Schizophrenia Discussion Board Forum [2008]

Surveillance and Spying [DRAFT]

by Simon & Oscar

It was a quiet New Year's Day, alone without the kids. My ex-wife and the kids are visiting my ex-wife's parents, even though she does not really wanted to go.

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Simon

DEAR OLD DAD WANTS TO TELL SON NOT TO MARRY THIS GIRL DEAR ABBY: I have been faithfully married for more than 20 years. My wife and I are known as the "cute couple" who still hold hands in public, take time to play together, and never say a negative word about each other in public. My son, who has just turned 19, wants to marry somebody "just like Mom," whom he views as the world's greatest wife and mother. He's making good on this and has begun getting serious with a young woman who is much like his mother in many crucial ways. At this point, how do I tell my son that the biggest mistake of my life was marrying his mother, and his future happiness depends on getting away from this girl before it's too late? The girl he is dating shows the same severe anxiety disorders as my wife, and manipulates him through learned helplessness and (presumably) the same psychosomatic chronic illnesses. She displays the severe mood swings that have made my wife completely ineffectual as a mother and companion. My wife's disorders completely dominate our lives, as she refuses any therapy. I have had no choice but to surrender and make do, abandoning a wonderful career -- Ph.D. from a top business school, lots of international travel and high ambitions -- to live in squalor and relative poverty, hating my life and longing for the freedom that will come from one or the other of us passing on. I have done a good job of hiding my agony from my wife and children, accepting that which I cannot change, and I have been careful to be as supportive as possible and never undercut her position in her eyes or the kids'. My son shows the same potential that I once had. How do I help him not ruin his life as I have ruined mine? -- MISERABLE IN THE NORTHEAST DEAR MISERABLE: First, remind your son that marriage should be postponed until he completes his education. Then realize that although you want to help him avoid the disappointment and frustration that you have experienced, you may not be able to save him after keeping him blindfolded all these years. A giant step in the right direction would be to sit him down and tell him exactly what you have told me. And when you do, point out that because you did not confront the problem and insist that your wife get treatment for her emotional problems, you became her enabler, because in addition to her illness, your failure to intervene is what ruined your marriage.

