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By: Dev Shields
I have a hard time digesting the typicalities of “mental health awareness” events. There are hashtags and buttons and stickers. There is yoga, tea, and treats. There is some form of discussion. The week ends. We are still mentally ill. I will still attend a class for the first time in three weeks and someone will say “why can’t you just come to class?”
MacTalks is a relatively new happening, first set in motion by former VP Education Rodrigo Narro Perez. The first MacTalks week was held last year alongside McMaster’s newly unveiled “Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.” Unfortunately, the attempt misses some crucial points.
Firstly, mental health awareness weeks tend to cater to “high functioning” depressive or anxiety ridden people, meaning someone who is at least partially able to carry on about your day and fulfill commitments (but doesn’t necessarily mean they are “not as sick”).
There are a couple of immediate issues with this. What about those who are not high functioning? People who can’t even manage to make it out of the house in the morning aren’t going to benefit from an event being held in the atrium.
Accessibility seems to have become something of a buzzword, but it is ironic that the events that are supposed to support accessibility for people with mental health issues and mental illnesses are well... inaccessible! The absence of online forums or streaming services for these events makes them off limits to those who find themselves too sick to leave the confines of their bedroom.
Secondly, what about those who are not dealing with depression or anxiety? Both are serious, debilitating and powerful illnesses. I struggle with them on a daily basis. However, it seems to me that most of the dialogue at events such as MacTalks does not address any other types of mental illness. You are hard pressed to find an abundance of discourse around PTSD, schizophrenia, psychopathy/sociopathy, bipolar disorder, depersonalization disorder or dissociative disorder, to name a few. Leaving out important information on these illnesses is defeating the purpose of having an awareness event in the first place.
This kind of dialogue leads to sanitized discussion. For example, while there is acknowledgement that self-harm exists and is widespread, there is not nearly enough focus on it. We are quick to romanticize people who have “overcome” their self-harm — their story is triumphant, acceptable, palatable — but there is no adequate support while the harming is ongoing. While SHEC will be holding an event about self-injury, the description available on the MSU website seems to imply that there will be no explicit talk of dealing with the actual physical wounds themselves. We know it is going on, so why can’t we be frank about it during a week devoted to mental health? Where are the forums about self-injury? Where are the pamphlets about how to clean wounds and avoid infection? How about support groups? Instead of involving ourselves and becoming aware, like these events promise, we dismiss the things that seem too touchy.
People who can’t even manage to make it out of the house in the morning aren’t going to benefit from an event being held in the atrium.
I think intention is important, and it is valid, but impact is by far more important. Awareness events like MacTalks have left a bad taste in my mouth. Dismissal of large groups of people who identify with being mentally ill or having poor mental health sabotages the idea of an all-encompassing and inclusive event.
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A new bistro at the St. Joseph’s Hospital is hoping to bring some colour to the monotony of hospital life. The bistro is an expansion of the services of Colours Café which has been serving St Joe’s for two and a half years. The café, located on the second floor of the West Fifth campus of the hospital, is a brightly lit space surrounded by artwork and high tables. In-patients say that café is a haven. In the early morning, the steaming coffee pot and the sunlight filtering in through the large windows provides a warm wake up call to patients and visitors alike.
The café is administered by Rainbow’s End, a social enterprise looking to provide employment opportunities for people who have struggled with mental health issues and addiction. When St. Joe’s approached Rainbow’s End to see if they would run a store out of their building, Rainbow’s End saw it as the perfect opportunity to open up jobs and train employees. At first, the café opened with just coffee and cold counters, but it didn’t take long for sales to pick up.
“It’s gone from success to success,” said David Williams, the Executive Director of Rainbow’s End.
The café currently employs 11 people and is also open on weekends, when most places have closed their doors.
As of early February, Rainbow’s End was able to expand into a full kitchen in the first floor cafeteria, made possible by donations from the recent MSU Charity Ball. Workers at the new bistro have access to full commercial equipment that allows for expanded food prep training. Costumers are lining up for the hot breakfast and lunch plates, capitalizing on the opportunity for warm food in a building that serves most food in cold counters.
Williams hopes that the great food and service produced by his employees will contribute towards breaking the stigma of mental health.
