Centretown News, Friday, December 5, 2008 17

Focus

Sometimes laughter really

is the best medicine
By Amy Dempsey
When he reached his lowest
point, Donald Shultz delayed his
suicide plan long enough to write
a letter.
“I despise myself every morn-
ing when I shave,” he wrote to his
only confidante, a psychologist.
“Sometimes I think I should take
the blade out of the razor...”
His recollection of the letter
ends there, but Shultz remembers
exactly how he planned to kill
himself.
That was in 1988. Shultz spent
the next four years in and out of
treatment centres, where he was
monitored constantly.
He was diagnosed with severe
clinical depression, obsessive-
compulsive disorder and chronic
pain.
Shultz, now 58, says his prob-
lems began when he was bullied
as a child.
Due to a heart condition, he was
a small boy with limited physical
abilities.
As a teenager he weighed 65
pounds and could barely walk
to school. Sports were out of the
question.
He couldn’t keep up with the
other kids, so they shunned him.
Shultz says he had no friends.
His isolation extended into
adulthood and his feelings of
loneliness were compounded by
confusion over his sexuality, he
says.
When his coworkers at an Ot-
tawa computer company began
making snide comments about
his job performance, childhood
memories slowly resurfaced until
eventually, Shultz says, he “blew
a gasket.”
That was then.
More than two decades later the
same man cracks jokes and chats
animatedly about his past, while
picking at a ham sandwich and
mushroom soup in a Bank Street
coffee shop.
The turning point, he remem-
bers, came after spending months
in a hospital bed.
“I was lying there waiting for
someone to fix me,” he says.
Eventually Shultz realized that
medication and doctors could
only bring him so far, and to help
himself he would have to get over
his anger.
Shultz says he progressed slow-
ly, but credits his health to his vol-
unteer work with organizations
like the Canadian Mental Health
Association and Psychiatric Sur-
vivors of Ottawa, where he helps
others deal with mental illness.
Earlier this year Shultz received
recognition for his volunteer work
in the form of a Governor Gener-
al’s Caring Canadian Award. As
much as his work helps others,
Shultz says it has changed his life
by bringing him out of isolation
and connecting him to a support-
ive community.
His eyes light up behind large,
square bifocals when he talks
about his current projects. Shultz
visits high schools to speak to
Grade 11 and 12 students about
mental illness, spends time with
people who are socially isolated,
and “makes fun” of his personal
experience with mental illness
through stand-up comedy.
His wheezy bursts of laughter,
impromptu impersonations, and
well-timed jokes liven the coffee
shop on an otherwise dull, rainy
Saturday afternoon.
Comedy is a way for Shultz to
make light of his dark past and
to shrug off the things he can’t
change, like the attitude of his
parents.
Shultz says his father has no idea
he has a mental illness or that he
is gay, and his old-fashioned dad
Sean Liliani, Centretown News
would not accept either.
“There’s no way he’s going to Donald Schulz says the key to his recovery from depression was
have a queer son, never mind a volunteering to help others with mental health issues.
queer son who’s mentally ill,” he
says, laughing. “She thinks it’s like a cold,” he dealing with mental illness. It’s
“That’d be a double whammy.” chuckles. just not that simple, he says.
Shultz’s mother, on the other Then Shultz is serious for a mo- But after a pause, he drops a
hand, knows about his mental ment, taking the opportunity to punch line.
illness but is in denial about the criticize those who adopt a casual “And if it’s a cold I’ve had it for a
severity. “pull up your socks” attitude when long time!”

Eating disorders emerge where least expected

Some men don't
realize they
have a problem
By Natalie Stechyson
While training for triathlons
Craig Ross would lift weights, go
for long bike rides and force him-
self to vomit almost everything he
ate.
The 32-year-old communica-
tions manager finally admitted
he had a problem when he hit 100
pounds, developed a heart condi-
tion and had caused permanent
damage to his esophagus and
mouth. That was five years ago.
He was diagnosed with anorexia
and bulimia nervosa.
“I knew I shouldn’t be binging
and purging all the time, but I jus-
tified it because I wanted that ath-
letic build,” Ross said.
Men account for approximately
10 per cent of individuals with
eating disorders, but the lack of
public awareness means that they
often don’t come forward. Some
men don’t even know that they can
suffer from these illnesses.
“The hardest part is admitting
you have a problem,” Ross said.
Statistics like these,
along with images
presented by the me-
dia, unwittingly cre-
ate a stereotype that
all people with eating
disorder are young
girls.
Misty Pratt, the
program coordinator
at the Hopewell Eat-
ing Disorder Support
Centre on Chapel
Street, dispelled the
myth that only teen-
aged girls have eating
disorders.
“It’s not just that
one adolescent white
girl,” Pratt said. “It
Courtesy Craig Ross
affects all types of
Craig Ross overcame his eating disorders and now mentors young people at the people from all walks
Hopewell Eating Disorder Support Centre. of life.” She pointed
out that the individu-
“You just don’t see it.” But eating disorders are not als who seek support at Hopewell
There are several kinds of eat- just about food. They are mental range in age from nine to 60 and
ing disorders. Anorexia nervosa illnesses that signal difficulties older.
is extreme weight-loss through with identity, self-image and self- Pratt explained that the older
diet and exercise. Bulimia nervo- esteem. individuals are primarily women
sa sufferers experience episodes Experts estimate that eight per who have either struggled with
of binge eating followed by self- cent of girls suffer from some type eating disorders earlier in their
induced vomiting, laxative use, of eating disorder. lives and have relapsed, or are fac-
and/or extreme exercise. Binge They are the most common ing these issues for the first time.
eating disorder is characterized by chronic illness in the adolescent Often the older individual with an
episodes of extreme overeating. female population. eating disorder seeks support at
Hopewell because of issues with
binge eating or yo-yo dieting.
“They’ve had a lifelong struggle
with dieting and they just want to
be done with it,” Pratt said.
Then there are the men.
It was difficult for Ross to learn
to talk about his problems. At his
worst, all he cared about was per-
fection – in his appearance and in
his life.
“To accept that this fault existed
was not something I wanted to
deal with.”
Now fully recovered, Ross is a
mentor and a member of the board
of directors at Hopewell. He also
works with personal trainers
around Ottawa to help them rec-
ognize the signs and symptoms of
eating disorders in their clients. He
said the best way to combat eating
disorders – in men and women,
young and old – is to stop them as
early as possible or prevent them
in the first place.
“It’s tough to compete with the
images kids are being bombarded
with all the time,” Ross said. “You
have to assure them that no matter
how you look, that’s okay.”
For more information on the
Hopewell Eating Disorder Sup-
port Centre, visit www.hopewell.
ca or call 613-241-3428.