Peer Guidance

Headstrong with Pamela Morgan

We are grateful to have this powercouple join us for some #realtalk conversation.

Listen in to hear how Jade and Kathy are making a difference and impact in the community.

Transcript

00:04

hi everyone pamela morgan from the

00:06

headstrong podcast i’d love to welcome

00:09

everybody watching today go grab a tea a

00:12

coffee your lunch maybe your dinner

00:14

depends the time zone that you’re

00:15

sitting in and get comfortable for about

00:18

the next 30 minutes i’m so excited to

00:20

have

00:21

jaden catherine alberts on with us today

00:25

um we’re really going to be super

00:27

organic here in this conversation we

00:29

have so many things to celebrate uh one

00:33

jade and catherine work a lot uh with

00:35

folks like you and i entrepreneurs

00:38

so they do a lot uh when it comes to

00:41

peer guidance

00:42

investment i have to do a shout out

00:45

though to both of these awesome folks

00:47

today that they just celebrated 20 years

00:50

of what it bliss so congratulations you

00:53

guys that that alone is a huge milestone

00:56

and especially when you’re coming

00:58

through pandemic

01:00

and you’re still celebrating love so

01:02

congratulations

01:03

and along with that they’ve got two

01:05

beautiful uh girls that growing they’re

01:08

raising to be leaders i’m sure

01:10

so we could go anywhere we could talk

01:12

about love and marriage we could talk

01:14

about being entrepreneurs um but today

01:17

we’re actually here to talk a little bit

01:18

more on a serious note about mental

01:20

health and how you navigate through that

01:24

so i love the t-shirts today too both of

01:27

you not alone it’s okay to not be okay

01:29

so maybe we can talk

01:31

as well about what what do we do after

01:34

we have that conversation and say it’s

01:35

okay not to be okay what are those next

01:37

steps

01:49

i think pamela froze so i think so

01:52

so friends please feel free what are

01:56

some of those next steps she was just

01:58

about to ask you

02:01

well at least she’s got a good look on

02:02

her face and it’s not oh there she’s

02:03

back anyway

02:06

did i did i freeze up was it like it’s a

02:09

weird luck yeah

02:11

oh you look good it was it was a good it

02:13

wasn’t a midnight

02:15

okay

02:19

so did you catch what i said jade about

02:21

i did yeah we did um i mean i think the

02:24

you know any time those next steps it’s

02:27

it’s about open communication and and

02:29

and being honest and talking and

02:32

and i think that’s and a very important

02:34

part of

02:36

you know of moving forward once you’ve

02:38

kind of realized the problem that’s

02:40

there and and and

02:42

no one ever knows a solution or how long

02:44

it’ll take or what it’s going to take to

02:46

get there but you know being there for

02:48

each other reaching out to other people

02:50

for help using your network using you

02:53

know people that have been there and i

02:55

mean

02:56

you know connie and i have talked about

02:57

this before we’ve been there you both

02:59

have been on the shows and and that’s

03:01

exactly one of the best things that we

03:03

can do is making sure that you’re you’re

03:05

not alone and asking for help is not a

03:07

sign of weakness and

03:08

and being there for

03:10

and having people just there to listen

03:12

to you and and that was a really really

03:14

important first step um when it came to

03:17

to myself and and catherine and and i’ll

03:20

let her kind of dive into you know her

03:22

next steps when when we were starting

03:24

our you know our recovery

03:27

a wonderful thanks jaden and catherine

03:29

what’s your

03:30

your input on that

03:33

yeah i you know i think it’s um

03:36

you know every

03:38

healing journey is different for people

03:41

it really is and um

03:44

the biggest thing uh when you’re going

03:46

through it you don’t think you’re gonna

03:49

get out

03:50

it is and it’s true for a lot of people

03:52

when they’re going they’re struggling

03:53

with mental health

03:54

and it’s that sense of hope right you

03:56

need to have some hope

03:58

that it is going to get better and

04:02

i know it was helpful for me

04:05

in having a big network

04:08

whether it was of professionals whether

04:10

it was friends

04:12

obviously family during coved um i was

04:16

stuck

04:17

just the two of us a lot right so we had

04:19

to talk a lot

04:21

and i had to talk about some of my

04:22

struggles and um you know i had family

04:25

members that reached out to me every

04:27

single day and checking in how i was

04:29

doing

04:30

so

04:31

you know the biggest part

04:33

um

04:34

is having that network you know how you