Maribeth Chabot, the food services and manager chef for Rainbow’s End, said that she hopes Colours Café will provide the employees with skills to succeed in other jobs as well.
“Hopefully when I am done, these guys can move on and be a line cook in someone else’s restaurant. They will know all the things that a line cook needs to know, and the procedures of how a restaurant is run. You get a crowd of 50 people lining up for lunch. That kind of demand is reality. It gives them really good exposure to that and good skills in today’s market. And we laugh, we have too much fun.”
Williams hopes that the great food and service produced by his employees will contribute towards breaking the stigma of mental health.
“What excites me most is really the opportunity to offer training and a real job to people that would like to get back to work and have to face certain hurdles such as mental health and addiction. The most important thing for us was to get it open, employ the right people and establish the business and credibility. I think we have done that,” says Williams.
Expectations for people working at the café or bistro are no different from other restaurants. In fact, employees are expected to already have or be planning to get their food handling certification.
As for the physical layout of the space, the bistro has a similarly airy feel as the café. The food is prepared right in front of the customers, with the stoves in plain sight of the cash register. The employees are not only learning to prepare food, but they are doing so in an environment where the people they are hoping to please are watching them work. So far the challenge has been met with enthusiasm.
Williams knows this may not be the most comfortable of situations for staff. “It’s challenging. It would be challenging for anybody to prepare food that way.”
He also recognizes that perhaps his employees also have an edge others may not.
“We actually like to think that many of our team members, because they have experienced mental health challenges, have a lot of empathy with people who do have the same conditions. We feel that there is a degree of communication there that they can establish with other team members, with patients in hospital, with friends of patients who are coming to visit them.”
“I have a brother who has problems; I have a nephew I lost to suicide. I have been a chef all my life, I have made good money. I owned a restaurant. At this point in my life it’s time to give back.”
Chabot has nothing but praise for Rainbow’s End and their work at St. Joe’s. “I can tell you that working for Rainbows End has been one of the most rewarding jobs of my career. I mean, we can’t have a meeting where I don’t cry. They are a fabulous organization with people who care and with huge hearts. I am privileged to be a part of it and I get choked up. I have a brother who has problems; I have a nephew I lost to suicide. I have been a chef all my life, I have made good money. I owned a restaurant. At this point in my life it’s time to give back.”
Photo Credit: Alex Florescu
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By: Gabi Herman
This election, there has been a lot of thinking about mental health. Why is it such a huge issue, and what does each candidate have to say about it?
The problem:
According to the Canadian Association of Colleges and University Student Services, more students with mental health issues are pursuing post-secondary education than ever before. In addition, students say mental health issues have the greatest impact on their academic success. 57.9 percent of students feel overwhelming anxiety, and 40 percent have felt too depressed to function.
MSU initiatives, clubs and the university all have services in place to address mental health issues. The MSU has a number of peer support services, where student volunteers go through training to actively listen, provide advice and sometimes refer students to applicable professionals. A number of clubs also advocate for mental health. COPE, a student mental health initiative club, held their annual “Elephant in the Room” campaign last week, in efforts to reduce mental health stigma. Finally, the University’s Student Wellness Centre has one psychiatrist and a psychiatry resident, a number of counsellors and social workers and group counselling resources.
However, these services still do not meet students’ needs on campus. Many peer support services are notoriously underutilized. Some are difficult to find, and no directory exists with a listing of all peer support services. Student clubs can work to create community, but do not have the ability to directly help those who need trained professionals. The Student Wellness Centre has extremely long wait times for appointments, and students who cannot afford to see a private counsellor are often left without options.
Candidates have different ideas of how to address these problems.
Devante Mowatt
Mowatt hopes to address mental health issues by discussing them with students first. His Campus Chats initiative will bring presidential office hours to discuss issues like mental health and accessibility. He will also use MacTV, an MSU television initiative, to advertise mental health services.
Jonathon Tonietto:
Tonietto hopes to strengthen current initiatives by consulting with managers of peer support services, and says that talking about mental health is important. He wants to give peer support volunteers more training, give peer support more funding, and create a McMaster community that is a safe space for those with mental health issues. He has consulted with Student Accessibility Services.
