Maybe they don’t even know what it’s like to be down in the dumps.

The diversity of mental health might even be part of the problem with tackling it. No one method fits all, rather like how there is no one pill that makes everyone feel ‘normal.’  But again, I have to question the necessity of normality. I’m quite prone to saying that sanity is for the weak or that it is not required. That’s because in today’s world, sanity seems like a fallacious bastion that people hold on to when they don’t feel up to dealing with the world’s problems. But that’s yet another problem - for activists who wish to end world hunger, the task is overwhelming. At the same time, gawking at the inaction of the world may also drive someone mad.

Maybe it takes something a little different. Like the world telling those with such ‘illnesses’ that they are in fact not sick (or certainly not in a devastating fashion) and that no one really has all the answers. A thing like being happy or confident is not an easy journey, and may indeed take a whole lifetime.

Maybe that’s the sort of philosophical paste we need to start espousing in order to better hold ourselves together.

It’s funny to say but I’m not really sure there is such a thing as a ‘happy medium,’ when it seems we can’t all be happy.

It almost feels like I am yet to reach the acceptance stage with these sorts of issues, but I can certainly say that I won’t be happy until something more is done about it.

By: Ronald Leung

 

What’s the first thought that pops into your mind when someone mentions “mental illness”? A balding creature cackling to himself about his precious, an eerily-calm psychiatrist with a cannibalistic streak, or leather-faced chainsaw-wielding inbreds?  These images come from the media that surrounds us and, as unfortunate as this result, is where we get most of our perceptions – quite often subconsciously. We see something on our screen or in our pages and it marinates in our mind before it becomes a part of what we see and how we think. It’s not surprising that media portrayals of mental illness are not only false but also excessively negative. It’s difficult not to whip up the drama and details of the most gruesome murder of the year – that’s how you get more viewership. What’s worse is that news stories rarely ever contain the opinion of a person with a mental illness. It’s often only law enforcement or a health professional speaking on behalf of them, which leads to the perception that people with mental illness are unable of developing opinions or speaking on their own behalf.

Mental illness is often used as a weapon in the entertainment industry. It’s quite sad that a true and devastating sickness can be battered and manipulated into becoming not only a social stigma, but a grotesque or villainous character. A recent study showed that 72.1% of adult characters on television who were depicted as mentally ill, injured or killed others. In general, characters that were mentally ill were 10 times more violent than their co-stars. It’s not surprising that the reality is completely different. The majority of crime, about 95-97%, is committed by people with no mental illness. This huge difference between fiction and fact is feeding the negative rap that mental illness receives.

Not only is the problem located in the frequency that mental illness is displayed in the media, but also the method of portrayal. The most common stereotypical depictions of people with mental illnesses are rebellious free spirit, violent seductress, narcissistic parasite, mad scientist, sly manipulator, helpless/depressed female and comedic relief. The problem here is that these characters often have no identity outside of their “crazy” behavior – their mental illness becomes their one and only label. It becomes the point where the mental illness is the character’s main personality traits and the illness is the only way that character can be possibly defined.

There is also the tendency to automatically associate mental illness with simple-mindedness. In prime-time TV drama, more than 43% of mentally ill characters did not understand everyday adult roles and were often portrayed as lost and confused. These characters also spoke in very simple terms and grammar, and were also often shown to be helpless and dishevelled. Almost always they were poor and homeless in addition to being held by police for crimes that had little understanding or remembrance about.

The reality is that mental illness can strike anywhere and anyone – whether you are a student, professional, or retiree. However, the media depicts mental illness as something separate from general society. People who are mentally ill are often shown to be unemployed without family, friends or unrelated personal history. Mental illness does not discriminate against class, age, or popularity. The continued depiction of people with mental illnesses as separate from general society is just a continuation in describing them as almost subhuman. The fact that homelessness is commonly associated with mental illness perpetuates the impression that people with mental illness are dependent on others or that mental illness causes homelessness, especially since a discussion of the broader systemic issues that lead to homelessness is lacking. This view contributes to the picture that individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis are incapable of being productive members of society.

Not only is the perception of individuals who are mentally ill warped and twisted but the depiction of treatments and patient facilities is also often untrue. How many movies have you seen with the cold empty asylums filled with screaming patients and nurses wearing white starch-stiff uniforms? The inaccurate and unflattering stereotypes of the psychiatric profession misinforms the public and undermines the credibility of mental health care practitioners. In the media, mental health professionals were often show to be neurotic, ineffectual, mentally ill themselves, comically inept, self-absorbed, drug-addicted, foolish or outright idiotic. These portrayals reinforce the idea that helping others requires little skill or expertise. It’s not surprising that less than 33% of mentally ill patients in Canada seek professional health – depictions of mentally health practitioners as exploitative and mentally unstable do irreparable harm to people who are already hesitant to seek treatment.

