Family Service Kent welcomed Margaret Trudeau to the Capitol Theater in Chatham on Friday night. Trudeau, the wife of the late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the mother of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, discussed mental-health issues during her talk and living with bi-polar disorder.
“Perhaps the reason I had to go through all of this and how I was even picked by Pierre Trudeau was I think that I am meant to be doing all of this, to have gone through all of this hard untreated illness and the damage it does to everyone, so that I do have this story to tell. I think it is a strong one,” Trudeau told reporters following her talk on Friday.
“What it does give me is purpose and that is what every single person needs. They need to feel that they have something to contribute. The way my mind works now is that I live in the moment. I really try to be present in my life right now. I have a very good memory. My mental illness, I totally remember. I remember it all but it was not me. It was the ‘sick me’ and it just makes me love the ‘well me’ even more. The me that got the help that I so needed.”
Getting help is essential
Trudeau said getting help is her number one message.
“Many many people who are suffering from mental illness, do not under estimate their intelligence,” she said.
“We will be as tricky as can be to try and deny and get away from that terrible label that has so much stigma attached to it of being mentally ill. I want that changed. Our brains can dysfunction as easily as any organ in us and we have to accept that, get correction and get treatment just like any other illness. We are just one being and you can’t fix one part without fixing the other.”
Trudeau added: “So just to be healthy, feed your body, feed your mind, to exercise, to sleep well, to live well and the best words I know are the ones from last year from Bell, ‘be kind.'”
Difficulty being honest about illness
Trudeau said it was difficult talking about her illness with anyone until she spoke to a doctor about it, as there was no one she could be completely honest with.
“I would pretend to not cause waves, cause worries, cause ruffles,” she said.
“I would always pretend to be just fine. I had five children I was raising. I had to pretend I was fine. I usually was fine… until I wasn’t. It is an episodic thing. It comes and goes. It is triggered by this and then maybe for years nothing and then again.”
Trudeau added: “Only 7% of our budget for health goes to mental illness. We have got to change that. I know someone in Government. We need more services. There is always in every city, and I know there is in Chatham. There always is a Canadian Mental Health Association. Grassroots, the beginning. If you are seriously mentally ill, within hours you will have a doctor. They have trust in the medical community and that’s the first door in.”
Trudeau said speaking to a psychologist is a good idea as well.
“Just to go and talk to somebody,” she said.
“Pay them a little bit of money for the first conversation and they can tell you whether what you are feeling from a disinterested point of view is worthy of really getting help, or something that you just have got to work on and here’s how. It’s the level of courage that you have that determines how well you can get.
Stop the suicides
Trudeau said she wants all the suicides to stop.
“It’s too many, too much,” she said.
“It is just a lack of hope and it is compulsive. The anger that is left behind is in the family and everybody. You don’t think and you blame and if you could just find the identifying things early that are there and, if we look we can get help early and be on their side instead of pushing away.”
Trudeau said everyone she met in Chatham-Kent has been very kind.
“This theatre was filled with very good energy people who were listening, who were caring, and I am talking about something pretty tough,” she said.
“Mental illness is not your feel good story but that’s the way it is in Canada, because everybody is being affected. Every family has known somebody who needs to be pushed towards that. The stigma is only out of a lack of information. Great West Life, the insurance company has one of the best virtual websites for mental health in the world.”
Trudeau added: “I have got papers of something I was wondering about from my condition from the top psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic. You can access that. The person who has the mental illness is probably not able to access any of this because their thinking is stuck, but you can help them. You do the research. Find out anything you can because that is where the stigma goes when you realize that this is a common disease, a common illness that has these repercussions if untreated and this is what happens.”
Improved drugs
Trudeau said the drugs have improved to combat mental illness as well.
“The drugs we were given before were awful because they just wanted to put us in place,” she said.
“Well that’s not what we wanted. None of us wanted to be zombies. So the drugs are getting really good. The research that is going into them in extraordinary and it’s a new frontier. Healthy people can help unhealthy people with doing the grunt work of finding out everything.”
Family Service Kent organizers say they appreciate the importance of the message Trudeau had to share.
“The mission of our agency is to support, empower and advocate for individuals and communities to reach their full potential,” stated Brad Davis, executive director of Family Service Kent, in a press release.
“With her compelling personal story and ongoing commitment to advocacy work, we believe that Margaret Trudeau embodies the spirit of what we strive to achieve.”
For more information about Family Service Kent, visit: familyservicekent.com
– With files from Tami Eagen
– Photo credit: Tami Eagen