Justin Monaco-Barnes
Monaco-Barnes hopes to reduce wait times at the student centre by hiring another psychiatrist. He also wants to build a McMaster community that is supportive of those with mental health issues through awareness initiatives and training. He consulted with SAS.
Mike Gill
Gill wants to be a part of re-writing the SAS policy. He hopes to allow students the option not to disclose a mental health diagnosis. He wants SAS to be responsible for communicating with students’ professors, and he would like to get rid of yearly intake appointments for those registered with SAS. He has discussed this point with multiple people, including MSU Maccess coordinator Alex Wilson and Tim Nolan, the SAS director. He wants to introduce a formal policy on academic leave for mental health concerns, create a minimum counsellor-to-student ratio, and put all peer support services in one location, a point he has consulted with several parties on, including Associate Vice-President and Dean of Students Sean Van Koughnett.
Sarah Jama
Jama has a short term and a long-term plan. Short term, she hopes to hire one counsellor for the North Quad, and one for the West Quad. She would like them to interact with students in residence. Long term, she hopes to hire counsellors for each faculty, a system she says is already in place at Waterloo. She also wants to create a peer support centre with centralized training and services. She has consulted with SAS, the Student Wellness Centre, and a number of initiatives.
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By: Gwenyth Sage
I walked out of her room glowing. For the first time in a long time, I smiled a smile borne out of genuine joy. It was my last time seeing Kristy. I had written spontaneous poetry for friends before and wanted to do the same for her. I asked her for a word as inspiration for the poem. She gave me healing.
Kristy was my counselor, the guardian angel who selflessly held my hand and led me inch by inch out of the eye of the storm, through the turbulence, and onto safe ground. Kristy was tireless in picking up the pieces of the emotional mess that I was, helping me organize and reconfigure the thoughts that plagued and overwhelmed me.
Before Kristy, I was a different person. Mental illness is someone else’s problem, I thought. I was a nursing student after all — I’d know if something was wrong. It is an unfortunate reality that many people, like me, do not seek help until they find themselves in the middle of a mental health crisis. Changes in mood, eating habits, lack of motivation — these are easy to read as a list in a textbook but are difficult to identify in your everyday life especially when they’re commonly attributed to academic stress.
Shifts in mental wellness sneak up on you, inching ever so slowly that you are unwitting to the change. As Elizabeth in Prozac Nation muses, it comes “gradually, then suddenly” and “you wake up one morning, afraid that you’re gonna live.”
I went to the Student Wellness Centre on a whim for a drop-in counseling session to get a second opinion. It was an optional measure in my mind. I recalled from my mental health nursing placement that people were always the last to see when they needed help, so I went in to see what they had to say. My reaction to trauma was to ignore it, suppress it, and try to move on with life. While I wanted to be done with the trauma, it clearly wasn’t done with me. And so, when I told the mental health nurse in my initial appointment, the floodgates opened, and I was made acutely aware of the mental health crisis that I was in the middle of.
The fragility of the equilibrium I had tried to maintain by avoiding the psychological aftermath of trauma was revealed. Everything triggered me, everything hurt, everything was heavy. A response to constant pain is to numb. And for a while, I was numb, robotic; I was a zombie. As opposed to having low mood, which I did experience, more often than not, I had no mood at all. Emotion is an experience integral to the human experience and to lack such a basic part of myself was deeply distressing.
The results were in and I was to begin the most intensive, reflective, and painful chapter of my life with my counselor Kristy. The course of cognitive processing therapy would last ten weeks, and painstakingly, Kristy would break me apart, reset my bones, reassess, and repeat.
Counseling was not easy–the road to happiness never is. She challenged me with questions, understood and validated my concerns, and recalibrated me to be able to live amicably with my painful past. Pain is a part of the process in understanding and coming to terms with sensitive experiences. It is now just a memory, no longer lingering uncomfortably in the forefront of my conscious thought.
Avoidance is not therapy. You can shove it under a rug but you’ll never forget and it won’t go away. If you feel numb, anxious, or that your baseline mood has shifted to a level that is less than comfortable, please do not wait to seek help. In that state, you may be of the belief that you are irredeemable, unsalvageable, out of reach. It’s a lie. Help is available, and you are not alone.
