Appreciating the Moments Most Take for Granted

Dr. Joe Rea, executive director of the Archangelo Rea Family Foundation, grew up and completed his medical education in London and spent some time out west in the 90's. An advocate for mental health awareness, he has first-hand knowledge of those challenges through his own experiences with depression and anxiety starting at age 16.

He describes it as being like a cloud that changes your thinking, where issues that you thought you dealt with years ago as far as guilt or responsibility come back to haunt you.

Joe Rea says that he is lucky to have friends and family that are very supportive, and he has found the help he needed in the medical community as well - but that was not without difficulty.

"The care and compassion have been excellent but I think because of lack of resources there were a few times I had fallen through the cracks, basically through issues like retirement or people leaving the city," Joe Rea says. "I really had to work hard to obtain help."

Joe received a lot of treatments and it took a while before he found the right medication and talk therapy.

"That's often the course for many people," Joe says. "They have to try a number of different medications and therapies before they figure out what works.

Seeing the need to advance mental health programs, Joe Rea made a noteworthy financial contribution supporting both a "first episode mood and anxiety disorder program" at London Health Sciences Centre - where proper, early intervention can prevent the chronic disabling impairment that goes along with inadequate and missed early treatment - and the establishment of a research chair to implement state-of-the-art treatment, and to study the causes of depression and how to treat it best.

According to Dr Sandra Fisman, city-wide chief of psychiatry, using technology it is now possible to demonstrate that there are actually changes in the brain with biological interventions such as medication and changes with psychological interventions.

"We can now begin to see changes in the brain that link to the kind of symptoms that people have," says Dr Fisman. "I think that is very legitimizing for people with mental illness."

Joe explains that there are some really tangible things a person notices when you start getting better, like the ability to travel, go out to the theatre, to exercise, to cook, and to re-establish friendships; activities people take for granted if well, but immense tasks if they are not well. For example, he had always loved the west coast but was unable to travel because of the anxiety and depression. Recently though, he was able to go back for a visit.

"The mountains were beautiful, the socializing was magnificent", Joe says. "And I remember getting up at six in the morning and watching the sunrise while visiting my old Vancouver neighbourhood."

"I just sat there and I watched the sunrise in the east and felt this sense of well-being."

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