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Suicide is second leading cause of death in adolescents Continued from page 1 3 · Thursday, May 6, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com They also speak out publicly about mental health illnesses because by speaking about it they hope to de-stigmatize the issue. "The worst statistic to me is that only one in five Canadian children get the health care that they need," Valerie said. "Here we have kids suffering in silence from panic and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, depression, substance abuse and often more than one concurrently. There are kids crying in their rooms, they're cutting themselves, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, they're struggling in school, they're not going to school, they're struggling with friends or don't have friends or relationships and they're committing suicide." She said suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescents after accidents. "We have to understand that depression can be a mortal illness." She said one in seven teenagers under 19 has a serious mental disorder that has an impact on development and affects their ability to participate in daily activities. But what people need most is the feeling that they belong. "People will always have a burden when someone they love is sick, but we have to remove the shame," Valerie said. Valerie said she didn't set out to be a spokesperson for mental health, but the issues themselves brought on the calling. When Catherine was still in school she KAREN NEWMAN / OAKVILLE BEAVER FAMILY MATTER: Valerie Pringle (right) listens to her daughter, Catherine, speak at the Talk Out Loud: Destigmatizing Mental Health Issues for Children and Families forum in Oakville on Monday. became very anxious before tests. "I felt completely in over my head. I was so "It got worse and worse as I got older," she overwhelmed by it all. I was putting enormous said. "Though I can see it now, but at the time amounts of pressure and expectation on myself things didn't make sense to me that these things and I was crying more and more. I would get an happened for a reason. I just thought I was not e-mail at 10 o'clock at night and I would start good at coping with things." hyperventilating and I wouldn't be able to overShe said that when she got to university she come anything and my body would seize up and would sob uncontrollably before exams, but she I would just burst into tears." kept going without getting help. When the anxiety worsened Catherine and When she entered the work field after gradu- her family realized this was not normal behavating, she went into politics. iour. Catherine said that when she got depressed, she felt like she was unable to help herself. The feelings would never go away. She left work for some time and began to seek help. Her doctor explained different medications to her and she went to cognitive therapy. Of the therapy she said, "The very first appointment I had, it was as if somebody had turned the light on. It was like, `Oh, my God, I get it'," In therapy she learned why she felt certain ways. She worried about returning to work and what she would tell her co-workers, but decided to tell her boss the truth about why she was away. "He said, `You know what, my wife has the same thing'." Valerie said she learned a lot as a mother. "I can finally understand that when she's in a fetal panic attack she feels like she'll never be fine again," said Valerie. She said that when someone is down don't expect them to get better instantly, but give them support through things such as putting your arm around them, watch TV with them and help them feel normal. "What is distressing to me is that over 70 per cent of all psychiatric disorders emerge in adolescence and it's the single most common illness of onset in that age group. And there are still so many people who do not believe that children, teenagers and young adults can have mental illnesses." See Broadcaster page 4