Liam’s Story: Making friends and community.

Liam smiles shyly behind a pair of tinted glasses. He’s clutching a large crochet dinosaur, one of his latest creations.

He lives at Coast’s Dunbar Apartments, a supported housing facility provided by BC Housing in the heart of Dunbar. Although he’s been there less than a year, he’s become a key member of the community of tenants.

“We’ll just sit together and sometimes do nothing but look at the traffic for hours. Sometimes I might be in a bad place, but being in it together is better.”

A horrible nightmare

Born and raised in Vancouver, Liam was diagnosed with OCD when he was nine.

After high school, he developed conversion disorder: “You have psychological issues, but it gives you neurological physical symptoms that are just as real as any other neurological disease, but there’s no physical problem with your body,” Liam explains.

For Liam, the physical symptoms include chronic fatigue and pain. His mental health was also impacted. “The development of conversion disorder left me bedridden on and off for 8 years, during which I became susceptible to more complicated mental health issues like severe personality disorders, anxiety, depression, and PTSD.”

“It was quite  confusing; a horrible nightmare of a time for me, really. It’s hard to exaggerate the suffering; I spent 2 years of the first 8 in hospital, where I was in critical pain and very, very sick.

“I lost my entire 20s to disease.”

A whole bunch of new friends

After several years on the BC Housing waiting list, Liam finally received the call – he could move into Dunbar Apartments. He’s been able to gain independence– and found a new community.

“Having the staff here to provide constant clockwork check-ins and give me my meds is great.

“We get three breakfasts a week, and we get dinner every night which is really helpful for when you’re not well enough to cook.

“I just like coming home to this much better. I’ve managed to meet a whole bunch of new friends.”

And he finds joy in helping them.

“Just being able to do small things is helpful for both me and my friends. Sometimes I show them how to order things online, or I go up to the shops and help bring something home like a Dairy Queen or whatever it is.

“It’s something for me to do to keep busy, and it’s just as positive for me as it is for them when I become distracted from my pain.”

Brain Training

Before he moved to Dunbar Apartments, Liam found Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) a helpful tool.

“It helped me recover from a lot of negative behaviors, and I was able to get back into school and society.”

He was happy to hear that DBT is one of the elements of Coast’s Brain Training Program. It’s a unique-to-Coast offering, developed specifically to meet our clients’ needs, thanks to the generosity of donors.

They learn skills to better manage their mental health, and also play brain games like Wordle: “The games help you learn how to distract yourself from day-to-day suffering.”

Brain Training has “also become a regular point of connection for the residents here, I love that.” 

They’ve started doing the games outside of formal brain training sessions: “We’ve been starting to do little clubs ourselves in the common area, we have bought these puzzle books”.

Hundreds of hats

When he was in bed all day, Liam taught himself how to crochet.

“I just learned through YouTube videos through making hundreds of hats.”

And he donates his creations to the community.

“I’ve given about 50 winter beanies to my friends here at Dunbar, and then I gave around 50 more hats  to a couple of local hospitals. I made some chemo caps because I had cotton yarn. My friends helped me make the hats by contributing yarn or money to buy yarn, so it was a team project. Now, I crochet amigurumi (Japanese stuffed toys) and I am working on a mandala blanket. I’m always finding new things to crochet.”

Looking to the future

In the past, Liam has worked as a dinghy sailing instructor for people with disabilities, and on Cypress Mountain. Although he still sails, he sees himself pursuing a job helping others. 

“I hope one day I get better enough to study psychology. It would be interesting, in part because I know a lot of it from experience. I think it would be cool to become a peer support worker so that I can help people like myself, who are suffering profoundly.” 

For now, although he still struggles, Liam feels that his life is moving in a positive direction: “I find personally when I’m with people I’m in a better mood.”

And he’s grateful to the people who made it possible:

”Your efforts do make an impact, it’s made a profoundly positive difference in my life. The day I got a call from my case manager saying I had gotten into Dunbar was the day I felt I could move on to the next phase of my life. For that and so much more, thank you.”