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Simon

The identity of this frightful scourge? Depression It's the world's leading cause of disability. By 2020, according to the World Health Organization, it will be second only to heart disease as a cause of 'disease burden' -- years lost through death or lived with disability. It's exacting a terrible, but still largely hidden, toll. Don Butler reports. Don Butler, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008 According to a 2002 WHO estimate, depression afflicts 154 million people worldwide. At any given time, five per cent of workers in Canada are clinically depressed. About 16 per cent of Canadians and Americans will suffer depression in their lifetime. Half of them will be severely disabled by it. In a recent Ipsos Reid survey, one in six Canadian workers reported having been diagnosed with clinical depression at some point in their life. A further one in 12 believed they have undiagnosed depression. While depression and other mental disorders are most prevalent in developed nations, they are the leading cause of years lived with disability everywhere except sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 10 leading causes of disability worldwide, five are psychiatric conditions, led by depression. "It's the problem today in terms of human health, no question," says Bill Wilkerson, CEO of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health. Mental disorders are the fastest-rising source of workplace disability, says David Goldbloom, vice-chairman of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. The WHO projects their share of the total global disease burden will rise to 15 per cent by 2020, an increase of almost 50 per cent from 1990. Much of that is being driven by rising rates of depression. "All the evidence suggests that it's gradually getting worse," says Larry Myette, an expert on mental health and the workplace in British Columbia. It's less clear why. "Depression is clearly an illness of the times in which we live," says Mr. Wilkerson, who believes depression's rise as a large-scale public health issue "has to do with brain response to social pressure. "It's clear more than it has ever been before that the sources of this illness rest in the social environment we live in and brain response to that environment." Depression is occurring at earlier ages than before, says Dr. Myette. People are now being diagnosed with depression as adolescents, and the average age for diagnosis is in the mid-20s. Half of those who experience depression suffer their first episode by age 14, and 75 per cent by age 24. "This is one of the chronic diseases of young people," says Tom Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S. "To not address it means that we put our youngest members of society in considerable jeopardy." It's also a disease of women, who suffer depression at twice the rate of men. In the federal public service, women now file two-thirds of all disability claims, though they make up just 54 per cent of the work force. Female-dominated professions, such as health care, are hit especially hard. A 2005 survey found that nine per cent of nurses had experienced depression in the previous 12 months, double the national average. Contrary to popular myth, people who suffer from depression are not malingerers who just need to "snap out of it," experts say. "There's simply no doubt that illnesses like depression are real illnesses," says Dr. Insel. "They're brain illnesses." Indeed, recent evidence from imaging studies has shown that, when people have mental illnesses such as severe depression, bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, brain tissue actually shrinks. It's not yet known whether the brain shrinkage causes the disorders or is a result of them. But the discovery, made only in the past few years and not yet widely known, underscores the need for early treatment. "Once people know that this is causing destruction of your brain," says Sam Ozersky, a Toronto psychiatrist, "people are going to starting waking up and saying this is a medical emergency to treat." At its most extreme, depression can tip people into suicide. Every year, nearly 4,000 people in Canada kill themselves -- six times as many as die in homicides. Worldwide, more than 800,000 people a year commit suicide. "This is a disease that kills," says Dr. Insel. That's all the more tragic, he says, because there are effective ways to treat depression. "The real crime here is that we haven't been able to use them often enough or get them to the people early enough." There's ample evidence that depression co-occurs with other chronic illnesses, compounding -- perhaps even triggering -- such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, liver disease and stomach problems. Depression among patients recovering from heart attacks, for example, increases the likelihood of a second fatal attack by 500 per cent. Depression has no single trigger. In fact, researchers have identified 18 factors that can contribute to it, says Dr. Myette. People whose parents had a major depression are three times more likely to develop the illness, for instance. Emotional trauma as a child increases depression risk in adulthood. "It's like a Rubik's cube," Dr. Myette says. "It's a whole bunch of different factors that have to come together to lead to depression in pre-disposed people." Though relatively few respondents in the Ipsos Reid survey named the workplace as the trigger for their depression, Dr. Myette says there's "pretty solid evidence" to the contrary. "I don't really doubt that the workplace is a significant variable." But while a bad workplace can cause depression, a supportive one can buffer life stresses that might otherwise be overwhelming, he says. In addition to the human suffering involved, all this imposes a tremendous economic burden. Mr. Wilkerson estimates that depression and other mental illnesses cost Canada $35 billion a year in treatment costs and lost productivity. Depression alone costs Canada and the United States $52 billion in lost productivity, says Dr. Goldbloom. One third of people on long- or short-term disability are off because of a mental illness. But because they tend to be off longer than those with other conditions, they represent 70 per cent of total disability costs. Nearly half of all disability claims filed by federal public servants now cite depression or anxiety. At Canada Post, where depression or anxiety account for 37 per cent of disability claims, mental health problems cost the Crown corporation $300 million a year, according to president and CEO Moya Greene. Even those figures understate the problem, says Dr. Goldbloom, because most people with depression stay on the job. "They most commonly try to work through their illness, not knowing what they're dealing with." As a result, downtime on the job -- known as presenteeism -- costs businesses three times as much as absenteeism, Dr. Goldbloom says. Governments and business have been slow to respond. Canada is the only G8 country without a national mental health strategy. And John Mayberry, former CEO of Dofasco, says mental health issues rarely came up in his discussions with top executives from other companies. That's starting to change. In August, the Harper government created the Mental Health Commission, with former senator Michael Kirby at its head. Its priorities include developing a national mental health strategy, launching an anti-stigma campaign and building a web-based national knowledge exchange centre on mental health. Business is also beginning to respond. Canada Post is developing strategies to improve workplace mental health after its 72,000 employees picked it as their cause of choice. "This is a very, very big issue for us," says Ms. Greene, "but I don't think we are that different from some of the largest employers across Canada." Mr. Wilkerson's roundtable has organized a series of North American forums on mental health and productivity for business leaders. He's heartened by the response. "There's nothing like this going on anywhere else in the world." By the time the forums conclude next fall, Mr. Wilkerson hopes to launch the Brain Trust, a $1-billion alliance of business and science organizations that will fund mental health research, including the search for the holy grail -- a cure for mental illness. Companies, he says, are getting the message. And they're seeing results. When Chrysler improved psychiatric health and benefit programs for its U.S. employees, the number of admissions to psychiatric hospitals dropped by 12 per cent in a matter of months. Magna International Inc. has reduced absence due to mental health problems by 70 per cent over six years. Early intervention is key. One Canadian study of 63,000 bank employees found the average absence due to depression was 90 days. Taking an anti-depressant for just one month reduced that by between 12 and 34 days, translating into employer savings of $1,700 to $5,000 per episode. A study published last fall by Harvard's Ron Kessler found that a well-designed depression management program helps workers who remain on the job. Those who received the enhanced care averaged three more productive hours of work per week than those who didn't. The message, says Dr. Myette, is clear. "There's a real reason for employers to invest in improving the management of these disorders." - - - Mental illness by the numbers Chances of having a mental illness in your lifetime: 1 in 5 Canadians with a mental illness at any given time: 10.4 per cent With diabetes: 4.8 per cent With cancer: 2.5 per cent Canadians who experience major depression in their lifetime: 8 per cent Who experience an anxiety disorder: 12 per cent Number worldwide who suffer from depression: 154 million Number in Canada: 3 million Depressed people who respond well to treatment: 80 per cent Likelihood of people who are depressed suffering a heart attack: 4 times more likely Number of suicides annually in Canada: About 4,000 Worldwide: 877,000 Suicides who have a diagnosable mental illness: 90 per cent Age group with the highest rate of depression symptoms: Under 20 With the highest rate of anxiety symptoms: 20 to 29 Leading cause of years lived with disability, worldwide: Depression Likelihood of women experiencing depression: Twice that of men Short-term disability claims in Canada related to mental illness: 75 per cent Long-term disability claims: 79 per cent Fastest growing category of disability costs to Canadian employers: Depression Annual cost of supporting someone with serious mental illness in hospital: $170,820 In the community: $34,418 Annual losses to the Canadian economy due to mental illness in the workplace: $14.4 billion Due to substance abuse in the workplace: $18.6 billion Source: The Mood Disorders Society of Canada and the World Health Organization © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