04:37

know the saying that says

04:39

um

04:39

it takes a village to raise a child

04:42

i really believe that too with mental

04:44

health it takes a village it truly does

04:49

that

04:50

that’s remarkable and i love the fact

04:52

that you know in your mess what i’m

04:54

hearing right now is the message of how

04:56

brave you were coming forward

04:59

and making that step

05:00

to let people that love you and worry

05:03

about you and that you’re so important

05:05

to know that that you weren’t okay right

05:09

yeah it’s it’s really difficult um

05:12

you know part of what i went through

05:15

with uh

05:16

psychosis is part of the

05:19

part of it is is that you actually don’t

05:20

think you have anything wrong with you

05:23

so anyone who has dealt maybe with a

05:25

family member who has schizophrenia or

05:29

something like that

05:30

they may have a difficulty in getting

05:32

them on medication and coming to terms

05:35

with what’s going on

05:36

it’s not that they don’t want to

05:39

it’s just that they don’t feel like

05:40

there’s anything wrong with them

05:42

um you know i truly believed i had

05:44

superpowers

05:46

you know i truly believed i was having

05:49

intense

05:51

discussions with god i mean these are

05:53

things that you know for some people

05:56

would be like miracles right and

05:58

so

06:00

it’s it is it is difficult um in in

06:04

seeking help when an individual doesn’t

06:07

think they need help right

06:09

[Music]

06:11

so if i can and i know we’re breaking up

06:13

a little bit at that unstable

06:16

internet that probably is my

06:18

responsibility so i apologize

06:20

uh

06:21

when you’re talking about not really

06:23

knowing that you need help and what that

06:25

looks like

06:27

would you be comfortable in sharing what

06:29

were those steps for you like what was

06:31

that realization for you specifically

06:33

that you went oh

06:35

hey something’s something’s amiss

06:40

yeah um

06:42

you know it was probably the last

06:44

psychologist that i saw and even though

06:49

i went to the hospital twice you know i

06:51

was in the hospital

06:53

once in june and again

06:56

in um

06:57

in september for a full month and

07:00

you know you’re told your diagnosis but

07:03

you don’t quite understand it all

07:05

and what i found was um

07:10

you just yeah you’re just unsure

07:13

really

07:14

and um of what’s going on

07:18

you know something’s going on but you

07:19

just don’t quite understand it you don’t

07:21

understand what people are saying to you

07:23

either so it was really hard from a

07:25

comprehension perspective

07:27

and then once i saw

07:29

i had a

07:30

therapist that specialized in psychosis

07:34

and we had a conversation

07:37

around um you know what that looks like

07:39

and i won’t i’ll never forget filling

07:41

out kind of the the questionnaire that

07:43

he asked me

07:45

and all the different things that he

07:47

said you know were part of psychosis and

07:50

then i realized

07:52

yeah that’s what i had

07:54

you know it was just it was kind of um

07:59

i think you need it

08:00

you need it brought up to you a lot

08:02

right and that was what i really felt

08:05

um i needed

08:07

i

08:09

i guess i needed the the door

08:11

continually to be uh

08:13

open for me and shown to me that makes

08:16

sense

08:19

oh we’re freezing up

08:23

i would love to ask you

08:25

pamela i hope you don’t mind just

08:27

because i froze

08:28

yeah i would love to ask you what

08:30

brought you

08:32

to be able to actually want to get help

08:35

you you feel so horrible

08:39

yeah like you are incredibly uh so there

08:43

although there’s that period of you

08:45

think you have special powers

08:47

then part of psychosis is you go through

08:49

a depression too as well

08:51

and when you’re going through that um

08:55

you then

08:57

you just want to be out of it and you

08:58

don’t feel like i never felt like myself

09:01

and um i had

09:03

very little joy

09:05

in anything um it was really hard for me

09:07

to do lots of tasks just at home like

09:10

just an example

09:12

just making a meal it felt very um

09:15

hard and difficult it was like

09:18

relearning like a child like i felt like

09:20

a child in a lot of ways so

09:22

i was like i can’t stay like this i

09:25

never thought i’d go back to work that’s

09:26

how you go through those periods right

09:28

it’s so dark

09:30

and now going through that

09:33

i have such amount of empathy for anyone

09:36

who’s struggling

09:38

because then you really

09:40

i get it why people a don’t talk about

09:43

it because it is so hard

09:45

um

09:46

[Music]

