BURSTMeet Stan Walker.
He is a former cadet officer and previously a deputy fire chief in New Hazleton. He volunteers with ESS, enjoys janitorial and maintenance work and is currently keeping busy bucking firewood for his neighbours.
He is also living with schizophrenia.
Walker was diagnosed with the chronic illness that affects thoughts, emotions, and behaviour when he was in his 20s, but looking back, he said he should have been diagnosed much earlier.
He said his first incident of episodic behaviour that overwhelmed him, but didn’t consume him, was at Bible College in 1981 at the age of 21.
“It was so intense, and it wasn’t the actual form or the format or the curriculum, it was the diversity of the people and the intensity of that diversity that threw me off. It was there wasn’t anything wrong with the college, I just wasn’t fit to cope with it yet.”
He spent four days in an Edmonton hospital, came home, and then he said he showed some really poor judgment when he went to Vancouver to work on a penny farthing project.
“I had just taken a dangerous goods trainers course, orientation for dangerous goods trainers, for the provincial emergency program, for the New Hazleton volunteer fire department. And I went to Vancouver to look for work. I broke down in Vancouver, and I hitchhiked to Halifax, Nova Scotia that the summer.”
He came back in the winter to New Hazelton.
“I tried to just fit back into my life in Hazleton, and the crash came. I wound up at UBC Health Sciences Centre Hospital in Vancouver,” he said. “They gave me no insight into my condition, into the necessity and the values of medication, and no hope for a good outcome. I was just drugged, put up, and then sent home. I think that happens too often.”
Walker spoke to a small group of people at The Smithers Health Committee’s latest “Brown Bag Lunch Series.”
The monthly sessions feature free, informal community presentations. Walker spoke about his experience living with the mental health illness because it was World Schizophrenia and Psychosis Awareness Day on May 24.
Walker reflected on his life and the accomplishments he has made despite his illness. He reflected on the importance of consistent insight and the role of institutions in providing support. He talked about the side effects of medication and the difficulty of managing multiple medications. He said many people with mental illness are over medicated.
“It was major cocktail until about 2024. I was very, very low functioning because of the amount of medication and the diversity of the time span between side effects and effects,” he said.
“The blunted effect out of the adjustment meant I couldn’t really follow what side effect was the worst, and when I’m on four medications it’s impossible,” he explained.
“And the psychosomatics of five days ago, remembering five days ago, I felt this way then, and it overwhelms you from five days ago. It takes a considerable amount of effort, and paying attention to a lot of little details. I hate sitting around doing nothing. Sometimes that’s what I have to do.”
He also talked about the challenges of dealing with stigma and the importance of self-care. He said support is so important to people struggling with mental health conditions.
“I think you’re going to find that most people want a consistent host of people who are going to come alongside,” he added.
“After hospitalization, it’s back to functioning in Canadian or local society once again, the best thing for that to bring it down to a level where everybody wants to understand and a group of sound people who have no mental difficulties, just to quietly relate to the person.”
Walker emphasized the need for consistency and the role of faith that helped him cope with mental illness. He also wants people to know that people with schizophrenia can have meaningful lives and there is hope.