How I Learned to Live with Anxiety: Representation and Normalization of Mental Health Through Story

Through various stages of work over almost two decades, storytelling has become a clear path to healing. This is true of Indigenous representation, but it has proven true with mental health conditions. The journey towards this realization, and the journey of mental health itself, has not only helped the healing process but, in openness through lived experience, has helped others to heal. This presentation is a discussion of one person’s mental health experience, from living with it to sharing it, focussing on a memoir that documents that journey but also reflects the experience of so many others. This presentation is as much for youth as it is for the educators who “stand up front” of youth for a difficult but vital job in the classroom.