09:47

and um

09:48

you know be sometimes why they feel like

09:50

they’re never going to get out of it

09:52

right

09:53

did you find kathy

09:56

when

09:56

you were given that diagnosis did you

09:58

find that it was freeing like you

10:00

finally had an answer you knew what was

10:02

going on what kind of what went through

10:05

your head on that

10:07

yeah so we we had a bit of a struggle

10:10

though too like and this i think this

10:12

happens to a lot of people when i’ve had

10:13

conversations sometimes it’s around

10:15

medication like people getting the right

10:17

medication and they struggle with their

10:20

family members and they never really

10:22

find the right combination

10:24

um

10:25

what i i also when i came out of the

10:28

hospital the second time i had sought a

10:31

psychologist and um

10:33

she decided to label me with ocd

10:36

and adhd and so and she didn’t agree

10:40

with the psychiatrist so i had

10:42

professionals not agreeing which is so

10:44

difficult and you are so challenged by

10:47

that because all you want to do is get

10:49

help

10:50

so a therapist on one side the

10:52

psychiatrist is like there’s nothing

10:54

wrong with you you’re fine

10:56

and you have someone else that wants to

10:57

get you on more medication and then i

10:59

had my general gp saying

11:01

no like

11:03

you there’s i’m not putting you on more

11:05

medication you don’t need to be on

11:07

medication it’s going to be worse and

11:10

it just um

11:12

you know it was a tough decision but we

11:14

decided you know when again this is

11:16

where

11:17

like i felt like a child and so i really

11:19

would go to jade and be like

11:21

and he’s like no you don’t have adhd

11:24

you’re not ocd

11:26

and you know you just have to start to

11:28

trust um

11:30

your family members and what they were

11:31

saying

11:32

and um

11:33

you know then we made a choice

11:36

you know to really get my get me back to

11:38

work

11:39

to also uh have a new psychiatrist that

11:42

specialized in my first diagnosis

11:45

but yeah i was along the way and i found

11:47

that out from my therapist i mean

11:49

there’s not a lot of

11:51

therapists that actually specialize in

11:53

psychosis

11:54

so that can be a difficulty where they

11:56

get labeled as something else because

11:58

you you kind of go through a lot of

12:00

different mental illnesses you suffer

12:02

with anxiety panic attacks

12:05

uh you can be manic

12:07

depression so you have all these

12:09

symptoms

12:10

um that looks like something else

12:13

and so you could kind of you could have

12:15

a therapist that doesn’t know as much

12:17

around psychosis and doesn’t realize

12:19

that those are

12:20

are very much symptoms of it right so um

12:24

getting the right help is so important

12:26

that’s the big part

12:28

and that alone sometimes can probably be

12:30

a journey right

12:32

you know

12:34

having the right people surrounding you

12:36

your tribe

12:38

however you want to relate to that

12:39

people that love and support you is i

12:41

think so important

12:43

um and my heart goes out to people that

12:46

feel maybe sometimes that they don’t

12:48

have that support and it doesn’t mean

12:50

that you need to have them

12:52

it’s not the quantity it’s always the

12:54

quality that’s how i can relate to my

12:56

life it’s quality and in your tribe

12:59

and you know i

13:01

i’m probably going to speak for you that

13:03

jade was an absolute blessing that

13:05

he stood by your side you know and

13:08

i ask you jade for a couple moments a

13:11

couple questions related to

13:14

what did that look like for you when

13:16

kathy was going through

13:18

through that

13:22

you know i mean

13:24

people ask me that all the time and it’s

13:26

just like you know what it’s your role

13:28

it’s your job it’s uh

13:30

you’re you’re not only there for your

13:32

wife but you also have our two beautiful

13:34

children that have a perspective

13:36

different perspective on it and then

13:38

you know even when we were going through

13:40

covid there i had a bunch of

13:41

entrepreneurs reaching out to me and

13:43

things along those lines so

13:45

i was wearing like five hats and and you

13:48

know kind of the the work hat went away

13:50

for a little bit and and you know just

13:52

did what i had to because you had to

13:53

focus on your family

13:55

and of course we weren’t sharing you

13:57

know our story or what was going on

13:59