On the road to better How the web is helping to reduce the devastating effects of untreated depression The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008 Sam Ozersky's voice still rings with incredulity when he talks about the American study that changed his thinking about treating patients with mood disorders. The 1996 study compared two groups of 300 people being treated for depression by their family doctors. Doctors with one group were given a short depression treatment program that included counselling to improve medication adherence and behavioural treatment to increase the use of coping strategies. Doctors gave the other group the standard care they normally would prescribe. The results were nothing short of miraculous. After seven months, 70 per cent of the group receiving the enhanced care had recovered, compared to just 20 per cent of those who got the usual care. "This is unbelievable!" exclaims Dr. Ozersky, an expert in occupational psychiatry and senior consultant at the Toronto Hospital Mood Disorders Clinic. "In no field of medicine can you get that kind of variance." The study convincingly demonstrated the benefits that accrue when patients and their family physicians -- who provide up to 90 per cent of mental health care -- are armed with and faithfully follow the best evidence-based treatments. The findings helped inspire Dr. Ozersky and other leading mental health experts to form Mensante Corp. and develop FeelingBetterNow.com, a website that diagnoses and recommends treatment of nine major mental disorders, from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder. The site was launched in January 2006. After users fill out a detailed online survey, the FeelingBetterNow site determines whether they are at risk of a mental disorder. If the answer is yes, it generates a "care map" listing best-practice treatment options and a "follow-up map" that tracks patients' progress every three weeks. Family doctors use the maps to prescribe treatments. Mensante's program is the first of its kind in the world. Like the Canadarm, it has great potential for use beyond our borders, says Dr. Ozersky, Mensante's president. "It's sort of like the robotic arm for getting your head straight," he says. It's also very much in sync with one of the major trends reshaping the health care world today -- e-health. In North America, 80 million people belong to web-based illness support groups. According to Statistics Canada, 35 per cent of Canadians 18 and over searched the Internet for medical or health-related information in 2005. Check Up from the Neck Up, an online mental health diagnostic site created by the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario and several partners, had more than two million hits in six months. Last May, Forrester Research reported that nearly one quarter of behavioural health patients use online services for their health problems. Of those, 62 per cent go online daily. Those with mental disorders spend more time online researching and using health sites than patients with other conditions. Internet giants Google and Microsoft are actively developing strategies to combine their online expertise with computerized personal health records. And North American drug manufacturers now spend $1 billion a year on targeted online advertising, a number that's expected to double by 2011. "This is a major shift that's happening in health care in general," says Dr. Ozersky. "People are now going to the web for everything." FeelingBetterNow has been endorsed by the Canadian College of Family Physicians. The Ontario Medical Association plans to offer it to its 17,000 doctors for their personal health use. Some of North America's leading psychiatric experts sit on Mensante's advisory board, including Sidney Kennedy, psychiatrist-in-chief at Toronto's University Health Network; Sagar Parikh, director of continuing mental health education at the University of Toronto; Mark Pollack, director of the Anxiety Disorders Program at Massachusetts General Hospital; Zindel Segal, head of the cognitive behavioural therapy unit at Toronto's Clark Institute of Psychiatry; and Bruce Swinson, chair of psychiatry at McMaster University. "These are the top people in the U.S. and Canada," notes Bill Wilkerson, CEO of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health. FeelingBetterNow, he says, "can be a real breakthrough in improving quality of care in the primary system." Several major corporate clients have already signed on, including Dofasco, the TD Bank and Healthcare Benefits Trust, which delivers health programs to 80,000 health care workers in British Columbia and the Yukon. In a Trust pilot project that ended in October, about one quarter of the 3,000 participants tried the program. "The testimonials were amazing," says Jan Mitchell, program manager for prevention and health promotion. "Obviously, people out there saw value in it." Larry Myette, Healthcare Benefit Trust's director of strategic workplace health, says FeelingBetterNow makes patients participants in their own care. "It's kind of an education tool for physicians as well," he adds. While employee assistance programs (EAPs) are the most common way of addressing mental health problems in the workplace, most don't offer sufficient coverage to provide proper treatment. And some employees shy away from EAPs because they fear they aren't sufficiently confidential. By the time former Dofasco CEO John Mayberry used to hear about employees with mental health problems, they had degenerated into severe disciplinary cases, he says. "People were saying, 'We want to dismiss these people.' You start digging into it, and they've got some health problems. You don't dismiss unhealthy people." FeelingBetterNow offers troubled employees a simple and anonymous way to get help. "I think it's a hell of a tool," says Mr. Mayberry, who has since joined Mensante's business advisory board. But Sam Ozersky is nothing if not a big thinker. While convincing companies to offer FeelingBetterNow to their employees is a good first step, his goal is to roll it out to all Canadians as part of the primary health care system, something he says governments could do for less than a dollar a head annually. A couple of months ago, he met with senior officials from Health Minister Tony Clements' office, who encouraged him to pitch FeelingBetterNow to the new Mental Health Commission of Canada and to Health Infoway, a national body of deputy ministers of health whose mandate is to accelerate the use of electronic health information systems. Given the staggering scope of mental health