Chris Nihmey is one of our Inspiration Award recipients this year. He was honoured alongside other mental health advocates at the 2019 Inspiration Awards on March 1.
When Chris Nihmey began volunteering at The Royal 10 years ago, he did it reluctantly. He was weighed down by his own mental illnesses, and still struggling to regain his sense of purpose and meaning.
“My mother urged me to start volunteering in 2009, when I was yearning to find a deeper sense of hope and healing in my life. She said it would be therapeutic; in giving, I would find healing. I disagreed,” he says. “Thank God, Mom had another vision which, at that time, I could not see.”
Nihmey began doing one-on-one visits at Royal Ottawa Place, The Royal’s long-term care program. There, he met a young woman named Nathalie, with whom he developed a strong bond.
Nathalie was unable to communicate verbally, but Nihmey worked to help her communicate by crafting a homemade picture board. Nathalie passed away in 2011, but Nihmey’s experience connecting with and helping her inspired him to do similar work with other long-term care residents.
“I started to think, if I was able to do something concrete with Nathalie, could I do something concrete with others?” he says.
Flash forward to now, and Nihmey has recently published a book compiling writing by long-term care residents, staff, and himself in Reflections from Another Side: Mental Illness Survivors and Advocates Unite to Write.This book is a collection of stories, poems, letters, journals, and autobiographies that Nihmey describes as a testimony to the fact that “with loving support, compassion, and acceptance, talents can flourish and healing does happen.”
Nihmey is someone who knows a lot about suffering, but even more about healing. In the early 2000s, his career as a teacher faltered soon after it began. He had been battling the symptoms of bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder for years – symptoms that only intensified over time, until he could no longer pretend everything was fine.
"I'm in a published book. I didn't think that would happen. I started crying, it was unbelievable. It was my dream to be a writer." – Royal Ottawa Place resident.
In the years since, Nihmey has found meaning by sharing his story and using his skills as a teacher and writer to inspire hope and build other people up. A large step towards recovery came through telling his story in his memoir, Two Sides to the Story: Living a Lie.
“When I started to write, to share my story, I started to find meaning and purpose in my life,” he says. “I realized that if I could get better, I could help people and change their lives.”
Nihmey shares his story with audiences of all ages, including speaking at The Royal’s “Is it just me?” program, which reaches thousands of high school students each year. Nihmey has also been featured by Bell Let’s Talk, and was recognized by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health as part of its Faces of Mental Illness campaign in 2017.
“It’s heartwarming to know that there are people like Chris who, despite having hardships of their own, are able to see past these obstacles and shine some light on someone else’s day,” says Kellie Halligan, a recreation therapist at The Royal.
When Nihmey decided to work one-on-one with long-term care residents at The Royal, he didn’t realize how big the project would become. Over a three-year period, he worked individually with 14 residents. He took each of them through the process of developing a concept, brainstorming, planning, and writing. “I basically did with them what I had done with myself.”
He then collected everything, more than 200 pages, intending to compile a book for the residents’ use, when he was struck by a realization: “This is really good. I think this could be a real book.”
Over the next few years, he edited and compiled the works into an anthology. He added some of his own writing, as well as the reflections of 10 long-term care staff about their work. Some residents also added written works they’d done in past years. The book came out in October 2018, to the joy of its many authors.
“I’m in a published book. I didn’t think that would happen. I started crying, it was unbelievable. It was my dream to be a writer,” says one resident.
Reflections from Another Side: Mental Illness Survivors and Advocates Unite to Write (Chipmunka Publishing, London, UK, 2018 is available on amazon.ca and indigo.ca, and to learn more about the project please visit chrisnihmey.com.
“I want people to know that healing does happen; it takes a lot of work, but it does happen. If you can find purpose in your life, you’re going to be a lot more ready to find healing,” says Nihmey.