A second chance

Growing up, I was your normal athletic happy go lucky kid. Until depression hit… It was March Break 2015, I was in Florida and my family went to some of the nicest places in the state such as Disneyland, Universal Studios, and even to a Jays spring training game in Dunedin. Here we are in one of the nicest places on earth and I could not experience one ounce of joy for the whole trip. In fact, the only thing that made me smile was meeting Munenori Kawasaki at the Spring Training game, I mean how could you not, the guy’s a bundle of positive energy. Anyway, I didn’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything, all I wanted to do was go home and lay in my bed.

What I find to be the scariest thing about depression for me was how it creeps up on you and slowly starts to chip away at who you are as time goes by.

I was becoming increasingly tired of life.

I noticed before the trip, things that I used to enjoy such as hanging out with my friends and family, and playing sports were not giving me the same joy as before. I was becoming increasingly tired of life and just wanted to stay in my room all day. After the Florida trip, everything went from bad to worse. After consulting with my therapist and family, in June 2015 I decided to take the rest of the month off school and take a trip in Saskatoon to visit my sister, her boyfriend, and his family. I learned some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in my entire told life there.

Summer 2015 was decent, I kept busy volunteering on multiple political campaigns and tried to hang out with my friends as much as possible, the depression was still there but I was able to power through.

They both believed in me and gave me a reason to give life a second chance.

In September, I left the many friends I had in my old town and moved to a new city. I was alone, isolated, and angry all again. My darkest day was January 18, 2016. I felt like I had no hope left. I was sitting in my kitchen with a knife, thinking of ending it all right there. Two people saved my life that day, I emailed back and forth with Michael Landsberg and I spent at least a good hour talking to my brother on the phone. They both encouraged me to book an appointment with a doctor and research different ways of getting help such as therapy and medication. I ended up getting an appointment with my family doctor the next day and got a prescription for Prozac.

They both believed in me and gave me a reason to give life a second chance. On March 10, 2016, Michael and his team launched SickNotWeak.com, this website has helped so many people including myself and through the power of sharing has given so many people hope.

This is my story. My name is Sam, I have depression and I am definitely #SickNotWeak.