Shortly after my son was born, the panic attacks started
I was fortunate to get quick and effective treatment for my post-partum anxiety. But many Indigenous women, however, aren’t so lucky.
Photo: Kelly Boutsalis
My first panic attack happened while I was browsing shelving units at Ikea. I was shaking, my leg kept banging into my seven-month-old son’s stroller and my heart was beating like crazy. But as soon as I got into the parking lot, the feelings dissipated.
A second attack hit me a few days later at an empty grocery store: I felt like I was being squeezed tightly by the aisles around me, and this feeling followed me and my stroller all the way home and lingered for a few hours.
Pupils from Thorncliffe School travelled to Moscow in 1994 to visit their friends from School 368 and to stay in their homes. For some it was their first eye-opening trip to Russia and for others it was their second opportunity to catch up on events in the new Russia. Two years previously on a visit organised by official Russian travel agency Intourist, Thorncliffe first set up the contacts with the children of School 368. And in 1993 Thorncliffe paid for a group of their new Russian friends to visit them in Barrow. Originally the Thorncliffe contingent in 1994 had planned to stay in hotels but because of the rate of inflation they ended up staying in the homes of their friends. It gave them an insight into the Russian way of life they could never have achieved as tourists.