Lee Haberkorn talks mental health with Montreal youth

You might know him from Virgin Radio. He’s outgoing, humorous, and energetic — but prolonged before Lee Haberkorn was on the airwaves, he battled his possess demons.

“I was so really hard on myself on the inside, and teachers, mates, no person considered I would be the just one to go down that dim path,” he instructed CTV Information.

That dim route led him to request comfort in the improper places.

“Turning to prescription drugs and liquor, I was suicidal at a single level in my life […]Which is when something strike me, for the first time in my existence, I could ask for help.”

Haberkorn received the assistance he desired. Fifteen yrs afterwards, he is applying his voice in the hopes it inspires teens to talk up.

“The system I have now and the mission that I’m on, I am in a position to assist so many men and women and it really is only simply because of my past,” he reported.

And he’s using that previous to share his ordeals with adolescents, partnering with an organization termed The Friendship Circle.

“They begun a movement known as Umatter, to go into colleges and do workshops to really make sure every single teen is aware of they make any difference.”

Mushky Paris, UMatter’s outreach coordinator, has labored closely with Haberkorn on producing these faculty discussions a fact.

“He set this goal that within just 5 decades he wants to go to every English superior school in Montreal, and I think we are presently on the correct route,” she said.

Struggling on your own is regretably common amid teens. Umatter states 50 for every cent of adolescents facial area mental health and fitness problems.

The teenagers at Macdonald Substantial School in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue say they see it in their peers.

“I think it is challenging for sure folks to share their struggles for the reason that on the exterior they search completely fine but on the inside you will find a storm in there,” mentioned 10th grader Braulio Burns Lopez.

An additional college student, Leah Al Shourbaji, added, “I believe a good deal of people know that other folks all-around them are struggling, but what I feel is tough is for people to truly connect that.”

Which is where Haberkorn methods in to guide the discussion.

His role in the dialogue resonates with teens like Fiona Govers: “Looking at somebody who has a job like this, who has impact, discuss about their mental health struggles is so significant for youth.”

Haberkorn says adolescents these days are understanding to be much more susceptible, “There is still this, ‘it’s not awesome,’ to be form or open or clear or susceptible. That’s what is actually altering with this technology.”

And it can be switching with a little aid from Haberkorn as he shares his struggles and his story.