{"id":693137,"date":"2026-05-25T18:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T18:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/693137\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T18:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T18:28:10","slug":"courage-to-come-back-mental-health-award-recipient-a-beacon-of-hope-to-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/693137\/","title":{"rendered":"COURAGE TO COME BACK:\u00a0Mental Health award recipient a beacon of hope to others"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first 20 years of her life, she lived with undiagnosed mental illness. Today, she is a beacon of hope for others.<\/p>\n

Our series of Courage To Come Back award<\/a> profiles begins with a look at Laurie Edmundson of Abbotsford, the recipient in the Mental Health category.<\/p>\n

Edmundson had a childhood filled with panic attacks, unexplained and disproportionate rage, self-harm, and overwhelming emotional pain. Part of the problem was her inability to express what was happening inside her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult when you don\u2019t have that vocabulary and that label because I didn\u2019t have any idea what was wrong with me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I knew something was wrong, and I knew I was very different from others, but didn\u2019t have an explanation. So, I felt like I was just like a horrible human being.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Edmundson says that only when she received her borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnosis at age 19 did things become clearer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd looking back at my records from when I was a kid, it\u2019s so obvious that they could have provided me and my family with an explanation, you know, 10 years earlier than they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmundson has paid dearly for her BPD, from difficulty holding down a job in her younger years to strained family relationships, even now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I have unfortunately alienated a lot of family because of my reactions to things when I was younger. But as a child with undiagnosed, untreated mental illness, I was reacting in the only ways that I knew how,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Edmundson is a self-described \u201csuper feeler<\/a>\u201d \u2013 someone who feels things deeply, perhaps too deeply, by some clinical standards. Still, she chooses to look at her mental illness almost like a superpower \u2014 a guiding principle for her Super Feeler podcast and global peer support network.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s an easy life. I\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s all positive, but there\u2019s so much more positive that we can highlight that really isn\u2019t highlighted elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also has a full-time role with BC Mental Health and Substance Use, developing and leading a brand-new peer-support program. Edmundson originally wanted to be a forensic psychologist, but her experiences in the health-care system led her to get a Master of Health Administration degree instead. Today, she is doing the kind of work she wishes existed when she needed it most.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s been really cool to see going from being told, in health care, \u2018You can\u2019t do peer support with these high-risk populations,\u2019 to then leading a project that is literally doing peer support for high-risk populations within 10 years is literally a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Laurie(Courtesy Courage to Come Back Awards)<\/p>\n

Edmundson hopes her Courage To Come Back Award serves as an example to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really honoured to be this year\u2019s winner, and it still feels a bit surreal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to come on here and say, everything is great. I\u2019ve done no wrong. I\u2019m a perfect human being, but that\u2019s not the case. And there\u2019s so many people struggling in the world that feel alone or they feel like nobody else is like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her message:\u00a0being a \u201csuper feeler\u201d like her can be a good thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a borderline personality disorder diagnosis is not something that is a life sentence. You can overcome it. And the families that are listening to this, who maybe are struggling as well, that there is so much support out there for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

1130 NewsRadio is a proud sponsor of the 2026 Coast Mental Health Courage To Come Back awards, which will be handed out Thursday night at the Vancouver Convention Centre.<\/p>\n

\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n

Add CityNews Vancouver as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n

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