problems in Canada, there's a strong case for making something like FeelingBetterNow widely available. "This is the real front line," says Dr. Ozersky. "We've got enough anti-depressants. We've got enough psychotherapists. What we need is effective deployment to the people who need it." There's no shortage of proven treatments for mental disorders, including cognitive behavioural therapy and drugs such as Paxil, Zoloft and Prozac. When followed properly, such therapies are effective about 80 per cent of the time. But too many people with mental disorders don't get the right -- or even any -- treatment. About one in five Canadians will have a mental disorder, most commonly depression, anxiety or substance abuse, during their lifetime. Only half, at best, will be accurately diagnosed, and perhaps one in four of those will receive optimal treatment. Stigma, in particular, remains a huge barrier. Those who live with mental illness and their families say stigma is often more difficult to bear than the disease itself, according to a 2006 background paper by the Mood Disorders Society of Canada. "Shame and secrecy lead people to conceal or deny distress, to the point that they do not ask for help and end up with more chronic forms of illness," says the paper, which estimates that two-thirds of people with diagnosable mental illness do not seek treatment. Cost is another barrier; 15 sessions with a psychotherapist at $150 a session is more than many people can afford. Then there's time. Most family doctors can spend only 10 or 15 minutes with a patient, and often can't gather enough information to properly diagnose mental disorders. "When people do seek help," says Dr. Myette, "70 per cent of the time they go with physical symptoms. Quite often the physicians treat those and don't detect the underlying disorder." For a group of illnesses that affect so many people, notes Dr. Ozersky, "we have the most impoverished form of treatment and health care delivery." That's why a tool like FeelingBetterNow has so much potential. Because it is completely anonymous, stigma is not an issue. And the program addresses the doctor's time squeeze by doing the diagnostic work and providing proven and credible treatment options. "It adds significantly to efficiency because the data are sitting there on a sheet right in front of you," says Elliot Halparin, former head of the Ontario Medical Association and a Mensante clinical advisers. Psychiatry in particular lends itself to the kind of anonymous questionnaire that FeelingBetterNow employs, Dr. Halparin says. One of his patients has already come to him with data from the site, he says. "I found it worked very well." The site can help with another huge problem: patient compliance. Patients often go off their medication as soon as they start feeling better, which can take as little as a month. But patients with clinical depression should stay on medication for a year after their first episode, two years after the second and for life after their third, Dr. Ozersky says. Those who stop their meds after a month have a 75-per-cent chance of relapsing. Next month, Mensante will deploy a computerized cognitive behavioural therapy program within FeelingBetterNow that will allow users to self-manage the destructive thought patterns that lie at the root of many mental disorders. Remarkably, recent studies show such online therapies are just as effective in dealing with depression or anxiety disorders as cognitive behaviour therapy with a trained professional. A recent British study found online cognitive behavioural therapy can cut British health-care waiting times for anxiety and depression treatment by as much as 25 per cent. A primary care trust group in Britain will test FeelingBetterNow with its patients early this year. If successful, that could lead to wider deployment by Britain's public health system. "We'll probably be up and running in British primary care before we are in Canada," says Dr. Ozersky ruefully. Still, he's optimistic FeelingBetterNow will be widely available in Canada at some point. The federal government could take the lead by deploying it to the scattered and hard-to-serve populations that fall within its health-care jurisdiction, such as the Armed Forces, the RCMP and First Nations. "If they don't do that," he says, "you really have to wonder if there is a significant interest in doing something about the devastation that everyone sees." - - - Online: resources Access to FeelingBetterNow.com's diagnostic and treatment tools is restricted to those who work for companies that include it in their employee benefits package. But anyone can access its self-diagnostic information about eight mood disorders. Here are some other web resources on mental health: checkupfromtheneckup.ca -- Self-diagnosis for mood disorders camh.net -- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health cmha.ca -- Canadian Mental Health Association mooddisorderscanada.ca -- The Mood Disorders Society of Canadandmda.org -- National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association (U.S.) nmha.org -- National Mental Health Association (U.S.) At ottawacitizen.com read Heather Hennigar's blog Storm Clouds in which she tells about her personal battle with mental illnes. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Lawyers request psychiatric evaluation on accused Benge, 22, suffers from bipolar disease, counsel confirms Paula McCooey and Geoff Nixon, with files from Laura Drake, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008 Lawyers for the man charged with killing his 59-year-old father on Monday requested he be assessed by an independent psychiatrist. Elliot Benge, 22, was charged by Ottawa police late Tuesday afternoon after police found the body of Pierre Benge inside the family's townhouse at 86 Somero Private the day before. Police said it appears Pierre Benge died after a chair was held against his throat. His death was the city's first homicide of the year. Prior to the Mr. Benge's death, police had responded to approximately 20 calls at the family's home in the past nine years, most of them related to issues under the Mental Health Act or family disputes. Police said many of the calls were in connection with Elliot Benge, described by police as having schizophrenia and frequently off his medication. Mr. Benge appeared briefly in court yesterday, wearing a blue prison-issue jumpsuit. His lawyer, Felix Weekes, leaned over the prisioner's dock to explain to Mr. Benge what was happening, while co-counsel Doug Baum spoke to the judge. Mr. Baum requested an adjournment until Monday