Kristy gave me healing. This is what I gave her:
life was through a reel
the ins and outs of
an assembly line
revolving door of
broken mindsshe sprinkled
she sewed
she shared
the wisdom bestowed
upon her
by history
it takes one to know oneempathy is pain
empathy is wisdom
pain is temporarywisdom is not
To get help, please reach out to MSU services like Peer Support Line, Women & Gender Equality Network, and the Student Wellness Centre. If you are in a crisis, do not hesitate to call COAST, Hamilton’s 24 hour crisis outreach hotline at 905-972-8338. There is help, there is hope.
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The MSU is well on its way to launching Maccess, its newest service. As the name suggests, Maccess will cater to students with both visible and invisible disabilities, with the goal of peer-based support and advocacy.
“What's different about this [service] is that it's peer-centric and that it also helps to capture students who maybe suffer with acute disabilities, so that captures students who deal with mental health concerns,” explained Giuliana Guarna, VP (Administration) of the MSU.
“We know there's a desire for peer support and we know there's also a desire to have an advocacy component that teaches students self-advocacy and also in the sense of campaigns and educating the campus, and advocating to the university.”
Guarna hopes the service will help prevent students from feeling “othered,” and while Maccess does not have a confirmed space yet, due to the logistics of physical accessibility concerns, she stressed the importance of finding a non-medical space. “Many students don’t find the medical resources to be sufficient,” she explained.
She also hopes Maccess will pioneer a better ally system for students with disabilities. While Student Accessibility Services runs its own version of the program, she said, “Many of the students who are part of the ally program don’t actually have a disability. So they don’t really appreciate the nuances of navigating the university while having a disability.” The service would hopefully launch a version of the program where students with disabilities could share tips about accommodations.
Ultimately, it will be Alex Wilson, the service’s newly hired coordinator who will work to shape the service. The selection committee, made up of Guarna, Brandon Stegmaier, the MSU Services Commissioner and Nishan Zewge-Abubaker, the MSU’s Diversity Services Director, worked with a set list of competencies to find a candidate who fit the job description. “[We wanted] someone who understands what is currently happening on campus with regards to disability and what services already exist,” explained Guarna. “Second, we are looking for someone who can build an inclusive space that would operate under an anti-racist framework and that had knowledge of intersectionality.”
To Guarna, Wilson displayed all the qualities the committee looked for. “I think he has a very thorough understanding of the role of peer support based on his role with SHEC. He also has a very strong understanding of working with campus and our community partners,” she said.
In regards to the role that lived experiences with disability played in hiring, Guarna said that the committee never said that they were exclusively going to hire someone with a disability, visible or invisible.
“We never even said we were going to hire someone with a disability. I mean, obviously we would hope that we do, because they're going to have that more nuanced understanding; however, I don't think it's even fair for us to have to expect a student to self-identify, because again, that is a barrier. And that in itself creates a barrier for those students, having to say, ‘I have this disability.’”
Wilson, for his part, is looking forward to taking on his new role. Starting in January, he will work six hours a week on developing the service, a job he will continue over the course of the summer, the goal being to officially launch the service September 2016, though it remains to be seen in what form.
“The next few months will be very dynamic as we look at how the collaboration between SAS, SWELL, SWC, HRES and Maccess turns out.” He also cited that finding a permanent, readily accessible space was another factor that would be vital in getting the service set up.
While progress has been made, the Maccess has a long way to grow yet, and it will be exciting to see how the new advocacy service develops.
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By: Jennifer La Grassa
“Stand up. Stretch. Take a walk. Go to the airport. Get on a plane. Never return.” This is one of the more popular memes about studying to pop up in everyone’s least favourite month, November. I dare you try to escape the flood of study memes during this year’s exam season. In that sleep-deprived, “what is life?” state, study memes are the university student’s main form of solace. During fall finals the urge to just hop on a plane is almost unbearable. As temperatures plummet into the negatives and the amount of sunlight continues to decline, the darkness of exams is a repelling force that is enough to push anyone onto a plane headed for a warm destination. Thankfully, the force of “you will fail life” tends to be stronger, and usually acts to keep those within the university population firmly rooted.
