What We Will Abide

I don’t know Sarah Jickling, but we talked for an hour about anxiety, depression, alter egos, pole-dancing, and just how goddamn big Canada is. I met her on Instagram, via the quirk of a misplaced hashtag. Not long ago, I loathed and readily excoriated social media and its tentacles, as they worm and wiggle their slimy way into our lives. As it turns out, social media isn't the problem -- the problem was, in fact, the tentacles of anxiety and depression that ruled me. But in a year filled with upheaval, one of the bits that got excavated was the truth about my mental health.Now that I’m aware of it, I’m seeing things very differently. I’m embracing things I once resisted, namely, social media and the internet, and I find I actually enjoy connecting with other human beings. Sarah Jickling is one of those people; she's a musician and mental health advocate from Vancouver, British Columbia and she was kind enough to set aside some time to talk openly and honestly with me about mental health, sexuality, the heali