HISTORY

• The following is a chronological, detailed story of a teenage girl's 6-year battle against mental health issues, and that of her family who tried to understand, as best they could, what was happening to their child.
• The purpose of the in-depth telling of this journey to any reader is that you might be a concerned parent yourself, worried about your own child's well-being.
• If sharing painful events and eventual knowledge gained by this family helps any other families avert from tragedies, spur into action, be vigilant and become advocates for their struggling children - then the telling has been worthwhile.

Janice Megan Lee was born in Australia on February 5, 1988. She was part of a close-knit, fun-loving, stable family with one brother 3 years her senior.

Janice was a bundle of energy and an over-achiever from the start. She arrived with her family in Canada when aged 7 years and excelled in school, sports (hockey especially, her 10-year passion), and had a large group of friends from her areas of activity. Janice had a great sense of humour and was often "the joker - the life of the party".

Then things changed! At around 12 years of age, Janice’s personality gradually took a down-turn with what her parents now realize was the revealing of mental health issues. Over the next 6 years the outgoing, boisterous young girl started to become depressed, moody, distant from everyone and, what seemed to her parents, somewhat rebellious.

Janice's parents were unaware of the increasing depths of her mental health issues, assuming they were dealing with normal teenage moods and attitudes, so common amongst youth during those formative years.

In spite of some warning signals of suicidal thoughts around grades 8 and 9, expressed on MSN by Janice to friends who subsequently told a teacher, in one instance, and their parent, in the other instance - neither the family doctor nor the school counsellors were able to diagnose the signs of mental health issues. No "red flags" of urgent action were presented to Janice's parents.

At age 16 – just a couple of weeks prior to her 17th birthday, Janice attempted (unsuccessfully) to take her own life. Fearing for her safety, her parents had Janice admitted to the local hospital psychiatric ward. Unfortunately, there were no beds available in the adolescent ward so Janice had to be admitted to the adult ward for the first week – an extreme ordeal for a teenager whose mind was already in the depths of darkness and despair of depression. When admitted, she was diagnosed with chronic depression but she was administered no medication.

After that first week, a bed became available in the adolescent psychiatric unit of the hospital where Janice spent the next 4 weeks and where she had her 17th birthday. Upon release, Janice came back home and continued her high school education, barely managing to graduate from grade 12. Her ability to focus, due to her mental health issues, was failing fast. She was supposed to see a local family services counsellor once a week for ongoing support, but dropped out of that after 2 visits despite parental encouragement to continue.

Life at home during this period was extremely stressful and tense with very little communication between Janice, her parents and even her brother who, since childhood, she had always so admired. As a child, she had always had a strong sense of "doing the right thing", being respectful, loving and kind. Without intervention, her mind continued to deteriorate in her ability to make good choices.

She abandoned many friends she’d always been close to and got into the party scene, drugs and binge-drinking of alcohol. Her parents fought a losing battle to reason with her (again, not realizing Janice’s inability to "reason" through the depths of the illness within her mind affecting her), and she refused to seek medical assistance.

Although Janice didn’t have the ability to vocalize how she felt (apparently a common trait amongst youth battling depression), writings she had done were later found by her parents in which she indicated that she realized she was "different" from others, had been searching On-line to try, unsuccessfully, to understand what was happening to herself, and she wrote: "I don’t know why I am like I am – all I can do is try to manage it".

In the early summer of 2006, aged 18 years, Janice decided to move out of home, believing that she would find happiness sharing a house in Vancouver with others. This proved to be a stressful experience for her, being let down by a room-mate leaving and not paying rent, and generally losing trust in others. So she and a friend chose to move back closer to home in an apartment where she continued to work in the family business.

All the while, Janice continued to try to find happiness outside of herself, not realizing that her physical mind was becoming more and more damaged without any intervention. She began to feel less and less safe … her world gradually shrank – and become one of rolling panic attacks, anxieties and fears … all the while trying to hide what was happening within herself from her friends, her family and her co-workers.

Again, from other writings later found by her parents, Janice had expressed an ever-growing fixation on suicide as the only solution to her problems. Unbeknownst to anyone else, once she’d arrived at that place, she actually presented a semblance of peace within herself, appeared brighter, more communicative and loving toward her family and friends … to the point that her parents commented to one another that they felt Janice had "turned a corner" and was maturing through the turbulent, adolescent years.

In the final couple of months of 2006, Monday lunches became a regular date for mother/daughter. But never once did conversation with Janice lead into the deeper issues she was struggling with.  Misguidedly, her mother feared that bringing up the question of suicidal thoughts, how Janice felt, etc, could well lead to making Janice's mind focus even more on suicide.

Again, this error was through lack of education and knowledge at that time, but both parents now know that psychiatrists state that it is "absolutely vital" to generate open conversation with the young person - so they understand that they don't have to hide anything, that it's OK to talk about how they are feeling, so they feel supported and cared for by others - not struggling alone with issues that they don't understand.

Late November that year, Janice asked her Dad to go boarding/skiing with her to Mt. Baker – something they’d not done together for the past 2 years. He thought it surprising for her to initiate something (she never did!), but was really happy to spend a whole day with her on the slopes.  Little did he know that this was her way of saying goodbye.

The following week, on Monday, December 4, 2006, Janice – alone in her apartment – took her own life.

• How could this be? How could this happen?
• The answer … Janice had mental health problems. Such illness is a physical disease, no different than diabetes or cancer – a disease that, if not treated, without early intervention, can result in death.
• Janice did not have to die. If Janice, her parents, her doctors or her peers had recognized the severity of the illness ... have had the opportunity for early intervention with awareness and knowledge of what to do ... there could have been treatment.

The brief, historical record above recites the painful journey of our own family. Although we cannot bring Janice back, there are many things that we all can do – what we all must do, to raise awareness and education amongst society in an effort to avert other families having to cope with such tragedies.

• Of utmost importance, to hopefully reach out to the millions of suffering young people who battle with forms of mental health issues, such as depression, anxieties, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts ... A MESSAGE THAT IT IS OK2B BLUE!!
• Our young people need to understand that there is HOPE and THERE IS HELP – that they are NOT ALONE, that there ARE MANY, and TOGETHER, they can be a voice – the BLUE WAVE MOVEMENT voice that will demand to be heard by authorities ... for CHANGE TO HAPPEN.
• There will be a step toward illumination of this great need in the raising up of BLUE WAVE for the greater good of all young people – our "tomorrow’s adults".