Get help if you need it

Re “It’s okay not to be okay” (Jan. 26): After reading Lorrie Goldstein’s column detailing his struggle with clinical depression, I was left with a profound sense of kinship. Seven years ago I tried to revive my disabled son after his heart stopped. I was not successful — nor were the first responders who rushed Logan to the hospital. He didn’t make it. The grief and pain I felt was devastating, but I thought, like Lorrie, I could tough it out. The final straw came when I couldn’t remember how to fill my car with gas. I went to the hospital and a team of professionals took over. Shell-shock, manic depression, coupled with post-traumatic stress disorder were a unique set of challenges. It took months for me to get my life back, to know I did everything humanly possible to save my son. I have a team of psychiatrists and doctors who helped me recover my mental health and get my life back. I also take a small maintenance dose of medication to ensure my recovery. Like Lorrie, I urge everyone who needs help to get help. There is no shame in this.

Mark-Alan Whittle
Hamilton
(No shame at all)

Focus on PTSD

Re “Police recognizing PTSD scourge” (Mark Bonokoski, Oct. 14):

On the issue of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I can speak from personal experience, as I suffered PTSD after I tried to revive my disabled son, Logan. Unfortunately I was not successful, may he rest in peace. This particular illness can have devastating effects, for the persons suffering it and their families. It got to the point I couldn’t remember how to fill my car with gas. I was pretty messed up. With proper medical care and therapy, PTSD can be beaten. Life is good for me now. Mental illness can strike anyone, but soldiers, police officers or fire fighters, of any gender, can suffer PTSD as they see many shocking things, day in and day out. They should get the life-saving treatment they deserve for keeping us safe from harm.

Mark-Alan Whittle

Hamilton

(Without question)

Smoking is an addiction – not a mental illness

Re; Canada’s ignored mental illness (Letters, Oct. 11)

After reading Lee Fairbanks letter respecting the notion that smoking cigarettes is a mental illness, I’m left wondering to what extreme anti-smoking zealots are willing to go – to ostracize people addicted to tobacco by implying it is a mental illness?
Smoking, like drinking alcohol, is an addiction. On this issue, I can speak from experience, as I suffered post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after I tried to revive my disabled son, Logan. Unfortunately I was not successful, may he rest in peace.
This particular illness can have devastating effects for the person suffering it and their families. With proper medical care and therapy, PTSD can be beaten.
Mental illness can strike anyone, but soldiers, police officers or firefighters are also prone to this disorder (PTSD) and they should get the treatment they deserve for keeping us safe from harm, every day they work.
I have been smoking for decades and have watched as society demonized smokers and barred them from smoking just about everywhere but on their own property or a public sidewalk.
I don’t even smoke in my own home, after having had to wash tobacco stains off the plaster walls after I moved into my now smoke-free home.
Matter of fact, I was sitting out on my cedar deck as I wrote this letter while enjoying a legally bought cigarette, from a carton purchased at a nearby corner store. Buy local, share the wealth.
If Lee Fairbanks really wanted to help young people quit smoking – or not start at all – he should advocate against the flood of illegal, cheap cigarettes readily available at the nearest Indian reserve instead of trying to demonize smokers as mentally ill, something we all know is not factual or true.

Mark-Alan Whittle
Hamilton Mountain