Mental illness is not a violent death sentence, nor is it an outlier that only occurs to the homeless and people on the fringe of society. It is a common occurrence that is nothing to be ashamed of – despite what the media thinks. Ignoring the elephant in the room will not make it go away. Only by admitting to it will any true change happen.

TYLER HAYWARD / SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Natalie Timperio

Senior InsideOut Editor

 

What do you know about mental illnesses? Did you know that one out of every five Canadians is affected by mental illness at some point in their lives? Did you know that only one-third of the people affected by mental illness seek any professional help? Perhaps this knowledge is nothing new to you. Or perhaps it is.

For many, mental illness is a fact of life. However, only recently has it been acknowledged as being so. Where mental health disorders were once thought to be a result of demonic possession or some such other aliment, science has now proven otherwise.

But this doesn’t make the stigma any less real.

Students are at high risk for mental health disorders, particularly if there is a hereditary predisposition at play. The high-stress environment of university coupled with poor lifestyle choices such as irregular sleeping patterns and substance abuse can make a student particularly vulnerable to mental illness.

‘Max,’ whose real name has been withheld, is one such individual who can attest to students’ vulnerability to mental illness. A schizoaffective bipolar type, Max stated that frequent drinking and use of marijuana contributed to his mental illness.

After being diagnosed with bipolar type two, Max explained that he used marijuana as a mood stabilizer. However, marijuana contributed in part to his eventual diagnosis of schizophrenia: “it’s very important to know that 40 per cent of people using the marijuana today are going to receive some forms of psychosis ... people don’t realize how strong marijuana has become as opposed to the hippie days 30 or 40 years ago.”

Excessive sleeping, up to 18 hours a day and thoughts of suicide preceded Max’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder: “all of a sudden life was so dark, the things I loved before I no longer had the energy to do and people seemed dead to me.”

Schizophrenia, on the other hand, caused Max to have “a lot of hallucinations and delusions of things that I perceived to be my reality and perceived to be real based on what I had learned and what I was told.”

After intense therapy and use of medication, however, Max now lives a gratifying life.

In fact, he appears no different from anyone else, indicating that mental health disorders need not impair someone from living well.

Max explained that though it “sucks” having a mental illness it’s something that, with a little bit of patience, can definitely get better.

There’s been a concerted effort to dispel the stigma of mental illnesses, particularly within our local community. Mood Menders Support Group, which provides support to those with depression and bipolar disorder, has been operating within the Hamilton community since 1985. Since then not only has Mood Menders provided a formidable support network to those with mental health disorders, as well as to their families, but it has also made strides toward educating and bringing awareness to mental illnesses.

Charles Cino, President of Mood Menders, says that “stigma instils fear in someone’s life ... it’s based on unfounded facts. It hurts individuals with a mood disorder to the point where people sometimes believe that the way they’ve been stigmatized is the truth.”

Seeking to educate the uneducated, Cino explained that “as a society we have to give the brain the respect it deserves to be allowed to become sick. We accept the fact that other body parts can become ill ... if other organs in the body can become sick then we have to recognize that the brain too can become sick.”

Cino further noted that mental illness is indeed receiving greater attention in the media as well amongst high profile people, and not a moment too soon.

“From a medical science perspective this is the last frontier. The 21st century is going to be the explosion of research and a much better understanding of [mental illnesses],” said Nirankar Prasad, Director of Mood Menders.

Yet Mood Menders is not alone in making a difference in the lives of those afflicted with mental health disorders as well as promoting education. The Student Wellness Centre (SWC) at McMaster University provides personal and psychological counselling, mental health support, medical services and wellness education.

Debra Earl, mental health nurse at SWC, said that “historically people with mental illness have not been very high functioning … so they were shut away and they weren’t able to be an active member of society ... mental illness was a very negative thing.”

Amongst students, Earl noted that popular indicators of mental health disorders include isolation from the outside world, mood change such as extreme sadness or irritability, changes in sleeping patterns like excessive sleeping or lack of sleeping, and changes in nutritional habits such as binge eating or loss of appetite.

However, this is not to say that if you are experiencing these symptoms that you have a mental illness.

Cino explained that “two people can experience the same thing. Take death, for example. One person will experience sadness, but never come below that bar, while the other one will go into clinical depression. It’s the way their mind recognizes the problem.”

For students, making positive life style choices is key to ensuring mental wellbeing: “making good choices about getting good sleep, eating well, and building up a support network of friends and family to make sure people are looking out for you when you crash. Engaging in activities is another positive thing [students can do],” explained Earl.

The lives we live as students aren’t often conducive to good mental health. And while the choices we make for our physical health often get the attention, it’s our mental health that is often even more at risk.

 


 

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