at 9:30 a.m. Mr. Benge's two sisters, one his twin, sat at the front of the courtroom, trying to catch his attention. They waved to him, and he waved back with a blank stare, prompting them to break down in tears. After his appearance, the woman declined to speak to the media. Before his appearance, the courthouse doctor met with him for a preliminary psychiatric assessment. He was expected to be transferred to the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. The Crown suggested he undergo a more in-depth analysis by a court-appointed doctor that would take five days. However, his defence lawyers requested an adjournment so they could secure their own independent doctors to meet with Mr. Benge. His lawyers confirmed that he has a history of mental illness, which they say includes bipolar disease. "The family is very distressed over this incident," Mr. Baum said outside court. Since Mr. Benge will not be assessed right away, he will spend the weekend at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre until his Monday appearance. "There is an infirmary there and he will properly be taken care of until he returns to court on Monday," said Mr. Baum. Little is known about Mr. Benge's day-to-day life prior to Monday's events, other than what has been revealed in court. His name is listed in the University of Ottawa's online student directory as being registered in a social sciences degree program, but it is unclear whether he is currently enrolled at the school. University of Ottawa spokeswoman Nadine Saint-Amour said only that the University of Ottawa student directory contained the names of "current students." She declined to comment on the charges surrounding Mr. Benge and the death of his father, citing privacy rules in place at the school. Prior to his time at the University of Ottawa, Mr. Benge attended Hillcrest High School at 1900 Dauphin Rd. Two of Mr. Benge's high school friends contacted by the Citizen said they had not seen signs leading them to suspect he would be capable of killing. Melanie Lafleur said in an e-mail that "she was friends throughout high school" with Mr. Benge, but had lost touch with him in recent years. "None of us would have ever fathomed something of this magnitude to transpire." Ms. Lafleur also said "this tragic event should stand as a clear indication that he needs help, and I can only hope that the criminal justice system will recognize this." Travis Dougan, who played on the junior boys basketball team with Mr. Benge, said in an e-mail that he was "still shocked by the whole thing" several hours after he had learned what happened. At St-Thomas-D'Aquin Cath-olic Church on Kilborn Avenue, where Pierre Benge was an active member of the congregation, members of his family have begun planning his funeral. Msgr. Gérard St-Denis said yesterday the funeral will be held tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica of Ottawa on 56 Guigues Ave. near Sussex Drive. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Schizophrenics rarely violent: experts Health professionals warn sufferers must receive adequate support, treatment Jessey Bird, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008 While it is rare for a person with schizophrenia to commit a violent crime, area health professionals say it is important that people with the illness receive adequate support and treatment to prevent such a thing from happening. Attention was brought to the condition after an Ottawa man, Pierre Benge, 59, was found strangled in his Greenboro home this week and his son, Elliot, 22, described by police as schizophrenic, has been charged with second-degree murder. He appeared in Ottawa court yesterday. But Chris Summerville, interim CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, is warning the public not to stereotype people who have the disease. "It is an absolute myth that people with schizophrenia are violent and if they don't take their medication, they are going to become violent," Mr. Summerville said. "About 99 per cent of violent crimes are committed by people who don't have a diagnosable mental illness," he added. Violence is more likely to occur among those who have severe forms of the illness, are not taking their medication, are using drugs and alcohol, and have a history of volatile behaviour, said Mr. Summerville. "Most people struggle with the side effects of the medication and that is one reason why they do not take it," he said. "There are potentially significant side effects like weight gain, not being able to sleep, interference with sexual function (and) feeling lethargic." While rare, this isn't the first time an Ottawa resident with schizophrenia has been charged with murder. On March 13, 2005, then-30-year-old Daniel Maxheleau was charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing deaths of his mother, father and sister. He was eventually found not criminally responsible for their deaths because of his mental illness. People who have the illness can have a diverse range of symptoms, including delusions, aggression, social withdrawal, blunting of emotion, lack of motivation, depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies, said Dr. Alain Labelle, the clinical director of the schizophrenia program at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. He said medication can usually assist with controlling many symptoms. He, too, said the risk of this type of violence is very rare. "When people are treated, the risk is similar to everyone else," said Dr. Labelle. Some of the programs the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre provides are a treatment resistance clinic, young adult program, a 30-bed inpatient unit and an outpatient clinic serving about 1,300 people. After being referred to the centre, there is a wait time of three to four months, said Dr. Labelle. Providing adequate levels of treatment is often very difficult, said Sheila Deighton, regional co-ordinator for the Ottawa chapter of the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario. "Because of the nature of schizophrenia, part of the illness can affect the person's ability to understand that he or she is ill," said Ms. Deighton. "Even if they are taking anti-psychotic medication, they won't always go out and engage in programs." "It is a complex illness," said Ms. Deighton. "But one of the things we have to remember is that at the core of this is a person -- a person who has a family, hopes and dreams, and we can't forget that." About one out of every 100 Canadians has some form of schizophrenia. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

