Raising awareness about depression

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

Boyd Lalonde from Sechelt, B.C. is walking across Canada for the second time to help raise awareness of depression. He expects the journey to take approximately two and a half years.
Lalonde, 53, started his journey in Lund, B.C. on Feb. 18, 2016 and passed through Strathmore on Sep. 2. He will finish the journey in St. John’s, Nfld.
Lalonde said he is focused on trying to help others. He will do talks with different mental health groups along the way and will also stop and talk with different individuals.
“Every time I meet with somebody and give them advice on how to overcome a depression or mental health issue, one of the first things I say is ‘get outside.’ Great things happen to your body when that happens and the side effect is that you’re actually going to bump into people. It brings back that social aspect that you need because a lot of people have a tendency to isolate themselves when they go through a depression,” said Lalonde.
Lalonde embarked on his first walk in 2013. The purpose of that walk was to heal from a depression triggered by a separation.
“I got to the point where I tried to kill myself and needed to make a change,” said Lalonde. “I decided to close my businesses and give everything I owned away and go for a walk to heal. It saved my life.”
Lalonde said he suffered from depression in isolation for three years, losing a lot of friends along the way, “because there are only so many times people can hear ‘no’ before they stop asking you to go out and do things.
“Hopefully I can help people who suffered like I did. I’d like to see if I can get into the school system again to start reaching out to youth because mental health has no age discrimination and our youth are affected by it drastically. Our suicide rate at that age is really high and it’s because they themselves don’t know how to deal with depression. They are afraid to bring it out in the open,” said Lalonde, who added he would also like to help schools develop programs targeting depression.
Lalonde cites Bell’s Let’s Talk program as an excellent program in raising awareness of mental health issues. The program focuses on raising awareness and encouraging dialogue about mental health. “A lot of the time, there is a stigma attached to mental health,” he said.
While Lalonde’s first journey across Canada helped him overcome his own depression, he said “I think I’ll always suffer from depression, I just know how to deal with it a hell of a lot better than I used to.”
Lalonde welcomes supporters and any aid that is given to support his walk across Canada. His blog can be found at canforrest.blogspot.ca.