Believe it or not, as unhelpful as the above tip may seem, there lies within it a noteworthy statement: “take a walk.” Whether you regularly exercise or not, a mere five minutes of moderate exercise is all it takes to enhance your overall mood. Just think of all that this insinuates; actually don’t think, rest your academically distraught brain and let me delve into the realm of possibilities that this statement holds.
All those times that you end up walking during exam season (be it to the library or grocery store) and feel that your chosen method of transportation is wasting precious study time, think of Jim Carrey’s Grinch waving his hairy green finger while saying “wrong-o.” You may just be doing more good than harm to your studying. That stroll you are engaging in is considered to be light physical activity, which not only counteracts many detrimental health risks posed by long periods of sitting, but also boosts your mood and creative potential. Endorphins, which are one of the countless “feel good” substances within the brain, are released during exercise and are active in reward systems to create a sense of pleasure. Numerous studies claim that being in good spirits can enhance your productivity — mix this with coffee and your studying efficacy may just reach an all-time high.
A properly timed workout session of moderate exercise is known to show a more pronounced effect. Regular exercise promotes brain growth within the hippocampal region (a part of the brain dedicated to memory formation) and prevents brain deterioration. Committed exercisers may also find a stronger sense of satisfaction at the end of a workout. Regardless of how much exercise you normally engage in, just know that even small amounts can help. Amidst the countless hours of studying you will undertake during this year’s upcoming finals, do not feel guilty for the many walks you may take to the fridge for another snack. Instead, consider extending this journey into a light stroll around the house before reaching your food destination. The benefits of that walk could be doing more for your studying than the snack you will grab.
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Dr. Zena Samaan hopes to tackle the stigmatization surrounding drug addiction with her recent study on opioid addiction in women.
Samaan, a Staff Psychiatrist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare and Assistant Professor at McMaster, noticed an alarming trend when speaking to patients about their mental health challenges. Many patients reported opioid prescriptions. Opioids are painkillers that Dr. Samaan has seen given to women post-childbirth, with back pain or have suffered a trauma like a car accident. Painkillers can be prescribed for many years.
“The striking part was that many of them didn’t realize they were addicted to these medications,” said Dr. Samaan, who looked at opiate users within Canada to find a common thread among their addiction.
In order to gather participants for the study, investigators reached out to community treatment clinics. Participants were then asked to identify the factor that first led them to opiate use.
After interviewing 500 people, Dr. Samaan found that 52 percent of the women were first exposed to opiates in the form of a prescription from a physician. This trend was found to be less prevalent in men, with only 33 percent receiving a prescription for the same exposure.
It was also found that male and female addicts had different life circumstances. For example, women with opioid addictions were more likely to have childcare responsibilities. Many of the women in the study were also found to have received an education but not be working, putting them at risk for financial assistance.
The difference might stem from the fact that women are more likely to reach out for medical assistance than men. Furthermore, social stigmas classifying men as risk takers may contribute to a decreased likelihood for men to receive a prescription for painkillers from physicians.
This finding calls for a need in the development of better treatment programs. Dr. Samaan explained, “We need do better in tailoring treatment to what women need and what men need. The treatment at the moment is ‘one size fits all.’”
Nor is the current treatment protocol exactly a quick fix. In the population used for the study, treatments lasted for an average of three years but can extend beyond that.
“At the moment, when somebody has an addiction to opioids, they cannot just stop it. Withdrawal symptoms can be very dangerous — they can have convulsions, seizures, [or lapse into a] coma. The treatment is to substitute what they have been using with a synthetic opioid such as methadone.”
From there, doses are decreased, the ultimate goal being to wean them off drug dependence. Other medications like opioid antagonists do also exist, however methadone remains the first line of treatment in Ontario.
“Some services may have some counselling, but mostly related to how do we make you stop using the drugs rather than what other needs do they have.” In women, this ties back to challenges posed by child bearing responsibilities as well as increased likelihood of familial struggles. The services do not cater to these types of problems at the moment,” laments Dr. Samaan.
With about half of the patients attending treatment centers also suffering from psychiatric problems, there is a dearth of psychological support in treatment.