I attended a conference "La psychose - Comprendre pour mieux soutenir le rétablissement" at le Centre hospitalier Pierre-Janet Wednesday evening. It reminded me once again that my ex-wife's symptoms exactly match the definition of psychosis.

My 18-year old son had failed 2 attempts for a driver's licence. My ex-wife thinks that the "surveillance people" are responsible for her son's 2 failures, according to my 14-year old daughter. My son finally succeeded in passing the exam 2008-02-11.

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Simon

To pay the divorce settlement of $76 000 CAD to my ex-wife, I offered her a direct transfer from my RRSP account to her RRSP account via Canada Revenue Agency's form T2220, plus 30 % premium. She refused my offer, and insisted on receiving a cheque. So, I have to mortgage the house at the same time as changing the title, but it was talking a long time. I went to the bank 2 times for appointments, and the notary's office informed me that it would cost me as much as $1 500 CAD.

In the mean time, my ex-wife was pushing me, which made me sad and depressed. I understand how Paul McCartney feels about his divorce from Heather Mills.

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Simon

Arenburg lawyer ponders insanity defence 'Review board made a mistake,' widow says Lee Greenberg, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Friday, February 08, 2008 TORONTO - Jeffrey Arenburg, the paranoid schizophrenic man who killed an Ottawa sportscaster to banish voices from his head, may have relapsed when he punched a U.S. border guard in the face, his lawyer says. Attorney David Jay yesterday painted Mr. Arenburg as a disturbed individual and said his client might plead insane if indicted on federal charges for allegedly punching a U.S. border guard in November. "He's a very troubled man, very troubled," Mr. Jay said in a telephone interview from his Buffalo, New York, office. "He's got this horrible history and he's coping with it every day as best he can. Sometimes it gets the better of him, I think." Federal prosecutors have said in court they believe Mr. Arenburg was off his medication when the alleged assault occurred. However, when asked why he was upset with the border agent during a jailhouse interview in December, Mr. Arenburg insisted the confrontation was not prompted by "voices." "It's got nothing to do with hearing voices in my head or nothing," Mr. Arenburg said. Ontario authorities granted Mr. Arenburg an absolute discharge from psychiatric custody in November 2006, more than a decade after he gunned down CJOH sportscaster Brian Smith in the parking lot of the TV station on Aug. 1, 1995. The shooting capped a string of violent outbursts by Mr. Arenburg over a number of years -- all attempts to silence what the former scallop fisherman said were voices broadcast into his head. He was found not criminally responsible for the shooting and was sent to a provincial psychiatric facility in Penetanguishene. He was released into the community in 2003 and granted increased freedom until his discharge in 2006. At the time of his release, the Ontario Review Board said he appeared in "complete remission" from the hallucinations and delusions that characterized his disorder, thanks largely to the anti-psychotic medication Olanzapine. The board unanimously agreed the former killer no longer posed a significant threat to public safety. But his U.S. lawyer says this latest episode, which came just more than a year after his full release, tells a different story. Mr. Jay says he saw a video of the attack on border guard Jason Hart, who, having recognized Mr. Arenburg from a previous attempt to cross earlier that month, had pulled him aside for questioning. "It was like right out of the blue," says Mr. Jay, who describes the punch as "a poke." "It's just inexplicable. So perhaps it might have been part of a psychiatric problem he was having at that point, I don't know. That's why we're going to get a physician, a psychiatrist, to take a look at him and see whether or not there may have been something in play at that point. We know he has a history of this problem, acting out." Mr. Smith's widow sees this latest development as proof that the system failed. "If that's how he pleads (insane) it tells me that the review board made a mistake," Alana Kainz said yesterday. "He is indeed still mentally ill. On medication or not, he's a huge threat to society. It was premature to allow him out condition-free." Ms. Kainz believes Ontario's treatment of the criminally insane favours leniency for patients over concern for the community. Indeed, at the time of his release, one test found Mr. Arenburg had a 24-per-cent chance of committing another violent offence within 10 years of release. His treatment team also noted he had difficulty finding a job and worried those frustrations would lead to depression. Overall, however, they expressed confidence in Mr. Arenburg's insight into his condition and his understanding of the importance of the anti-psychotic medication that was pivotal to his recovery. "There are no concerns about Mr. Arenburg's medication compliance," a psychiatrist stated in the 2006 report. Under cross-examination, the same doctor acknowledged that without medication, it would only be "weeks to months" before he began a serious descent into psychosis. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Buzz could be boon for Donnelly owners Katie Daubs, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, February 09, 2008 With John Donnelly's creations turning up in every corner of the city, an art appraiser said there's a chance the value could increase. Earlier this week, a mystery painting by an artist named "Donnelly" appeared in the pages of the Citizen when a Vancouver man sought the public's help in trying to find its owner. On Thursday, the children of John Donnelly and many others who had his very distinct art on their walls contacted the Citizen to share their stories. Andrew Gibbs of Heffel Fine Art said if an artist receives notoriety, there's the possibility for people to start collecting. "If a huge body of work turns up, that's how the ball gets rolling," Mr. Gibbs said. John Donnelly's name is listed in a database that the National Gallery of Canada maintains, but his name is not in any auction records. Mr. Gibbs said it's hard to estimate how much one of his paintings would be worth. "Before this, the value was probably very little in terms of collectors around Canada," he said. "It may well be if that since the piece received attention, someone might say, 'I know Donnelly' and pay hundreds rather than tens." He said he doesn't think it could reach the thousands -- but admits he's been wrong in the past. Several years before he died in 1979, Mr. Donnelly was diagnosed with mild schizophrenia. Mr. Gibbs said Mr. Donnelly is one of many artists whose private troubles influenced his art in a positive way, and elevated it beyond the commercial. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, other artists who experienced mental illness include Vincent Van Gogh, who had bipolar disorder, and Michelangelo, who had depression. Sheila Deighton, the Ottawa regional co-ordinator for the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario, said it's important to note that people with mental illness are people -- and not their disease. "There is a tendency to try and link mental illness to people who are creative," she said. "I think the rate of creativity is probably the same as the general population." She added that with more effective treatment and support services, people who have serious episodes of psychosis are able to get back to work -- where in the past, it was more difficult. She said one in five Canadians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime. One in a hundred will experience schizophrenia. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

I attended a wine-and-cheese session to launch the "Guide d'information et d'accompagnement destiné aux familles et aux proches" at le Centre hospitalier Pierre-Janet Wednesday evening. I had a chance to share my sad story with le Centre hospitalier Pierre-Janet's Director of Human Resources.

Previously, my ex-wife was thinking that some of my 18-year old son's friends and their parents were spying on her. My 14-year old daughter reported this week that things are getting worse, and that my ex-wife now thinks that my 17-year old daughter's friends are also spying on her.

