Mental illness has so much stigma attached it. It truly is the last frontier when it comes to education and advocacy. And when it comes to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, the level of stigma is unparalleled. No longer are illnesses like AIDS or cancer considered taboo. Millions of dollars are invested in research and education for these diseases. I wish I could say the same for brain disorders. Continue reading
You’ve probably noticed that the prices at the grocery store have jumped by about 10 percent in the past few months. Likewise, the price of gas keeps going up. No doubt you can think of other things that have become costlier to buy, too.
But has your income increased? Probably not.
Here in Canada, we are leading up to another federal election—the fourth in seven years. Approximately $300 million will be spent on this election, and many believe the results won’t change after election day: We will still have a minority Conservative government.
The focus of this election is definitely the economy, but the Conservatives are also playing up another aspect: building more prisons. Continue reading
From a very young age, I traveled with my father nightly to visit my Mom who was in the hospital—specifically, a psychiatric unit at the hospital. I was never told what was wrong with her. Everyone just said that she was “sick.”
In those days they didn’t even call it manic depression; they called it a “nervous breakdown.” Today we call it bipolar disorder. I didn’t know it was due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. I actually thought it was our fault (mine and my siblings) for not behaving. As I grew older, and after many hospitalizations, my mother eventually stabilized. But we still really didn’t talk about it much. Continue reading
