By Troy Gillard

42,000 Albertans affected

Malarchuk brings message of hope to Schizophrenia fundraiser

Oct 17, 2019 | 10:49 AM

Clint Malarchuk continues to make the best of the chance he’s been given.

Remembered most for returning to action just 10 days after having his jugular vein sliced by a skate while goaltending for the Buffalo Sabres in 1989, the 58-year-old now spends much of his time sharing his message of hope for those dealing with mental illness.

“I became sort of a rock star. Whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing to do it endeared me to a lot of the hockey community,” Malarchuk says of his quick comeback 30 years ago. “But it set off a lot of issues for me.”

The Alberta native turned Nevada resident went more than 20 years dealing undiagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety.

“As a kid I struggled with it too. But that accident really, really tipped the scales and I went downhill.

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“Next thing I know I was sitting behind the barn with a gun to my head. That’s not something that I want anybody to do because I’m very grateful that I survived that attempt.”

Malarchuk will be in Lacombe this Saturday to speak at the “See Me, Not My Illness” fundraising event hosted by the Schizophrenia Society of Alberta.

More than 42,000 Albertans are living with schizophrenia, which is a treatable brain disorder.

Part of Malarchuk’s motivation for speaking at events such as this one is to help reshape the dialogue around mental illness.

“There’s a stigma that we’re weak rather than sick,” he laments. “Here in the U.S. we have 23 suicides a day by our veterans who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. These guys and gals are the most mentally tough people in the world, yet they go over there and get injured mentally.

“Our society is such where ‘Don’t tell anybody because you’ll be perceived as crazy or weak.’ It’s nothing like that. It’s like being diabetic. It’s a chemical imbalance, one that I have, in the brain. There’s a difference.”

Malarchuk says that no matter how dark things may seem when you’re dealing with mental illness, there’s always hope.

“I’ve almost died three times, the last time was self-inflicted. I just feel like I was spared in order to help those who are still suffering. So I better get off my butt and get out there and help the people that are suffering in silence in the darkness and share the message that it is a sickness, not a weakness. And just like any sickness it can be cured.”

More on Saturday’s event at the Lacombe Memorial Centre can be found here.