Visiting the Downtown Eastside (DTES) has churned up some contradictions for me, and resolving those contradictions requires re-thinking some questions I thought I already knew the answers to: 1) To what extent do people choose to live in the DTES, and to what extent are they stuck there? 2) Does
Continue readingTag: mental illness
Montreal Simon: The Mad Cruelty of Stephen Harper
It has been said of Stephen Harper, by those who know him well, that he is a man incapable of feeling the pain of others.A man with no capacity for empathy, a man devoid of human warmth. In short, a clinical psychopath.So you can imagine how I felt today when
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Slow Death of Ashley Smith
It is without a doubt one of the worst things I have ever seen. The slow death of Ashley Smith.While her guards watched.Read that and weep.Or watch the video here.If you can bear it.Read more »
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Guidelines for media reporting of suicide need reconsideration – Picard, Goldbloom
If the audience was expecting a debate, they may have left disappointed. Globe and Mail reporter Andre Picard and Dr. David Goldbloom, Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, spoke about the media’s portrayal of mental health during a Longwood’s … Continue reading →
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Ashley Smith and the Cruelty of the Cons
I think this image will haunt me forever.The image of a bound, hooded, 18-year-old Ashley Smith being duct taped into a seat on a plane.Like she was some kind of dangerous terrorist on her way to Guantanamo.When she was just a poor mentally ill teenager on her way to one
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Nation Chock Full of Crazy People
Looking at the United States today or at least the Tea Party half of it is like sneaking into an old-time carnival Freak Show. There is a big chunk of the American population seriously detached from reality and some of those actually ran for the Republican presidential nomination – you
Continue readingknitnut.net: The lowdown on substance use
Last night I attended a free session at our local mental health facility. It was called Getting the Low Down on Substance Use, and was presented by Michael Coughlin, a registered nurse with the Royal’s Substance Use and Concurrent Disorders program. I was interested because I have a young friend
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Think You’re Creative? No, You’re Just Sick
I’m not sure this will come as a surprise but there’s a link between creativity and mental illness. It’s no coincidence that so many great comedians, for example, are or have been manic-depressives. Now a study of more than a million subjects finds that creativity is often an actual part
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Beating the Doggie Called Depression
I went for a walk the other day through the leafy lanes of The Shire, with a friend of mine who has suffered from severe depression from about this time last year.It was such a beautiful fall day. He was so happy, at having made so much progress on the
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: There are at least a few, if not many, important people with whom I need to have my own conversation about…
…this! It’s certainly not too early to think about Mental Illness Awareness Week When I read the Ottawa Citizen article (linked above) I immediately thought, “Mom will have read that yesterday,” and what an opening it would give me to discuss my own mental health history with her. Not long
Continue readingknitnut.net: Ottawa Citizen outs mentally ill man
On Saturday the Ottawa Citizen ran a story called Pleas to help mentally ill son ignored, mother says. It was in Hugh Adami’s column, The Public Citizen. Complete with names and a photograph, this article provides detailed personal information about a 22-year-old man who lives in Ottawa’s shelter system. The
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Making James Holmes innocent: The lengths we go to to explain White killers
(Written Jun 23, 2012 and reposted on this blog). This graphic has been circulating around the internet about how James Holmes, the killer in the recent Aurora, Colorado shooting, benefits from his Whiteness. (Image credit: Kim Katrin Crosby) Left side of graphic: I massacred innocent men, women and children in a
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Police Execution of Paul Boyd
I think this is the most disturbing video I've ever seen. Paul Boyd, a mentally ill man in Vancouver crawls towards police after being shot seven times. And is finished off with a shot to the head.Read more »
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