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Opening Eyes to Addiction and Mental Health

Opening Eyes to Addiction and Mental Health

Imagine doing your job while suffering high anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and depression, and having your career nearly cut short by a skate slicing across your neck—well, that last part is unique to former NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk. Malarchuk shares his extraordinary and heart-wrenching life story— including his long battle with alcoholism and a self-inflicted gunshot to the head—in his relentless effort to help end the stigma of mental illness and to help others who may suffer as well.

That story was recently featured on CBC’s Early Edition. Here are some notable moments:

“I self-medicated with alcohol to try and calm my anxiety or pick me up when I was depressed,” he said. “Addiction and mental illness, it almost goes hand in hand for so many of us.”

“Being a suicide survivor, I’m a big advocate for helping people on addiction. . . . There is no way I would have pulled that trigger had I been sober.”

“Addiction is so out there, we close our eyes to it a lot of times and it affects the whole family.”

Read the full story here.