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5 |Friday, October 14, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER Margaret Trudeau speaks at activists' awards gala by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff Margaret Trudeau was in Oakville this week calling on those struggling with mental health issues to face their illness head-on. Margaret, mother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former wife of late prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, is a mental health advocate and noted the approach she outlined is the true secret to reclaiming mental well-being. Margaret, also an author, highlighted her own struggles with bipolar disorder before an audience of nearly 500 people during the Oakville District labour Council's f 6th annual Activist Awards Banquet, Wednesday (Oct. 12). She opened by describing the impact of mental illness in Canada. "There isn't a family that isn't affected," said Margaret. "When I hrst started speaking about mental health, 1 checked with Health Canada to see the cost of mental illness to the Canadian economy At that time, it was $14 billion a year. W hen I called this spring before I started my spring tour, 1found it is up to $55 billion a year. It is the largest cost of any illness to our economy" Margaret noted her mental illness was not recognized when she was young. While her parents characterized her as a "firecracker," it wasn't until her second child, Sacha (Alexandre Emmanuel), was bom in 1973 she began to experience severe symptoms of bipolar disorder. By then, her then-husband Pierre was serving as Canada's 15th prime minister. "A few weeks after he (Sacha) was bom, it was like a light switch had been turned off in my brain. I no longer had any light, I no longer had any joy I certainly didn't have any happiness or any laughter," said Margaret. Margaret Trudeau "I just wanted to weep, I just wanted to stay in bed. I started cancelling all my invitations." This was her first experience with depression. She described it as an absence of interest in life. Margaret called depression "a thief' because it takes you away from your loved ones and said people must get help because it' s no way to live. Eventually Margaret and Pierre went to see a psychiatrist, who was, Margaret said, starstruck with Pierre but of little help to her, simply advising Pierre to give her more attention. Margaret said she felt better by spring and joined Pierre on the re-election campaign trail. "You suddenly wake up and you are interested in life and you have projects going on," she said. Unfortunately, this was the bipolar disorder taking her to the opposing extreme, mania. "With mania you are just mad. That's where the madness lives in my bipolar experience. That's where all the bad choices are made. There's no judgment.... Mania is where you destroy your life," she said. "W hat was happening to me?" Margaret described mania as making her feel like superwoman or overcharged. "It's just one thought after another, crowding your mind and racing you from one thing to the next without any ability to access reason." In 1974, Pierre won re-election. After months of campaigning, Margaret said she felt restless and went to Montreal on her own. From there, on a whim, she went to Paris, France, and then to Crete, Greece. It was when she was making arrangements to go to Crete that Pierre discovered where she was. Following this, Margaret was placed in hospital for the first time. She continued to experience manic episodes, noting in one episode she ran away with the Rolling Stones. "You have all this energy without any discretion, without any thought, without any consideration for those you love." While people were urging Margaret to get see Telling on p.10 | www.insideHALT0N.com p b o rp E n iT H CLINIC W f sJ A STEP BEYOND IN CARE t j^ DO YOU HAVE: Salima Kassam Reg. 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