A story of adolescent addiction and mental illness brought many Grade 9 students to tears last week. Calgarian Evangeline Zak, 21, shared her story of drug abuse, homelessness and mental illness during her youth at the Cochrane High School mental health awareness day event. The day incorporated the Grade 9s work with Calgary’s Head Strong Summit, an anti-stigma initiative created by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). Zak, a charismatic and well-put-together young adult, spoke as the keynote speaker to start the morning, followed by smaller classroom sessions to break down and talk about stigma when it comes to mental illness. The story of Zak’s youth seemed to affect the students the most. By the time Zak had reached about 14 years old, she was completely engulfed by her addiction, which she said in part stemmed from sexual abuse trauma inflicted when she was a child. “My addiction became very shamed based. I started using drugs and alcohol alone, so drink alone, use alone. I didn’t have any friends left and I failed school,” Zak said. Over the course of her addiction, Zak had stopped practising dance and piano, lost her friends, had attempted suicide, left her family’s home and lived in “crack” houses. At the peek of her story, she shared an incident that happened on Calgary Transit when she was high on speed and other drugs. “At one time, I opened my eyes, I was on the train and it used to be a full train and now all the sudden everybody was moved to the other side and they’re all just looking at me. I looked down at my hands - I had pulled my own hair out of my head. I had handfuls of my own hair - that’s why I had to cut my hair short,” Zak said motioning to her current hairstyle, though the incident had taken place several years ago. Zak has attended rehab and has since been sober for the last two years. Teacher Carolyn McLeod said Zak’s youth is what made her relatable to the students and why many of whom had such an emotional response to her speech. Even other teachers were affected by it. “Many of them commented ‘I was crying the whole time,’” McLeod said. “I can't even imagine for the kids.” “We had quite a few kids quite upset, but the thing is it’s so important that that’s okay. We have supports for them,” McLeod said. “Five out of six kids that are struggling with mental illness don’t get help. They don’t get the help that they need." McLeod said raising awareness about stigma begins by teaching the Grade 9s that it's OK to let others know when you’re upset. “If someone's crying in there, someone's going to say hey are you OK” and they’re going to say no, I’m not.’ And it’s the first time we’ve heard that, first time they said that,” McLeod said. “That’s good, we need that to start happening.” Several students who have been learning about psych in their Grade 9 year said they were moved by Zak’s will power. “She was really proud too, you could tell she was glad she overcame these things. She wasn’t sulking, she was confident, she knew she was recovering and it was amazing that she could understand herself at that level,” said Kris Krywolt. “A lot of people are ashamed of what’s happened to them in their past but she isn’t, she embraces them,” added Mikaeli Hill. “Some people, they don’t know what’s happening to them until they hear someone else say it and they think ‘oh my gosh this is happening to me too,’” Hill said. “I think it’s good she came in and did this because it’s such an inspiration and it could inspire them to get their lives back on track. Leanne van der Merwe said she’s grateful those in her class that might be suffering from mental illness or substance abuse had the opportunity to hear Zak's speech and participate in the workshops after. “We know that mental illness affects all of our so it’s just good that they know we have all these resources where they can go get help.”