“What we are advocating for is to have a more comprehensive treatment service [that melds] addiction treatment with mental health [strategies] and social service treatment,” explained Dr. Samaan. This would involve counseling and the cooperation of child protection agencies and social services.
Another option would be to limit the prescription of painkillers in the first place, the use of which for more than a few days is not recommended.
“The other thing this work is showing us is the stigma associated with opioid addiction. People often think that these are young people going out on the streets trying to get high, but in many of these women it is medically induced rather than because of risk-taking behaviours.”
Photo Credit: McMaster Daily News
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By: Alex Killan
Between excitement, uncertainty and fear about the future, almost every undergraduate will experience massive moments of self-doubt, feelings of failure and fear. It happens at every level — the first years feel it as they transition into the world of post-secondary education, and the graduating students feel it as they approach the end of one chapter in their educational journeys.
Our fear of failure is paralyzing and it stops us from taking risks. We prefer to stay with things that we know we are good at, things that we understand and things that give us confidence and the opportunity for success. Our fear of failure stops us from trying new things, prevents growth and development and leads to the development of a narrow skill set. Yet, we often forget that significant success often comes from many attempts and many failures. Ultimately, by emphasizing linear and rapid professional success, society and its inhabitants have failed each other.
To this end, meritocracy, the idea that success is based on merit, is a blessing and a curse of our society. From a young age, we are told that if we are passionate enough, creative enough and determined enough, we will succeed. From this approach, it naturally follows that if you fail, you simply did not work hard enough. The responsibility of failure is placed on the individual and as such, the idea of meritocracy, if not examined critically, can be extremely toxic in the context of personal success and failure. Though hard work is an important factor to success, we need to acknowledge the role that context, luck and privilege play in success.
Planned happenstance, a theory of career planning, acknowledges that in many cases, success is not linear and logical; an individual’s career path can be altered by one opportunity or one new contact. Within this framework, failure can be a positive thing. For example, failing a course can indicate that subject may not be for you, and prompt you to explore another area. Getting fired may lead to another job that brings you greater fulfillment.
On social media platforms, we are constantly bombarded with the success of others. Accepting personal failure becomes difficult. Approaching failure as an opportunity for growth, reflection, and exploration is nearly impossible; we cannot capture it nicely in a photograph.
But really, what is success? Upon reflection, we realize that it is challenging to define. It is a deeply personal concept that we are not often encouraged to define. As such, we may spend significant positions of our life chasing something that we do not really want. No matter what your path to your personal success, accepting failure as an integral part of it is critical.
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By: Sunanna Bhasin/Opinions Columnist
Still Alice is a critically acclaimed 2014 film about a middle-aged linguistics professor, Alice (Julianne Moore), who is diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Her life had always been about words and communication, and for it to become about remembering how to articulate basic sentences to a classroom full of students is a frightening new reality. One can only imagine how devastating it is to lose one’s language. While the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are widely known — extreme memory loss, disorientation, and loss of speech — Still Alice provides the perspectives of the afflicted individual as well as her family and friends and the difficult decisions both parties have to make after the diagnosis.
The movie goes a step further and recognizes the stigma that still exists in regards to neurodegenerative disorders by using brutally honest dialogue. After getting her official diagnosis, Alice says that she wishes she had cancer. At first, this may seem a shock to the audience considering the severe nature of the sickness, but when Alice explains that cancer victims are not looked on as social outcasts and that they receive support in multitudes, the viewer can sympathize and realize the indescribable isolation Alzheimer’s patients feel.
Having a family member with dementia myself, this film really opened my eyes as to how quick the progression of the disease is and how people beyond the patient are affected to a degree that truly tests their love in immeasurable ways.
In the film, Alice’s husband (Alec Baldwin) has to make the heart wrenching decision to leave his wife for an incredible work opportunity in a different city. On the surface, this seems like a selfish thing to do — to choose work over family is hard to understand as a viewer. Yet, the movie succeeds in keeping the audience from picking sides. Rather than see it as a one-dimensional, straightforward situation in which the husband should obviously stay, take care of his wife, and sacrifice everything else in the process, Still Alice challenges viewers to appreciate the complexities presented by Alzheimer’s. While watching the film, one begins to wonder if it matters who the caretaker is if the one being cared for cannot recognize his or her surroundings or family anymore. If the breadwinner in the family must leave to provide financial support, is he or she being selfish or simply doing his or her best to keep the sufferers comfortable? Being in our own bubble and having no experience taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s, it is very easy to judge families that fall apart when a member is afflicted. Still Alice dares viewers to take on the role of a significant other or a child of an Alzheimer’s patient to truly see what the everyday reality is for a family dealing with it.