unless it was you know our our

14:01

close-knit group of friends and and

14:02

people that you know i reached out to

14:05

you know four questions you know should

14:07

i do this what should i do here

14:09

um but

14:10

like i said like each person you know

14:12

kathy had different needs and

14:14

and and even during this time frame they

14:17

were going back to school so it was

14:20

talking to the teachers saying you know

14:21

if you notice anything that’s going on

14:23

please you know let me know this is

14:25

this is this is what’s happening and and

14:28

making sure that you know one of our

14:30

daughters was was able to talk to a

14:32

counselor they wanted to the other one

14:34

didn’t so

14:35

it was also making sure that that line

14:37

of communication was

14:39

was open because she was a little closed

14:41

off a bit when uh when calf came home so

14:44

again it’s just wearing a bunch of hats

14:46

and and really just listening

14:49

and you know not kind of offering

14:51

opinions and

14:53

uh and being there and like and like

14:55

kath said i mean i totally disagreed

14:58

with you know we’ve been married for 20

15:00

together for 27 years and i know she’s

15:02

not adhd or ocd come look at our

15:05

bathroom like it’s we’re you know i i’m

15:07

probably the one that has both of them

15:09

to a point but

15:11

you know it’s it’s there it’s listening

15:12

it’s hugging it’s uh you know just being

15:15

there it’s just laying beside them

15:17

whatever it takes you know you’re doing

15:19

that

15:21

that’s so amazing and i and i think just

15:23

the fact that

15:26

you embraced the situation

15:29

and you had really open communication

15:31

and that is alone

15:33

not only healthy for your marriage but

15:35

you’re teaching your children

15:38

such healthy habits like i really have

15:40

to congratulate you and i know connie’s

15:42

up there nodding her head because

15:45

she’s gonna get you’re gonna get a

15:46

hallelujah from connie

15:48

right because that is so admirable for

15:51

you to do that that’s taking that stigma

15:54

away that

15:55

you know years and years of the stigma

15:57

that we need to we need to change the

15:59

narrative and i know

16:01

all of us on on our screen today are

16:03

working

16:04

um

16:05

endlessly to make sure that we can do

16:08

that

16:09

uh connie do you have any questions top

16:11

of mind that i know you do you’re just

16:12

itching

16:16

i’m usually not itching but

16:18

you guys are hitting the cord here with

16:20

me

16:22

i wanna maybe jade for anyone who is

16:25

supporting a family member that’s going

16:27

through things that they don’t

16:28

understand

16:30

what advice would you give them

16:35

obviously

16:36

you know listening is is number one and

16:38

and just it might just be sitting there

16:41

and uh for half an hour without without

16:43

saying anything uh yet and

16:47

and it’s also important that you know as

16:50

you’re there and you’re bearing all this

16:52

burden you know from from from from from

16:55

kathy from the kids from from wherever

16:57

else from work and stress and all the

16:59

things that go with it that you yourself

17:02

have someone that you can i don’t want

17:04

to say lay into but you know talk to

17:06

and veg i mean i had two childhood

17:08

friends that i’ve known since i’ve you

17:10

know been five years old they were rocks

17:12

for me right i just you know phone call

17:14

they would pick up the phone and listen

17:16

and and go from there and of course your

17:18

family as well and

17:19

and uh you know through through my work

17:22

and my businesses and founders coffee

17:24

and all the networking things i did

17:26

christina colas was a really big help

17:28

for me as well just

17:30

you know when i mean i’ve never been

17:32

through this and and

17:34

and connie you know we’ve we’ve

17:35

collaborated on certain things and

17:37

talked about mental wellness and

17:40

and for me to come and just you know hey

17:42

christina you know can i you know what

17:43

do you think of this is this all right

17:45

even when we talked about

17:47

you know moving on from our from our

17:48

professionals like i’m like am i making

17:50

the right move and she’s like yes you

17:52

should this is more people should do

17:53

this question it

17:55

um if you don’t feel comfortable with it

17:57

you know move on go that get off your

17:59

meds try something different

18:01

and you know i i think not being scared

18:04

