Sadie Harding says she’s always been an anxious person.
“I’ve always been the shy kid who’s worried about everything, couldn’t do anything without a plan, and for the longest time I didn’t know what it was,” she says.
After learning anxiety and depression run in her family, she still “didn’t have the courage” to speak up about her mental health issues.
Until last spring that is, when the isolation and fear of getting sick brought on by the pandemic made her anxiety worse.
The Twin Lakes Secondary School student spoke to her school social worker, Clare Wells, who told Harding she did in fact have anxiety, but that life could be made less stressful by managing her mental health.
Harding's journey made her passionate about mental health, and inspired the 15-year-old to start Piecing Us Together - a group she runs in partnership with the Orillia Youth Centre, aimed at giving youth a place to discuss and understand their own mental health.
Piecing Us Together runs Sunday nights at 7 p.m. over Zoom due to current COVID-19 restrictions. Harding leads the group in discussions about how attendees are feeling, and creative writing is used as an outlet for participants’ emotions.
The group is open to all youth, as everyone has mental health.
“I think a lot of times people get mental health and mental illness confused, they think they’re interchangeable,” says Harding.
She hopes to dispel this myth, and set people on their own mental health journeys by helping them understand their emotions. She’s open about her own journey, too, in hopes it can help others who feel the same way.
The group began as a project for Twin Lakes’ Partners in Education, Adventure and Community (PEAC) Program - a leadership program aimed at fostering community involvement. Harding came up with the idea and asked Orillia Youth Centre director, Kevin Gangloff, if the centre could help host her meetings to make the project a reality.
The meetings have been “fantastic,” says Gangloff.
“Any time you can open up a discussion around mental health and provide a space for someone to talk about how they’re feeling, there’s such value in that. To be peer-run and peer-driven is even more valuable," he explained.
The name 'Piecing Us Together' was inspired by Sadie’s understanding of mental health. She says it’s always changing, meaning one has to always work to piece their own mental health together. In sharing stories about one’s own mental health with a group, they become part of a larger mosaic of support, adding to the name.
Four participants attended the group’s first meeting on May 2. A top priority for Harding, especially in the first week, was making the group a safe space for people to share their feelings.
Harding asked questions that got the group thinking about what helps them when they’re down without getting too personal.
“I didn’t want them to feel like they couldn’t come up with an answer. I know that’s the worst feeling, when you’re trying so hard to explain what you’re feeling but you just can’t find the words, especially if it's just the beginning of your journey into figuring out your mental health,” says Harding.
Her strategy must have worked, as all participants from the first week plus a few more, came back on week two.
The turnout is a testament to the isolation youth have felt this past year, according to Gangloff.
Outside of Piecing Us Together, Harding is on Twin Lakes’ student council and the school’s Mental Health and Wellness Committee. She’s receiving the Rotary Student of the Month award for her work in the school’s wellness committee.
“We are proud of our students and their efforts to support well-being initiatives in the community,” says Wells.
In the end, Harding hopes to anonymously display the poems, songs and short stories written by attendees of Piecing Us Together in Orillia’s downtown. She hopes this might help older generations understand the mental health challenges young people face.
“There are so many new stressors (for youth). Things are changing at such a rapid pace, and having to adapt constantly takes a huge toll on you,” says Harding.
Her goal with Piecing Us Together is to leave participants with better mental health and positive self-image after each session.
While running the group has been nerve-wracking at times, Harding says helping others improves her own mental health.
“Knowing I created this thing that’s making a difference, that makes all those other (anxious) feelings go away.”
For more information about Piecing Us Together, visit the Orillia Youth Centre’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages.
