Local athlete, experts on spiking mental health struggles

“I originally started off with, like, being alone. And then I (have) to make new friends in an online kind of classroom, where it’s like, who can I really talk to kind of thing.”

Biggar can relate with a growing number of Canadians who are seeing low moods, with depression and anxiety becoming more common.

According to a recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute, one third of Canadians are battling mental health concerns, up from one quarter in November.

The increase isn’t a surprise to local health experts CHAT News spoke with.

“The reality is we still have policies and things keeping us apart,” Mark Walter with the southeast Alberta section of the Canadian Mental Health Association said.

Walter says cold weather, the pandemic, and post-holiday payments all factor into mental health challenges locally.

“What is there to do in January in Canada when (facing) those kinds of things?” he added.

Meanwhile Medicine Hat social worker Trent Akers says he’s seeing more problems with substance use among his clients, which can make existing issues for them worse.

“Many people, they may be going home and having an occasional beer or a toke of marijuana…it’s a coping issue,” Akers said, adding more substance use is complicating relationships for some Medicine Hat couples.

“It makes it difficult (for them) to communicate. One (partner) may have judgement or one may find it difficult to discuss their feelings.”

Akers, with Open Akers Counselling also says, “There have been people that have come to me and said I’ve been dealing with depression, or anxiety all my life. And with the pandemic and all this that has gone on it’s shifted and magnified in different ways.”

Biggar, meanwhile, agrees with mental health experts who say it’s important to reach out when your state of mind is low.

“No one should ever be ashamed to reach out and ask for help at any point. I’ve had people in my life that have struggled with mental health, and the best thing they did was reach out for help,” Biggar said.

And that’s the point of Thursday’s “Make Some Noise” event by the Medicine Hat Rattlers: that it’s ok not to feel ok, and to ask for help.

The annual Rattler’s event has been reduced this year due to the pandemic, but will continue during Thursday games with speeches and announcements on mental health.

“It’s better to raise awareness and make it known rather than hide behind it and being scared right,” Biggar said

by Darren Rathwell

Local athlete, experts on spiking mental health struggles

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