to buck the system right don’t just

18:06

listen to the doctors and that if you

18:08

feel something is wrong in your heart

18:10

and your gut you have to go with it uh

18:13

it’s something and i truly believe that

18:16

decision in you know probably beginning

18:18

a january-ish time frame

18:21

allowed cast to get back to work by

18:23

mid-may i think we would still be in

18:25

some sort of a of a rut and you know

18:27

based on medication and and maybe false

18:30

diagnosis um

18:32

until we found somebody that maybe

18:34

understood which which we finally did so

18:37

i think really believing in in what you

18:39

know about yourselves as people as

18:42

husband and wife as family

18:44

that goes a long way

18:47

again just having that communication

18:49

right and that open dialogue with with

18:51

people that are in your corner yeah

18:55

did you find uh i just kind of want to

18:57

talk to the other side of this for kathy

18:59

did you find kathy that there was any um

19:03

adversity or opposition for you people

19:06

really

19:07

um one thing that i find we do in

19:10

society and and it comes from a really

19:12

good place i get that but we go oh

19:14

tomorrow will be better you’ll be better

19:16

tomorrow

19:17

it’s okay everybody goes through things

19:20

um

19:21

i’m sure that you went through those

19:22

situations too when you’re like i’m not

19:25

feeling okay how did you

19:28

how did you navigate through those

19:30

situations and those relationships to

19:33

help people understand

19:35

yeah i felt you know i was very

19:37

fortunate um i didn’t have people

19:41

be like over overly optimistic right

19:43

because they were they were listening to

19:45

me and i was being very honest about my

19:47

own struggles and what was going on for

19:49

me

19:50

um

19:51

and but they also would provide some

19:53

hope like

19:55

what i would say and this is probably

19:56

why again why i think it’s important for

19:58

us to share our own story

20:00

is uh that you’re not alone

20:03

and that you there are different

20:05

struggles of of that you’ll have you

20:08

know throughout your life and

20:10

by me opening up to some of my friends

20:13

they start to talk to me about things

20:15

that i didn’t realize that they

20:16

struggled with right the the

20:18

whether it was depression you know after

20:20

someone had passed away

20:22

and um i had a discussion with uh

20:26

someone uh just yesterday

20:28

was saying um around

20:30

you know everyone is gonna be affected

20:32

by mental health in some way or another

20:35

whether

20:36

it is themselves

20:38

or whether it is like someone in their

20:40

family and so it’s just important to

20:43

have openly discussions you know when

20:46

people say how are you doing

20:48

it’s okay to say that you’re not fine

20:51

but you’re not okay

20:53

um

20:54

and and maybe you don’t elaborate on

20:56

that time but maybe you then have a you

20:59

know a really heart-to-heart discussion

21:00

with someone and then it’s amazing how

21:02

someone opens up from that perspective

21:04

and then they talk about their own

21:06

struggles and it just realizes it gives

21:08

you hope because if they’re in a better

21:10

spot that’s what i kind of saw you know

21:12

i had friends that went through

21:14

depression postpartum depression i never

21:16

experienced that you know i was very

21:17

fortunate

21:18

but the same thing they just talked

21:20

about you know how it got better you

21:22

know and um

21:23

that little bit of sliver of hope gave

21:26

me hope because when you’re in it you

21:28

just don’t think

21:29

it’s gonna get better right um

21:32

so you you need that you need those

21:34

people to kind of to be cheering on on

21:37

the sidelines right

21:39

absolutely jade what’s your your

21:42

feedback on that

21:46

uh i

21:48

i truly believe that you know we got

21:50

through this because it was a village

21:52

right we

21:54

you know reaching out to our friends and

21:57

and having them come take kathy for

21:59

walks dropping off food you know just it

22:02

didn’t matter what somebody did they

22:04

they were there for us and

22:06

if it was like listen you know what i i

22:09

just gotta i gotta go out right i i have

22:11

to you know just go for a walk or i have

22:14

to go play baseball can you come look

22:15

after the girls when kath was in the

22:17

hospital and even on the girls side we

22:19

went to the bounce springs and

22:21

and just kind of kind of got away for a

