Kamloops resident Nevin Webster poses in front of a North Shore Kamloops coffee shop.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Nevin Webster loves his city of Kamloops and goes above and beyond to represent it. He sports Kamloops logos on his hats and hoodies and sews patches of the city’s unofficial mascot Kami the Fish onto his clothing and hand bags, buying swag from local businesses and literally wearing his city on his sleeve.

Webster is well-known for the funny memes he creates that focus on local politics and current events, and celebrate the city while also poking fun at it. He uses familiar Kamloops photos in the backgrounds and adds in Kami the Fish here and there. He has many connections in Kamloops and a fan following on his Instagram page called Loopszer. 

“Some of my memes make fun of the city with the idea of maybe promoting change or an improvement, others are just to tell a funny story,” he said.

Webster came to Kamloops from Ontario for a university program in 2014 and by 2018 he was connecting with numerous community members through a podcast showing different perspectives from around the city. But during that same time, he was also battling a serious, undiagnosed mental health disorder, struggling to manage extreme mood swings. While the digital creator has been open with his community about his mental health challenges, he said some don't know the full story of what led up to his formal diagnosis of bipolar disorder. 

“I was either manic or severely depressed,” he said. “I was running long distances excessively trying to cope and by then I'd known something wasn't right for a couple of years." 

The swings between mania and depression increased and in the fall of 2020, following a mental health outburst, Webster was picked up by the RCMP under the Car 40 program and went to the hospital by his request.

“A friend showed up to see if I was okay. I wasn’t,” he said. “They tried to comfort me and I punched a mirror. They called the cops on me and I jumped on a train to escape but they caught me… that was the worst time ever.”

Webster was hospitalized, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and medicated under the BC Mental Health Act. He has slowly recovered and found a more stable mind but requires medication and therapists to move through his daily life as a husband, father, employee, and digital creator. He said accepting medication wasn’t a choice.

“There were severe repercussions if I refused, I wasn’t allowed to smoke weed for a year,” he said. “If I didn’t follow, I could be removed from my kids. There was never a case of me refusing meds, I had to do it, I had to live with it. With certain psychotics… they gave me an injection for a year which was bad and it made me super tired all the time, I had to fight to stay awake.”

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He later moved to pills and began recovering, something he credits a lot of to a friend, a rapper in Kamloops who goes by the name Slum Glutton.

“He (Slum) talks about his addiction a lot and there are definitely parallels between addiction chaos and the chaos I was going through. Him already being through it and being in a happy place with himself, he was able to help me through some steps.”

In October of this year, Webster went to One South at the hospital by his own admission when he suffered another mental health breakdown but has otherwise found a better mental balance. Every few years his medications have to be adjusted and he sees his “shrink” regularly for check ups.

“Everything I do is bipolar, it’s yes and its no, it's black and it's white, it’s 'I want that and I don’t', I constantly live in that,” he said. “In the end I just shut it off and do what I want to do. You’re dealing with manic and depression and manic and depression.”

The drugs have slowed Webster down physically, he “feels old” and he’s gained roughly 60 pounds. Changes in medications dictate his creative process. He said before taking meds he didn’t know the difference between his personality and his online persona.

“Whenever there are radical changes and additions of anti-psychotics, it turns down my creativity,” he said. “It’s harder for me to make stuff right now because I’m on a new thing. Two months ago when I was in more control I could be posting five memes a day, now it's like if I eek out one good meme every two days it’s a win. My audience knows I deal with this and are cool with it.”

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He isn’t angry about the diagnosis and the way the disorder has impacted his life, taking each day one at a time. He said he has a lot of support in the community he loves and is also “blessed” to have medical support on hand.

“I have a stronger community than most people, I’d say I’m an outlier in that regard. Not many people have the level of community supports I have,” he said. “I have a family doctor, I’ve never wanted for medical care in this town and that’s a blessing not everyone can say.”

In 2018 and 2019, prior to the diagnosis, Webster said he was a more angry, manic person while getting into social media and doing the podcast.

“I pissed some people off when I started, I was pretty immature,” he said. “Now I’m definitely different. I was Kamloops' biggest troll at one point probably. If people know who I am, great, I hope it’s for good things now, not trolling people.”

Webster doesn’t have a future plan except to continue sharing the love of his city through his entertaining memes and is considering running for city council sometime down the road. 

Bipolar disorder used to be called manic-depression and is a bio-chemical condition that creates imbalances of neurotransmitters in the brain. The disorder causes mood swings that range from mild to severe and can result in mania that is accompanied by risky behaviours and is followed by deep depression.

According to Statistics Canada, one percent of Canadians aged 15 years and over reported symptoms that met the criteria for a bipolar disorder in the previous 12 months. Roughly 1 in 50 adults aged 25-44 years or 45-64 years reported symptoms consistent with bipolar disorder at some point in their lifetime.

Webster posts most of his work here on his Instagram account. 

This meme was created by Kamloops resident Nevin Webster and shows a known rock formation near Kamloops.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Nevin Webster

This meme by Kamloops resident Nevin Webster pokes fun at an empty mall on the North Shore.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Nevin Webster

A meme by Nevin Webster with a Kamloops beach in the background.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Nevin Webster

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