OLDS — Another edition of The Conversation Has To Happen, a conference on suicide and depression is coming up.
This free event will be held Feb. 20 at the Pomeroy Inn & Suites.
Doors open at 5 p.m. Supper will be served from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and speakers will address the crowd from 7 to 9 p.m.
Didsbury resident Terry Hickok will speak on his journey involving depression and anxiety.
Rick More of Red Deer, whose daughter Lindsey took her life in 2015, will also speak. After her death he and his wife started the Smiles Thru Lindsey Foundation for mental health and youth.
Hope Thru Music, featuring Tilly Hiebert, Janice Beaudry and Monika Vetter-Murrell will perform.
Those wishing to attend are urged to register by Feb. 15 by calling Meryl at 403-556-5871 or emailing [email protected].
Hickcok, 53, told the Albertan he suffered for years with depression and even tried to take his own life a couple of times.
He said factors in that struggle were bullying from some classmates and by his father, who was “pretty abusive physically and emotionally.”
However, Hickok said in recent years, he and his dad have reconciled and his father is now a changed man.
“That's the best part of it all, that we've both grown, I guess.”
Another issue, he believes is he was raised with a religious belief that it was kind of taboo to discuss those issues.
“We were kind of led to believe that we shouldn't struggle,” he said.
“I was just trying to get through the darkness and get help that I needed, but (I was) not very good at finding it,” Hickok said.
However, that changed about six years ago.
“I got some proper treatment; some effective treatment that works for me,” he said.
“I’m just wanting to share that with people so that those that don't deal with it but maybe have friends or loved ones that are battling it can have some insight.
“And those that battle it, you know, just some hope for them, right? That someone else has been there and has been able to get some help.”
