By Alex Wilks, For the Now-Leader
Surrey-born Rachel Fehr knows a thing or two about fighting back.
Fehr, an award-winning martial artist, will be the recipient of the 2017 Courage to Come Back Award from Coast Mental Health. The 36-year-old mother of two overcame a misdiagnosed mental illness and serious addiction to become a mentor who uses her skills to teach youth the power of Japanese ju-jitsu.
Twice a week, she uses martial arts to teach children confidence and self-defence at Gionco MMA boxing gym on 108th Avenue and King George Boulevard in Surrey.
“Helping the kids helps me,” Fehr said. “It keeps me on track, keeps me sane.
“I swear, I get more out of it than they do.”
Fehr spent 14 years being prescribed various medications to treat her illness, but nothing seemed to work.
“The biggest part was just trying to get help for mental health,” Fehr said. “I knew something was wrong and I wanted to help but if you want help they cannot keep you in the hospital for treatment.”
She even staged a suicide attempt so she would be kept in the hospital. She said it was the only way she felt that she would receive a proper diagnosis.
“I picked a bridge, I borrowed a construction worker’s phone, I called 911 (and) said, if you’re not here in five minutes, you’re going to be picking up a dead body,” she said. “They were there in two.”
She was finally diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). While it is comparable to post-traumatic stress disorder – both illnesses can follow a traumatic event – BPD stems from childhood.
“You get all these obstacles put up in front of you, but you just got to power through it.”
She struggled with more than just mental illness. Her history of addiction began at the age of 13.
“Speed, coke, crack, meth, ecstasy. I think heroine was pretty much the only thing I didn’t try.
“It was peer pressure, plain and simple. I grew up in low-income housing, I was a geek, I got beat up, and I got stolen from,” she added.
“I just didn’t fit in anywhere, not until I started training.”
Although she took a few years off from martial arts, Fehr has spent the last 20 years perfecting her skill.
“It gave me the strength to get through. If it wasn’t for martial arts, I wouldn’t have had anybody that cared about me.”
Through all her suffering and hardships, Fehr said she likes to look at her life with a positive light.
“I can’t let what happened in my childhood ruin my life anymore,” she said. “It’s more of a matter of letting go. It’s not so much getting over it but you learn to live with it.
“You never completely heal, you just learn to manage.”
Coast Mental Health is a non-profit organization that has been helping people find their courage to come back from mental illness since 1972. Recognized each year are six B.C. residents who have overcome addiction, medical or mental health, social adversity or physical rehabilitation. Fehr will receive the award, in the category of Mental Health, on May 16 at Vancouver Convention Centre West. For info, visit Couragetocomeback.ca.