Lauren Kennedy West is a mental health advocate who lives with what she preaches. She is living with schizophrenia spectrum illness.
Instead of sitting back and letting the illness control her, she tries to manage it by practising wellness in her own life and in the lives of her family, while also inspiring others around the world with her YouTube channel Living Well with Schizophrenia.
Kennedy West says the YouTube channel is a solid resource for anyone and everyone.
“It’s built as a resource for people who are living with the illness or people who are supporting someone with the illness and for people who just want to know more about what it means to live with the illness — getting more into that and exploring it through that is super instrumental.”
When Kennedy West was 19, she realized something was off. From then, it was a six-year journey to figure out what was wrong and what needed to be treated.
“It’s a long journey just getting the correct diagnosis and then once I got the correct diagnosis, it’s been an equally long journey trying to figure out how to live with it,” Kennedy West said.
Finally at the age of 25, she received the proper diagnoses.
Now, at 31, Kennedy West is a wife and mom to three children. She has made the YouTube channel her full-time job and her husband appears on the channel with her in a lot of the videos.
He was also the one who nominated her for the “Faces of Wellness” program.
Alberta Blue Cross’ “Faces of Wellness” program is fairly new. It was introduced in 2021, and organizers were thrilled to receive almost 150 nominations. But this year, Alberta Blue Cross was amazed when it came to nominations and applications: 350 came in from across the province.
Brian Geislinger, the Alberta Blue Cross corporate relations vice president, explained how the program started.
“Committed to wellness across the province and to their health and what could we do to promote those stories and really help share those stories of wellness that people are living in their own lives and own journeys.”
And to Kennedy West’s surprise, she was this year’s winner.
“It’s really really cool that a mental illness like schizophrenia is being highlighted as something that someone can live well with,” she said.
“That’s really an important kind of shift in terms of our understanding of what it means to live with an illness.”
Despite the challenges — and highs and lows — that Lauren lives with everyday, the YouTube channel is there to help her navigate all those feelings as well.
“Bringing it to light more and being more open about it has really increased my capacity for self acceptance around it.
“Being more honest about it with other people has allowed me to be more honest about my own experience with it.”
This year, the Kennedy West duo hopes to start a podcast talking about all things mental health.
“A more broad podcast around mental illness in general. So talking to other people about different experiences and talking more broadly about mental health in general and what it means to live well with mental illness,” said Lauren.