Anchor Point

Today I had the privilege of doing my Talk/Reading/ book signing at Anchor Point Retirement here in St Catharines. My 30 min Talk was followed by a 45 min question and answer period. The conversations that I had with the people there were beyond incredible! The personal stories that were share were inspiring! A whole generation of people who just opened up and started talking about things they had never talked about before because it was just something you never talked about in their time because you would be looked at as crazy!

At one point in the talk I had them saying the bad things they were taught when they were young about expressing their emotions and their feelings. Things like ``Get over it`` ``Let it go`` snap out of it`` `` Act like man`` and so on. We all know the sayings and we all have our own experiences. But the great thing was that each and every one of these wonderful people who have been through wars for god sake also talked about how the world has to change.

That now it is the time for everyone to start talking and changing the way we look at mental illness. That actually opening up and not being afraid to talk is what will help us, our children and break the stigma behind not only depression but mental illness!

This one woman right near the end of our discussion came out and said ``I dislike when people talk bad about homeless people or drug addicts or alcoholic’s they are people to, they are someone’s son or daughter who needs help!! And just because you can`t see what their problem is on the outside doesn`t mean they don`t need help! ``What a great thing to hear from a woman in her 80`s. I will say this again as I always do because I believe it!! Only with open conversation can we kill the stigma behind depression and mental illness! Let`s all start talking and kill it together!