View from an advocate

This post was first published in Roots & Wings online magazine, November 2020.

When I first talked with Lisa about Roots & Wings and her vision for the project, one of the things that popped into my head was: “Who am I to be writing for a mental health journal?”

I started out my “adventure” in the mental health field simply as a fundraiser, I guess you could say an activist. After starting my first mental health fundraising run, I saw the need for work to be done, the need for people to have access to help, and I tried to think of something I could do to help. There are some things I’m reasonably good at: running slowly for a long time, speaking to small groups, listening, recruiting helpers, making spreadsheets. There are definitely some things I’m not good at, and one of them is providing mental health advice. I’m not a counsellor or a therapist, I have no training in psychology or psychiatry, I only have lived experience spending the last 40 years with my high school sweetheart who has struggled with depression for decades. And trust me, our interactions have not always been successful or productive.

So knowing all of that, I was still driven to figure out something I could do to make a positive impact. After some research into charitable organizations I decided to try to raise some money for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada. At least that would help some people to get access to mental health services and help pay for development of new programs. As my first fundraiser started to gain momentum and my friends started to hear that I was doing a long run for mental health, people started to talk with me about their own experiences. Although this was something that I encouraged, I initially felt very poorly equipped to do anything. My brain is wired in such a way that when someone presents me with a problem I try to offer a solution. When someone would tell me that they have struggled with anxiety for years, I had no solutions to offer in response, but I found out that I could listen. And I found that by listening I’m allowing people to “unload” a little and even to talk through the tough parts of their situation and maybe make a little more sense of it. I was helping to carry their burdens, making their load a little lighter.

I suppose that’s part of what an advocate does. According to Merriam-Webster, an advocate (n) is one who pleads the cause for another. By talking about mental health issues and encouraging others to talk, I hope I am saying to others that it’s acceptable to talk about your own mental health. For those who feel that it’s unsafe to do that, I’m speaking so that society will give them permission to speak, permission to admit illness, just as they have permission to speak about a physical injury or illness. This isn’t something that I have some specialized skill or training to do, it’s something that almost anyone can do. I’m just a guy trying to do something that’s good and that’s right.

Clay Williams. October 2020.