As part of Bell's 'Let’s Talk Day' which is a campaign to raise awareness and end the stigma on mental health across Canada, NACTV had an opportunity to talk to Delsie Martin, Counsellor at Wellness Clinic in Brandon. She shared that mental health stigma is improving because of the campaigns and awareness which provided an avenue for us to talk about our mental health issues and ask for help. She emphasized that we are seeing that the younger generation is embracing mental health as a natural part of being human. She acknowledged that both the younger and older generation experience mental health issues although there could be different types of mental health issues that the younger and the older generation face.

When asked about the different challenges that the younger generation are facing compared to the older generation, Martin responded “This world right now its absolutely staggering, the amount of pain that people are feeling from an economy that is absolutely failing us, to a health care system that’s broken, to a mental health care system that’s broken, to war, to hate. And I’m not saying the positivity isn’t there, it’s absolutely is there. But our youth are having to deal with adult problems very early on in life now.  And because of social media,  because of how easy it is to have access, to knowing what other people are dealing with, this stuff isn’t hidden anymore which is two-fold. It’s a great thing that this stuff isn’t hidden because we are able to talk about it, we are able to normalize it. But with our youth, if we don’t have somebody who is able to have very open, honest and mature conversation with them about it, it can also seem very scary.”

Martin shared that in her profession as a counsellor, most of her clients are dealing with anxiety, she’s also working with a large proportion of women who are mostly facing post-partum depression, there’s also a large percentage of people with ADHD who are seeking help and diagnosis. She mentioned that ADHD is a recognized mental health concern and that there are many presentations of ADHD. She says that we are seeing a lot more women, adult women in particular, being diagnosed with it later in life.

Since majority of her clients are women, she recognized the fact that men are already talking about their mental health issues but the stigma is still there for men to talk about their emotions. “I think men are getting a lot better about talking about their issues. I think that the stigma is slowly breaking as we raise our young boys to be more in tune with their emotions and to talk about it more. Our younger men will seek counselling but yes there is a big stigma that men should hide their emotions, that they should be tough, when in reality, toughness and bravery is about talking about your emotions and is about addressing your emotions.” said Martin.

As a closing remark for the presentation, Martin said, “Bell Let’s Talk Day is incredibly important and it’s important to talk about our struggles with mental illness because it normalizes it. It helps us realize that mental health is a normal part of being human and struggling with mental health is absolutely a normal part of being human but talking about it is just the first step. It can’t stop there. You can’t just talk about it and do nothing about it. Talk about it then do something about it. Seek out help, seek out connection. Go to counselling. Go to your doctor and talk about your medications. Get some self help books. Don’t just stop talking about it, take some action!”