22:23

few days to try and get their mind off

22:26

it you know before school started and

22:28

and all the struggles and and crap that

22:30

was going on with covid and all that

22:33

type of stuff

22:34

so it’s it’s it’s making sure that you

22:38

really reach out and

22:41

and even before we stepped out here and

22:42

and decided to tell our story which i

22:44

think it’s a very

22:46

very important part of letting people

22:48

know that it can happen to anybody it

22:50

doesn’t really matter who you are what

22:52

you are

22:53

where you are in society how much money

22:55

you have how successful you are

22:57

it makes absolutely no difference and

23:01

and even like the shirts were wearing

23:02

with you know tyler smith who was a

23:04

survivor of the humble broncos crash

23:06

right having him and all these people

23:09

tell stories i think will will

23:11

will help

23:13

um

23:14

you know the next person that’s

23:15

suffering in silence step forward and

23:17

and say oh my goodness like jay and

23:19

kathy are you know they’re they’re okay

23:20

it’s okay to come forward

23:22

we’re there’s someone there or even if

23:24

as you and pam you and i talked on ours

23:26

if they at the end of our discussion we

23:28

said phone me i’m there here’s my phone

23:30

number here’s my email i’m here i’m here

23:32

to listen and you know if i can’t help

23:35

you i probably know somebody that can

23:37

but i’ll listen and and then let’s have

23:39

that discussion moving forward

23:42

it’s so important right and you pull on

23:44

my heart strings when we talk about that

23:46

it’s it’s as simple and as hard as just

23:49

picking up the phone

23:51

right yeah doing a tax day i i need to

23:54

talk to someone and i think it’s also

23:56

important to understand and i hope

23:58

everybody hears that take away that

24:00

when we’re supporting somebody who’s

24:02

going through struggles they too need

24:04

some support

24:06

yeah no absolutely right i mean

24:08

you just

24:10

it’s not healthy just to keep all that

24:12

inside on yourself right you have to

24:14

again you know again just

24:17

whether it’s event or talk or anything

24:19

that you can’t uh just a buddy a friend

24:22

whoever it is

24:23

you have to do that

24:25

right

24:26

i love that jay thank you and i know i

24:28

want to be respectful of everyone’s time

24:30

i actually want to spend the entire day

24:32

with you but i know we

24:34

you all have lives so

24:36

um just before we

24:38

we wrap up

24:39

i would love to

24:41

have you kathy share about where you

24:44

where you are today

24:45

what successes are you feeling and that

24:48

beautiful smile you have so i you know

24:50

today’s a good day i’d love to hear your

24:53

feedback

24:54

yeah i mean

24:55

and again this is probably why it’s

24:57

easier for me to talk about this because

24:59

um you know i am uh you can be fully

25:02

recovered after psychosis right so i

25:04

don’t have any uh lingering effects from

25:08

it

25:09

um

25:10

so very fortunate i know others are not

25:13

so fortunate that it’s a continual

25:15

struggle with their life right

25:18

um

25:18

you know i just draw upon

25:20

the stuff that keeps me on track and i

25:23

know there’s the new buzzword is

25:25

self-care

25:27

but i’d have to say you know that is an

25:30

important thing

25:31

um i know for me what kind of started it

25:35

um

25:36

was having a lack of sleep

25:38

and so just like very important for

25:40

myself to make sure i am doing that

25:43

right taking putting myself to bed like

25:45

a child you know making sure i am going

25:47

to bed just these little things that are

25:50

just so important for your mental health

25:52

and we take them for granted sometimes

25:54

right but they are they’re really

25:56

important

25:57

um

25:58

so you know i feel i feel really

26:00

positive and hopeful for

26:03

you know the future and i

26:05

you know i feel very fortunate to as

26:08

well to have the support system that i

26:10

did

26:10

and um

26:12

you know again i see it too for us being

26:16

very outspoken obviously

26:19

to around this issue

26:21

and i’ll continue to do that whether you

26:23

know i share with people one-on-one um

26:25

my story

26:27

doing something like this i think is

26:29

important to continue

26:31

to draw awareness to it

26:35

i certainly appreciate you and i know

26:36

connie feels the same way of you know

26:40

both of you being the trailblazers that

