NEWS1130 Series: Courage to Come Back Awards
Posted April 16, 2012 6:52 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – They are inspiring, generous and humble. News1130 continues its series to profile the winners of the 2012 Courage to Come Back Awards with this look at Sandra Yuen McKay.
For years, she heard voices in her head and didn’t know why. Today she uses her art to conquer those inner demons.
“When I was 14, I started to hear voices. I saw faces at the window that my sister didn’t see. I thought I was being followed.”
Those are the first memories that Sandra has of her illness.
“I just balled it up, didn’t tell anybody and then suddenly I just kind of exploded one night and so my parents were pretty well alerted that something was wrong. So yes, it’s been a long road.”
What her parents thought was a tough case of teenage rebellion ended up being a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and later a mood disorder.
Sandra would go on to pick up arts credentials at Langara and UBC – using her creative pursuits to deal with her condition – which refuses she to let define her.
“My life isn’t about my illness, it’s about my art, my writing, my friends, my family. I mean, there’s so many good parts of my life that are still to be savoured and I think that’s what keeps my going.”
In 2010, Sandra Yuen McKay wrote a book about her experiences with mental illness called My Schizophrenic Life.
“I wanted to show that mental illness wasn’t really a dead-end street, that people with mental illness could still have good lives, productive lives, and contribute to society.”
These days Sandra speaks out about her mental illness, whether it’s to groups of schoolkids or in her writing. She’s also working on a novel.
“If you can show people that there is a silver lining to a mental illness and for me that was my creativity,” believes Sandra. “And I think if you can put a face to schizophrenia, you meet somebody who can articulate the experience and explain to them what it’s like so that they don’t fear it, they’re not ignorant anymore, they gain some education around it, and that’s the first step in reducing the stigma.”
News1130 is a proud sponsor of the Courage to Come Back Awards which will be handed out on May 17 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
Check back next Monday when we introduce you to the next Courage to Come Back Awards winner.
