In front of an audience of over 400 people, former TSN host Michael Landsberg calmly told the story of the night he came close to ending his life.
It was after a taping of a TSN broadcast on Grey Cup weekend in November of 2008 when Landsberg found himself alone in a Montreal hotel room. He had been struggling to deal with news that his daughter had developed a health condition that would leave her blind in one eye. He had been self-medicating with Ativan, which had further dropped him into a spiral of depression. And in that hotel, Landsberg explained, he realized he needed help.
"I knew at that point - I'm in real trouble here," he told the audience gathered inside the main gymnasium at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre at UNBC.
"That, for me, is the reason that I'm up here."
Landsberg, who spoke as the keynote of the UNBC Timberwolves fundraising breakfast on Monday morning, has since gone on to found a mental health awareness campaign #sicknotweak. The campaign has focused on raising awareness of mental illness among men, who often suffer many of the afflictions of depression, anxiety and mental illness under a self-imposed cone of silence.
Landsberg said he hoped to challenge the perception, common amongst men, that depression and anxiety were signs of weakness as opposed to illnesses that require professional treatment.
"I have been so sick that I understood why people take their lives. But you know what, I'm not ashamed, I'm not embarrassed and I'm sure as hell not weak," he said.
The Timberwolves breakfast, which has been a yearly fundraiser for UNBC athletics programming since 2015, attracted staff from various offices throughout Prince George, as well as student athletes, UNBC alumni, staff and faculty. Organizers hoped to raise $20,000 at the event, which will benefit student awards and bursaries for athletes. University president Daniel Weeks pledged to match funds raised during the event.
The Timberwolves have so far had a banner year. Both men's and women's basketball teams have qualified for the U Sports Canada West playoffs. The men finished the season with a win-loss record of 10-10 while the women's team finished with 9-11.