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Simon

Finding the cure for genius The Daily Telegraph Published: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 As medicine hones in on the genetic causes -- and potential cures -- for mental illness, do we risk destroying the very force behind some of humanity's greatest thinkers, asks neuroscientist Colin Blakemore. LONDON - Isaac Newton was able to work without a break for three days. Einstein took a job in a patent office because he was too disruptive to work in a university. H.G. Wells was so gawky and insecure at school that he had only one friend. Are these psychiatric disorders that should be treated, or genius that should be cherished? In a new book, Genius Genes, Irish psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald argues that special forms of creativity are associated with a variety of cognitive disorders. He focuses on Asperger's syndrome (a relatively mild form of autism), which Dr. Fitzgerald sees in such curious characters as Newton and George Orwell. He also links Kurt Cobain's Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD (for which he was prescribed Ritalin), to his musical creativity. Last week, at a Royal College of Psychiatrists conference, Dr. Fitzgerald described how Charles de Gaulle's Asperger's syndrome was critical to his success as a politician. De Gaulle saw himself as representing his country. He was aloof, had a phenomenal memory, lacked empathy with other people, and was extremely controlling and dominating. He also showed signs of autistic repetitiveness and was similar in many respects to other politicians Dr. Fitzgerald argues also had Asperger's, including American president Thomas Jefferson. The increasing power of genetic analysis is now invading the most private parts of humanity -- not just the functions of our bodies and the origins of straightforward inherited diseases, but also complex characteristics that cannot be attributed to individual genes. Many disorders of emotion or thought -- not only schizophrenia and depression, but also more subtle conditions such as autism, Asperger's, ADHD and dyslexia -- tend to run in families. But none of these conditions has yet been linked to an individual genetic mutation. Some argue that they are not genetic diseases at all; others that different genetic mutations, or combinations of mutations, might lead to such conditions. Yet others say that they depend on an interplay of personal experiences and genetics. Avshalom Caspi and his colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry in London recently explained why certain stressful episodes in life tip some people into depression, but not others. The difference in resilience depends on variations in a specific gene. The correlation between creativity and mental illness is a persistent theme in psychiatry, analysed most eloquently by Kay Jamison, an eminent clinical psychologist at Johns Hopkins University, and herself a manic depressive, in her book Touched With Fire. The oddness of many great writers is well documented and a surprisingly high proportion of poets, in particular, had symptoms that indicate manic depression. If we do manage to identify genes linked to manic depression, autism and schizophrenia, and confirm that they are correlated with creativity, what could it mean? There is a thought-provoking parallel in a physical disease, sickle-cell anemia. The Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling discovered in 1949 that the defective gene responsible for this condition produces hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body. This was the first genetic disease to be linked to a particular faulty protein. Sickle-cell anemia is a debilitating and often lethal condition that is common in West Africa. Many African languages have strange names for it -- Chwecheechwe, Nuidudu, Nwiiwii -- the repeated syllables mirroring the episodes of terrible pain that characterize the disorder. Yet why hasn't it been bred out by Darwinian natural selection? The answer is that people with the sickle gene are protected against malaria -- a textbook example of a disease gene that survives because it conveys some associated advantage. Unlike for sickle-cell disease, we have no certain knowledge of the genes involved in cognitive disorders, nor of the resulting changes in the brain, which might produce both odd symptoms and that special creative ability. However, this speculation raises an important general issue. As both our knowledge of human genetics and our ability to modify genetic function advance, we shall have to face up to the question of what constitutes normality and what defines a disease. The richness of humanity and the power of our culture are, in no small way, attributable to the diversity of our minds. Do we want a world in which the creativity linked to the oddness at the fringes of normality is medicated away? COLIN BLAKEMORE is Professor of Neuroscience at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Insane discovery: genetic switches ANNE MCILROY Globe and Mail Update March 11, 2008 at 8:50 PM EDT A second genetic code that turns our genes on and off works differently in people who suffer from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Canadian researchers have discovered. The finding helps explain a mystery that has puzzled psychiatrists for 50 years. Why, when one identical twin has schizophrenia, does the other have only a 40- to 60-per-cent chance of developing the severe mental illness? One theory - from the emerging field of epigenetics - is that while their genes are virtually identical, the switches that control them are different. The result is too little or too much of the proteins that make up the brain and keep it running. Now Arturas Petronis, senior scientist at the Krembil Family Epigenetic Laboratory at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, has found there is a distinctive pattern in the on-off switches controlling roughly 40 different genes in the brains of psychiatric patients suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The work, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, lays the groundwork for a new way of understanding psychiatric illnesses. One day it could lead to new ways to treat or diagnose severe mental illnesses. "Traditionally, when we talk about human diseases, we talk about two groups of factors, genetic factors and environmental factors. Now we are bringing in a third layer, which will be equally important if not more important than DNA sequences and environment," Dr. Petronis said. He is a pioneer in the field of human epigenetics, the study of genetic changes that don't involve mutations in DNA. If DNA is the hardware of inheritance, the epigenetic operating system is the software, controlling the 30,000 genes that carry instructions for the proteins that make up our bodies and keep them working. Scientists are still deciphering what they describe as a second genetic code. They know that a number of chemicals in our bodies act like dimming switches and determine whether every gene in each cell produces a lot of a particular protein, very little or none of it. In laboratories around the world, researchers are looking at the different ways these dimming switches work. The process they perhaps understand the best is called methylation, in which chemical tags are added to the DNA in a way that silences, or partially silences, the gene. Dr. Petronis and his colleagues studied methylation patterns in brain tissue from 100 people. About a third of the postmortem samples they obtained from a brain bank in the United States came from patients who had suffered from schizophrenia, a third from people who had bipolar disorder and a third from healthy controls, matched for age and sex. They looked at 12,000 genes and found significant differences in the brains of the patients who suffered from serious mental illnesses. There were distinct differences in the methylation of 40 genes. Some of the differences were shared between the schizophrenia and bipolar patients, and some were unique to each disease. Some of the genes are involved in brain development, or the exchange of chemical messages in the brain. Others are mysteries. Dr. Petronis says he has no idea what they do. Bipolar disorder, which used be known as manic depression, causes severe shifts in a person's mood, energy and ability to function. It affects an estimated 2.6 per cent of adults. Someone with an identical twin with the disorder has a 60-per-cent chance of getting it. Schizophrenia is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disturbances in thinking and withdrawal from social activity. It affects one in 100 Canadians and their families, according to the Schizophrenia Society of Canada. Epigenetics helps explain why Pamela Spiro Wagner started hearing voices the day John. F. Kennedy was assassinated - she was later diagnosed with schizophrenia - while her identical twin, Carolyn Spiro, remained healthy. The latter became a psychiatrist and was on call at a Boston hospital when her sister was admitted in a catatonic state, one arm extended in the air. "This can't be my twin," she recalls thinking at the time. The two later wrote a memoir, published in 2005, called Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and their Journey Through Schizophrenia. But epigenetics could also help explain more than the differences between people who are genetically identical. Scientists are now looking at many common diseases, including cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and lupus, to see if they might be caused, at least in part, by the switching system that activates and deactivates genes. © Copyright 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.