Despite the depressing, tear-jerking nature of the film, it ends on a hopeful and positive note. Yes, memories do comprise a large part of our lives. Think about how many times we reminisce with our loved ones. However, there’s one thing that comes out ahead — memories or not, recognition or not. At the end of the film, Alice’s daughter (Kristen Stewart) reads her a story and asks her ailing mother what it was about. At this stage of the disease, Alice is hardly able to speak, but she is able to get one word out even as she struggles: love.
Still Alice teaches us that while not everyone is dealt the greatest cards, love is enough to make life worth living even when it becomes hellish. Even throughout the movie, Alice would say how she’s had a great life, full of language and teaching, which she would never trade. Being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s may have been a horrific shock, but it didn’t change the amazing life that she was able to live in the years leading up to it. In this way, Still Alice does not sugarcoat or romanticize the devastating reality of Alzheimer’s; rather, it reminds us all to live in the moment and love deeply because we never know when we could lose everything that matters most.
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By: Miranda Babbitt
Blogging, in most cases, goes hand in hand with writing. Sometimes, the process of writing is a joyous pursuit. The words just won’t stop flowing! Try and stop us, we yell triumphantly! The rest of the time, however, blogging goes hand in hand with writer’s block.
My blog is the sour truth of that.
Trust me, if my blog were a book, the pages would have gathered so much dust by now, you’d probably just back away slowly from what clearly appeared to be a witch’s spellbook. (Actually some of you may very well jump in at that prospect to live out your Hogwarts dreams, and for that, I don’t blame you.)
Do you know the feeling though? To have a blog sitting somewhere, not doing much except reminiscing about the good old days when it was churning out posts every week? Well, let me tell you something that you may not know: a big contributor to the wad of “blah” that’s stuck between you and your writing is fear.
Fear, that dear old friend, has a way of making every post you’re excited about seem impossible to approach. It can make any post you’re even planning on writing look just about as ridiculous as writing a spell to turn your least favourite professor into a cuddly kitten. Then there’s the fear of writing something people won’t like, and also the fear of writing something you don’t like but you think will appease your readers for the time being.
So how do we beat these insecurities rattling around in our heads? Own them.
That’s right. Use your fears to your advantage.
I can’t tell you how many bloggers I’ve met that have said the most rewarding pieces they’ve written are the ones that required them to open themselves up, if only a little, to their readers. The nerves before clicking ‘publish,’ the anxiety stirring inside their tummy afterwards, and then the gradual emanation of glory in knowing that they have put something out into the world that someone might be able to really resonate with —this experience is unbeatable.
While tapping into the hearts of your readers is in itself deliciously rewarding, the very process of writing out your feelings is also known to be very therapeutic for you. The power of journaling is well documented as a super effective therapy exercise for those who find it difficult to articulate their anxieties. For some though, journaling falls flat because, well, who’s going to read it? (Pretty sure your younger sister has moved on by now.) The thrill of knowing that there’s an audience can help you articulate your feelings even more clearly, letting you inch closer to the root of your anxieties. And who knows? Maybe by the time you’re finished writing, you’ll be a pro on how to help yourself out of a situation, which just means you can tailor your post into the most profoundly personal advice column ever. Those are the bomb.
Yes, it can be effing scary to publish your insecurities to the world, let alone whisper them to a friend. But, I’m telling you, that vulnerability can reap such treasures inside of your soul and the souls around you. If you open yourself up, you can open up whole communities of people at the same time who are going through the same thing you are.
So give it a try! To help you, we’ll give you a few ideas for prompts:
Where do you see yourself in two years, and (this answer could be different) where do you want to see yourself in two years?
Are secrets good for the soul?
What do you need to remind yourself of more often than anything else?
Photo Credit: Tweak Your Biz
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