- by Shea Angus
Hello fellow Owen Sound Hub readers! I wanted to get my annual Bell Let's Talk Day post out there and I’ll do my best to try and keep this one short and sweet.
I won’t go into great detail about my story and experience, but I have done videos on it before which you can watch here (just a note that I do talk very openly about this including things some people might be uneasy with like suicidal thoughts and self harm):
2018: https://www.facebook.com/shea.angus/videos/10161322220300082
2020: https://www.facebook.com/shea.angus/videos/10162873535590082
The TL;DW though is that anxiety and depression are very real parts of my day to day life. Most of the time it is general anxieties dialed up to 11 and trying to manage my responsibilities despite that, but other days it’s dark thoughts and wondering what my value or place in the world is.
I feel it’s worth sharing my story because of how many people are surprised when they hear me talk about it. I’m loud (some say obnoxious), opinionated, and I try to be funny all the time (with varying degrees of success), and so the thought of me feeling insecure or even at times questioning my place or value in the world can be surprising. I think it’s important to know that depression and anxiety can look different for each person and isn’t always easily noticeable upon first glance.
If you take anything away from what this, it should be to take care of yourself. We owe it to ourselves to not be ashamed about how we feel or what we’re experiencing. Reaching out for help is NEVER a sign of weakness. I look back on my experience and I don’t ever think I was showing courage when I chose to do nothing about how I felt. I look back on reaching out for help as one of the proudest moments of my life, because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here to write this post today.
Lastly, just know that you’re never alone. I’m always here if you ever want to reach out to talk about this, or anything else.
I know there's lots of chatter online today about actions speaking louder than words too, so once again my friends Aakash Desai, Graham Taylor, and Chad Richards have joined me and together we're going to donate $700 to WES For Youth Online!
I'll end on this note: When Keanu Reaves was asked what happens when we die, he simply said “I know that the ones who love us, will miss us.” (Insert Keanu Reaves "Whoa" here).
