The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, May 9, 2012 · 10 Margaret Trudeau's words heartbreakingly honest By Kathy Yanchus METROLAND WEST MEDIA GROUP Margaret Trudeau speaks with breathless, heartfelt emotion. She is engagingly animated and heartbreakingly honest as she recounts her very public battle with mental illness. As in her third memoir, Changing My Mind, 63-yearold Trudeau holds nothing back from public consumption in her attempt to advocate for mental health awareness: her painful struggle with bipolar disorder, her desperate search for help, the countless psychiatrists, prescribed drugs and attempts to self-medicate. All of it made for a compelling, often humorous tale of self-evolution, from despair and isolation to balance, hope and recovery as Trudeau intertwined her journey of mental illness with life inside and out of 24 Sussex Drive, during a speech Wednesday evening at the Burlington Convention Centre. The event was presented by Support & Housing ­ Halton and TEACH. "If statistics are right one in five will suffer depression or a mental mood illness. I think everybody will at some point in their life suffer a mental breakdown of some sort, overwhelming sadness, overwhelmingly stress, overwhelming anxiety, overwhelmingly feelings and usually they can get back under control very quickly. "Sadness is a part of life, sorrow is part of life, grief, feelings of loss, is part of life. Depression is an illness, depression does not have to be part of your life. I didn't know this of course when I had my first bout." Trudeau's initial debilitating brush with depression was at the age of 23, when the vibrant wife of the Canadian prime minister had just given birth to her second child. "I didn't know what happened to me, the light had gone out of me. I just didn't have any feelings anymore, I didn't want to get out of bed, I didn't want to play with my adorable two-year-old Justin, I cancelled all my engagements I had as the prime minister's wife because I had no interest, I had no feeling. "I felt I had been thrown into this grey world where nothing mattered, where I didn't matter, my children didn't matter, nothing caught my attention. What I know now that we did not know then was that I had been triggered into the first bout of depression of my bipolar condition. This was the first Margaret Trudeau time I suffered real depression." Depression is a thief, said Trudeau, stealing relationships and happiness. In 1998, when her son Michel died tragically, followed by Pierre's death in 2000, Trudeau said she went mad with grief. "It all happened too quickly. I just couldn't lift up my head. I couldn't find any hope or reason, nothing. I pretty much stayed on the floor. I pushed all my family away, eventually my husband left." Her son intervened and she was hospitalized. She was given the choice by her psychiatrist of starting the long road to recovery or returning home to die. "The only person who can help you, I wish it weren't so, but the only person who is going to make a difference in a mentally ill person's life is themselves. I had to make the choice to get well. "We all want to be happy, we want to be loving and full of life and we want to be the best we can be but so many of us are held back by fear and by not wanting to accept what it is. The biggest problem I think that the mentally ill have is denial and their families the same problem; nobody wants to face the truth. "For each person, you have the potential to be a happy, good, loving, whole, compassionate, warm-hearted person. We all have that ability but our fear holds us back, the chemicals in our brain hold us back, but there is correction and there is recovery." Every day is a challenge and a search for balance and healthy choices, said Trudeau. The title of her book reflects what she and her doctor did, she said. "I got my life back. I don't have it easy, nobody does. I cry, I laugh, I whine, at least now I make healthy choices and I do the best I can to deal with what I have, which is an imbalance in my brain. "It's a long process. It's a hard thing to ask of anybody to find the courage to face your worst fears. And for the families who need to accept this one in your midst is different and does need help, is an act of bravery, too." Interestingly, before concluding, Trudeau mentioned the possibility of two concussions suffered as a child factoring into her mental illness and she urged everyone "to protect your head." "I may have got my bipolar from two concussions I had falling off my bike as a child, both times losing consciousness and both times being thrown into the back of my mother's station wagon and that was it. So, who knows." SAVE UP TO $2700 ON NEW FURNACE & AIR CONDITIONER $700 OFF HI-EFFICIENCY CENTRAL AIR BIGGEST SALE EVER! WAS $ no corners cut thanks mom treat your mom to cookies this Mother's Day 250 kerr street, oakville 905 582-7400 www.elmhillcookies.com PRICE MATC H GUARANTEE. CALL FOR DETAILS. · Free Installation · 10 Years Factory Warranty 2690 3990 NOW OVER 120,000 SATISFIED $ CUSTOMERS 1990 * 96% HIGH EFF DC MOTOR A/C OR FURNACE DIAGNOSTIC ONLY $49 · · · · $2000 Off Hi-Efficiency DC Motor Gas Furnace (96% EFF) WAS $ NOW $ Largest independent dealer in Ontario Over 120,000 satisfied customers Family owned business for over 20 years 9 showroom locations in Ontario WHY AIRE ONE? · · · · *See dealer for details 1990 * A+ RATING 150 licensed technicians 24 hour emergency service Registered tssa-wsib-hrac-bbb member Satisfaction guaranteed THE FORECAST CALLS FOR 9 Locations To Serve You Better! HEATING & COOLING 905-849-4998 www.aireone.com · 1-888-827-2665