"For many years, Margaret Trudeau thought her up and down moods were just part of her life. After all, her story resembled a movie script. She won the heart of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau while vacationing as a teenager with her family in Tahiti, and at the age of 22, became the youngest First Lady in Canadian history. She was one of the world's most glamorous and scrutinized women in the '70s, an A List celebrity as capable of attracting headlines as Princess Diana.
"I thought my life was just taking me high and low," she says. "I had been given so many rich opportunities in my life."
In 2001, Trudeau ended years of denial and checked herself into an Ottawa hospital where she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Five years later, when she felt her recovery was as complete as it needed to be, Trudeau announced at a hospital fund-raiser she had been struggling with bipolar for years, and had been misdiagnosed for decades.
Consider this the latest chapter of Trudeau's remarkable life: She's an eloquent and compelling advocate for people with a mental illness, in particular those living with bipolar. Instead of running from reality, she flies across North America to discuss that reality with eager audiences. Now she uses her celebrity (celebrity she says once used to be "infamy") to bring attention to world-wide causes.
"Bipolar is an exaggeration of your emotions, so when you do get knocked down by life -- which you will because everyone will be knocked down at some point -- it's very hard to bounce back. Some people can live with sorrow for awhile and get on with their lives. I didn't have that ability. I got very knocked down and it was very hard for me. What learned is that it's awfully hard to do it on your own.
"And that's my message: to reach out and get help."Read the entire article by Charles Anzalone here.
1 comment:
I have Bipolar as well. I am on a road to recovery from an episode that nearly took my life and caused me to do things that I never dreamed. I truly lost contact with the real world. How abstract,colorful,disturbing and euphoric it is. It is so deadly and I was sure when I worked with homeless individuals with mental illness in my internship in college and I remmeber thinking and feeling such compassion for them yet that I only had bipolar," a little bit." I remember the residents who in this safe house from the streets wanted nothing more than food and love and a home. My heart melted for them but still thinking my bipolar would never lead me down that far. In my last semester of college I felt the desire to change medications from lithium to another drug. A long story but as I stated above I lost my mind I lost touch with reality and when I begged for mercy and returned to my lithium I too now know after hitting bottom know what it is like to wish for those things too. It was a very humbling experience. Coming back to reality was painful. My memory took a couple months to come to but I was helped with the disturebed and shocked faces of loved ones and strangers. My begining cycle of depression was now worsened with my lack of social understanding and angered loved ones. But now two years after making that decision to go off lithium I smell the fresh air of life. Their is recovery for those with mental illness, Loving support is key along with the right medication. Isolation and cruel judgemnet leads to stiffled recovery and lack of self worth. We are not our disease! We are smart loving sensitive caring people who need the same in return when we fall ill. Society needs more reform and understanding. It can start with all of us if we educate and communicate to family and friends around us. They can help those with mental illness by being aware of early warning signals of mania and depression. Medication is key but it is not enough. Loving sincere support that is educated is the other half thatwe all need because we are all affected with mental illness.
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