Feel It All screening and Q&A scheduled for Mental Health Week

Ethan Murray Fund hosts pro skier, documentary filmmaker and mental health advocate

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

You’ve likely heard this before from those visiting resort towns like Sandpoint: “It must be paradise to live here.”

The truth is more complicated than that.

Professional skier, documentary filmmaker and mental health advocate Drew Petersen is well aware of that distinction. Hailing from the mountains of Colorado, Petersen was raised on skis, turned pro when he was 15 and now, at 31, has dedicated his life to combining his love of skiing with filmmaking and mental health advocacy.

The Ethan Murray Fund will screen Petersen’s film Feel It All on Thursday, Oct. 2 at the Panida Theater, with doors opening at 6 p.m. and the show starting at 7 p.m. Petersen will follow the screening with a discussion about his experiences, the importance of mental health and the challenges that shaped his journey. The screening is part of Mental Health Week activities.

“I really committed to the filmmaking process in this mission of mental health to share my personal story,” Petersen told the Reader. 

Petersen’s first film, Ups and Downs, highlighted the mountains and valleys of his personal mental health journey. Feel It All combines skiing and ultrarunning, the latter a sport that involves running distances of 100 miles or longer.

“Making Feel It All was my mission to help other people,” Petersen said. “I really wanted to help the outdoor and mountain communities as a whole.”

Petersen said he has struggled with mental health his entire life.

“Even as a kid, I didn’t have the language to understand what I was experiencing,” he said. “I lived through these struggles, including suicidal thoughts, totally in secret all the way from childhood to building a career as a pro skier. During all of that I built up a lot of shame around being depressed and having suicidal thoughts, even though life was ‘amazing’ in the mountains and I was ‘living the dream’ and traveling the world as a pro skier.”

In 2017, Petersen experienced a near-death accident on the mountain that changed everything for him.

“It made me face reality head on and eventually ask for help,” he said. “Since then, I’ve renovated my entire life. I got sober and really, I’ve taken that a step further from helping myself to helping the community. … I have a unique opportunity as a pro skier to make an impact and help a lot of people.”

Petersen said his own story isn’t anecdotal; it’s a real issue in states like Idaho.

“Seven of the Rocky Mountain states rank in the highest suicide rates in the country,” Petersen. “Idaho is one of them.”

Idaho ranks sixth in the nation for the highest suicide rate per capita at 22.2 per 100,000 people.

Petersen said a lot of factors come into play when explaining why suicide is more prevalent in Western states with ski resorts and mountain towns. 

“But I do believe the juxtaposition of living in ‘paradise,’ having access to recreation and living an amazing life leaves a lot of us feeling we should be OK and should be happy and that results in shame when we struggle,” he said. “The reality is, being human means every single one of us is going to struggle. That needs to be normalized.”

Petersen agreed to travel to Sandpoint after Ethan Murray Fund co-founder Justine Murray reached out when he released his first film in 2022.

“I saw a lot of the story of the Sandpoint community and her son Ethan in me and how I’ve shared my story,” Petersen said. “It’s been amazing to connect with her.”

Feel It All centers on the goal of running the Leadville Trail 100 Run, one of the toughest land races in the world. Petersen uses the story arc of the race to explore his experiences with mental health and how even in his deepest, darkest depths, he found purpose driving him forward.

“I felt like, ‘If I can do this, I can do anything,’” Petersen said of running the race.

A question-and-answer session with the audience will follow the screening.

Ticket proceeds go to support the Ethan Murray Fund Scholarship Program, a resource available to Bonner County high school students who are either pursuing careers in mental health or have been touched by mental health challenges, whether their own or in their families.

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline (available 24/7, 365 days a year).