Michael Landsberg has spent his life connecting with people, first as a broadcaster on Canada’s first all-sports television network, TSN, and now as a mental health advocate.
Landsberg has spearheaded the #SickNotWeak movement in mental health in Canada and sat down to speak at an event Tuesday morning hosted by Sault College as part of its annual Scholarship Breakfast.
He said his goal has always been to connect with people.
His work is not about telling people how to treat their mental illness, it’s about creating a connection so people can “understand themselves better.”
On Monday, Landsberg spoke in front of a group at Algoma Steel.
The former broadcaster turned mental health advocate said one of the attendees of the talk at the plant came up to him after in tears and proceeded to tell Landsberg, “I’m going to go for help.”
Landsberg added that the man told him he had struggled for five years before making the decision to seek help.
In an interview with SooToday following Tuesday’s event, Landsberg said he’s “amazed” when people come up to him after events.
“Anybody who is willing to share and the deeper you go, the more effective you can be, the better that you can frame the struggle that you’ve gone through. That’s what people relate to,” Landsberg said.
“I’m always shocked, but thrilled when someone comes up and says ‘Mike, you connected with me,’” Landsberg added.
“It doesn’t get any better than that.”
As someone who worked around athletes and currently as a mental health advocate, Landsberg said that, as tough as admitting to having mental health issues is, there are some jobs that make it tougher to do.
“It’s way tougher to pry mental health honesty from people at Algoma Steel than people at TD Bank,” Landsberg said. “Not that it’s easy (in general), because every place has its own culture. Every culture in any job, there is always the hesitancy to say ‘Yeah, I think I need help.’”
Established in 2016, #SickNotWeak strives to help those with mental illness and, for Landsberg, the experience hasn’t been what you would expect.
“It’s a really unusual experience because it’s all about me and my natural reaction would be, contrary to what people always thought of me, I do have a good sense of humility,” Landsberg said.
“Being able to share this big chunk of me, in broadcasting, you share a bit of you, but you’re never the story,” Landsberg added.
“The story is always, if you’re interviewing someone, they’re the story. This is me and my story and the fact that I get to use the worst thing personally that I’ve been through, which would be depression, and I get to use it to help other people is amazing.”
While speaking to attendees of the event Tuesday morning, Landsberg talked about a day etched in his memory during his battle.
The day was Nov. 24, 2008. He was in a hotel in Montreal and told the audience that he had been battling his "worst episode of depression" from the previous year.
While in Montreal for the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup, Landsberg hit a low point.
“At 4 a.m., I woke up and I was sitting on the edge of my bed and I remember thinking to myself ‘I understand why people take their own lives,’” Landsberg recounted.
“There’s different variations of this,” Landberg added. “For me, it was not my desire to get away from life. It wasn’t like I didn’t love my wife and kids, my parents, and everything in my life. It had nothing to do with that. It was the pain that I was in, that I couldn’t fathom the idea that I could go on with this pain for an unlimited period of time.”
Landsberg got the date, time, and place tattooed on his arm as a way of memorializing his “full understanding of mental illness and depression.”
As part of Tuesday’s event at Sault College, Landsberg was also presented with an honourary Sports Administration diploma.