Master Corporal Lorraine Marler lives with PTSD. She served overseas in 2008, working for Police Observer Mentor Liaison Team (POMLET) with the Canadian Armed Forces and Afghan police to secure compounds.
Need Help? Call 211 (Alberta only) or the Mental Health Help Line at 1-877-303-2642
Master Corporal Lorraine Marler lives with PTSD. She served overseas in 2008, working for Police Observer Mentor Liaison Team (POMLET) with the Canadian Armed Forces and Afghan police to secure compounds.
“I think of my mental health like an ocean. I envision the levels of the sea to navigate where I’m at. When I’m in my darkest hour, I’m sucked under the ocean floor. And at my best, I’m sitting on the surface with a margarita in hand.” Jay, a firefighter in Edmonton, describes.
“Many of the teens who come through our doors have attempted suicide, thought about suicide, engaged in self-harming behaviours, are struggling with addictions, or they are struggling with a mental illness,” she says.
He recalls crossing the threshold into the psych ward. “My life wasn’t over when I crossed that threshold, it just changed dramatically. It’s like climate change, it doesn’t end, it just changes. Rain falls in new places and it’s warmer in other places.”
Gord was nine years old when his father died by suicide. Gord was a shy child, and after his father died, he retreated even more. He put on a brave face and took on more family responsibilities, but family members worried. He had lost both his father and grandfather to suicide.
Alzheimer's always cast a long shadow in my mother's life because her mother and grandmother had both suffered from it and, ultimately, so did she," says Jennifer. Jennifer's mother was diagnosed at age 70 and she passed away three years later.
Dheny is an articulate 25 year-old Mount Royal University graduate with an endearing, self-deprecating sense of humour. You would never guess she's been struggling with anxiety and depression since she was a child.
CMHA Alberta Division
320 Ledgeview Business Centre
9707 – 110 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5K 2L9
Charitable Registration Number:
10686 3491 RR0001
Phone: 780-482-6576
E-mail: alberta@cmha.ab.ca
CMHA, Alberta Division shares the traditional territories of Treaties 6, 7 and 8 which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani and Kainai First Nations), the Tsuu’tina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations), Iroquois , Dene, Ojibway, Salteaux, Anishinaabe, Inuit and many others whose histories, languages and cultures continue to influence and enrich our vibrant communities.
If you are unsure of the traditional territories in which you are currently occupying, please visit Native-Land.ca to learn more.