26:42

you are and it’s a tough job to sign up

26:45

for when we’re trying to change

26:47

um stigma in a narrative that is very uh

26:51

very outdated and unrealistic so you

26:54

know thank you for

26:55

for bringing the brave souls you are and

26:58

jay do you have any final thoughts

27:00

anything that you would like to uh just

27:03

from your standpoint

27:05

say to our viewers today

27:10

if someone does reach out to you

27:12

just listen

27:14

you know it’s very hard

27:15

and i know vanesha told me this uh you

27:18

know from the terminator foundation that

27:20

um

27:23

the fir you know her struggles with

27:25

addiction and that first step just to

27:28

come out and say i have a problem is the

27:30

hardest and

27:31

the fear of somebody just saying shake

27:33

it off or you know you’ll be okay is is

27:37

why people don’t come out so if if

27:39

someone does reach out to you

27:41

just you know open up give them a hug

27:44

um if it’s over you know over the phone

27:46

just say i’m here for you i’ll listen to

27:48

you and you know don’t offer opinions

27:50

don’t don’t don’t give them just listen

27:53

and and i think that is the most

27:55

important part of

27:57

of that net of that first step of that

27:59

person and

28:01

and if they’re reaching out to you they

28:03

very they value who you are as a person

28:05

they value your relationship and and you

28:08

should really take that

28:10

as a badge of honor and thinking you

28:12

know what we’ll get through this

28:13

together i’m here for you and and move

28:16

forward with them

28:19

i love that it’s just it’s such a

28:20

privilege right when somebody comes

28:22

to you and and asks you to sit in their

28:25

space with them and i think it’s great

28:27

that that respect that comes with that

28:29

kathy any any final thoughts for you

28:34

um

28:35

yeah i you know i feel like jada’s we’ve

28:38

we’ve said a lot but um

28:41

i i guess yeah just you know don’t give

28:44

up hope right that’s probably my biggest

28:48

um thing is just to make sure that

28:51

uh you continue

28:53

to to try right and reach out to the

28:56

people

28:57

that are close to you reach out to new

28:58

people

28:59

there is a lot of great services you

29:02

know you know i didn’t even mention some

29:04

of them but here within calgary uh the

29:06

recovery center was actually a very good

29:08

resource for me

29:10

as well as um access uh mental health

29:13

access where you know i i did phone them

29:16

and in kind of you know the despairs and

29:19

um yeah and then they they set you up

29:21

right so

29:23

use those resources and reach out for

29:25

them

29:27

wonderful thank you and

29:29

i think it’s important that um

29:32

we all know

29:33

that just because

29:35

my tag line right now is just because we

29:37

took the mass off it didn’t change

29:38

anything as far as mental health right

29:41

we still we’re still

29:43

on task we’re still moving forward we’ve

29:46

moved the dial greatly through this

29:49

pandemic i truly feel we need to keep

29:51

doing that we there’s no time to sit

29:53

back right

29:54

and and with that you know from a

29:57

headstrong perspective

29:59

um

30:00

people are reaching out to us more

30:02

actually when the mass that came off our

30:06

increase of folks reaching out increased

30:10

which we’re so grateful for and i know

30:11

connie feels the same way that people

30:14

know that we’re here to listen and to

30:16

sit in that space and so for anybody out

30:18

there today

30:20

who wants just to have a conversation

30:22

whether you want to speak with um

30:30

reach out at hello at

30:32

headstrongprogram.com

30:35

um you can text me any day time or night

30:39

i will promise i will answer you and i

30:42

will

30:43

gratefully sit in that space with you

30:45

and and just be and sometimes that’s

30:48

what it all it takes right is just be

30:50

there while we navigate through um

30:53

through these challenges that we all

30:55

face right i don’t think any anybody

30:57

gets out of this uh without uh needing

31:00

some support

31:01

so i

31:03

love to all of you today thank you so

31:05

much jade and kathy an absolute honor to

31:08

have uh have you

31:10

sit in our space at headstrong and uh

31:14

wishing you all a beautiful day stay

31:16

healthy yes you too and thank you for

31:18

allowing us to share our story and for

31:20

everything that you do pamela just keep

31:22

on being awesome

31:24

okay thank you