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Former Vancouver Canucks goalie Corey Hirsch speaks up on mental health during Vanderhoof visit

The NHL goalie interacted with SD 91 school students and community members

Corey Hirsch won an Olympic medal, drank from the Stanley Cup and then drove his car at 140 towards a cliff, all in the same year.

In what many would consider the peak of a hockey player’s career, he was in the depths of anguish. The powerful forces in his head wouldn’t let him enjoy the successes, or even the next minute. He was 22 years old. He didn’t want to die, but he felt he had to do something to silence the dark screams constantly in his head.

He hit the brakes before going over the edge of that cliff. And eventually he disclosed his secret to the trainer of the Vancouver Canucks, the team he was flailing to stay a part of. That trainer got him to a therapist. He had been to therapy before, but got no meaningful help. But this time, after a full day of assessment, he heard five important words that changed the course of his life.

“You have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.”

The celebrated, former NHL goalie was in northwest BC from Feb. 8-9 touring SD 91 schools in Fort St. James, Burns Lake and Vanderhoof to speak about his journey with mental health. Hirsch was also joined by former NHL defenceman Dave Babych, who also spoke about his experiences.

Hirsch was invited to the northwest by Theresa Philips and Doug McKay. “Everyone needs mental health advice and in the north we don’t get these kind of speakers often, he [Hirsch] seemed like a good person [to talk about the issue],” said Philips.

Following his visit to schools, Hirsch also spoke with Vanderhoof community members in a townhall sponsored by Rio Tinto at Northside Christian on Feb.10.

Hirsch is not an NHL goalie anymore, but he went on to a long, colourful career at a number of professional levels, became a well regarded coach, enjoyed an acclaimed additional career as a hockey broadcaster, and most importantly has a fulfilling family life - all thanks to those five words that uncovered the torment he had been enduring from within his own brain structure.

Since releasing his book The Save Of My Life, Hirsch has embarked on a new career, and it is devoted to talking far and wide about mental health - the medical reasons behind so many people’s secret, silent conditions.

“Our youth, they need us. They need us to help them,” Hirsch told Black Press in an exclusive interview. He said there has been a sea-change in how illness of the uppermost parts of our body are now regarded, but it is still only a tiptoe removed from his generation of apathy, misinformation, even hostility towards the mechanics of the body’s most critical organ. “We weren’t looking for signs. We weren’t educated on it,” he said, looking back.

“Here’s the thing: part of the reason I do what I do is, I have a chip on my shoulder. Why was I not educated on any of this stuff in high school? Why? The information is so simple. I almost ended up dead because the information was withheld from me because of a stigma.

“We’re still like that,” he warned. “Some schools are better than others but, talking about suicide doesn’t create more suicide.

It’s actually been proven to put a dent in the numbers, right. And talking about mental health, and things to look for, it’s embarrassing and tragic that we still don’t give our kids the information they need.”

So he’s doing it. He’s not a doctor, he’s not a neuroscientist, but he is someone who has lived through the illness - a nasty case of it - and the stigma - a nasty case of it.

He once worried that discussing the powerful thoughts he was having would cost him his career, and the harsh reality of that all-to-recent time is, he might have been right. The message about mental health has to get through to those who don’t suffer from one of those illnesses as much as to those who have something to work through. But he is used to bright spotlights and intense pressure. He thrived on it. He still does, in this new arena.

“It’s incredible. What I do now is way better than any other win I ever got playing hockey, or any game I ever played,” he said.



Frank Peebles

About the Author: Frank Peebles

I started my career with Black Press Media fresh out of BCIT in 1994, as part of the startup of the Prince George Free Press, then editor of the Lakes District News.
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