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Simon

My kids are reporting that my ex-wife's condition is getting even worse, and she is acting weirdly. Apparently, she does not care about anybody, and thinks that her parents want her to commit suicide. After exhausting all means in 2005-2006, I had no advice left to give them. All I could suggest was that she will eventually expose herself and require medical attention, as my psychiatrist once noted.

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Simon

Canadians' pill-popping packs on the extra pounds, experts warn Sharon Kirkey, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Monday, March 31, 2008 The very drugs millions of Canadians are taking to get through their day can cause dramatic weight gain, doctors are warning. Psychiatric drug-related weight gain "is a huge problem," says Dr. David Lau, chairman of the diabetes and endocrine research group at the University of Calgary and president of Obesity Canada. "You can see patients gaining 10, 20, 30, 40 pounds," Dr. Lau said. Not everyone taking antidepressants, mood stabilizers or newer generation anti-psychotics will gain weight, he said. What's more, he said new anti-psychotics, "atypical antipsychotics," have been "tremendous in terms of bringing back the functionality of people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and depression." But Harvard University psychologist Paula Caplan warns of a vicious cycle, in which patients are reluctant to discontinue using psychotropic drugs despite weight gain. "If they gain weight, they think 'I can avoid fast foods, or I can take smaller portion sizes or I can exercise more.' But to think, 'go off my medication that I believe is responsible for my being able to function, is too scary'." In a recent article in the magazine New Scientist, Ms. Caplan says new revelations that some antidepressants are virtually no better than a placebo for all but the most severe cases of depression "make the potential scale of the side-effects more worrying than ever." She believes the widespread use of psychiatric medications among adults and children is making the obesity epidemic worse. Writing in New Scientist, Ms. Caplan says obesity among teens and younger children has risen over the past 10 to 15 years, with a five-fold increase in prescriptions of anti-psychotic drugs to those age groups, and that "children taking these drugs are even more likely to gain weight than adults are." She says too much fast food, large portions and our increasingly sedentary lifestyles are all legitimate culprits in the rising tide of obesity. "(Hillary) Clinton is campaigning to get fast food vending machines out of schools. That's all good," Ms. Caplan said in an interview. "But I'm thinking, there's this glaring omission. It's like the elephant in the living room. No one is talking about (psychiatric drugs) as a source. "We don't know how much of this increase in obesity is due to the drugs, but shouldn't somebody be finding out?" Though they're still in the minority, more children are on anti-psychotics says David Cohen, a professor in the College of Social Work, Justice and Public Affairs at Florida International University. "There has been a huge marketing push and a huge increase in diagnoses that would call for these drugs among children." In Florida, 40 per cent of children prescribed an atypical anti-psychotic have ADHD. Paxil and other antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, "have a weird effect. You lose weight at the beginning, and you gain weight after," Mr. Cohen says. "I wouldn't necessarily say 'more drugs, therefore many more fat kids.' I would say the drugs are one more factor that is adding in unpredictable ways. The problem is we don't have studies that really try to show epidemiologically, in the community, over time what the drugs could be doing in terms of obesity to kids." "When I say an increase in psychotropic drugs, I'm not just talking about antidepressants and Ritalin," Ms. Caplan said in an interview. "I'm talking about anti-psychotics in toddlers. Now you don't even have to be hearing voices. If you have intense moods, you might be put on an anti-psychotic now." According to prescription drug tracking firm IMS Health Canada, 30.2 million antidepressant prescriptions were filled by retail drugstores in the 12-month period ending Nov. 30, a 51-per-cent increase over 2002. Another 8.5 million prescriptions were filled for anti-psychotics, nearly double the 4.7 million dispensed in 2003. Dr. Lau says the anti-psychotics most likely to be associated with weight gain and diabetes are Clozaril (clozapine), Zyprexa, Seroquel (quetiapine), Risperdal (risperidone), Modecate (chlorpromazine, fluphenazine) and Haldol (haloperidol). Just how the drugs cause weight gain isn't well understood. Some stimulate appetite. Dr. Lau says others might unmask a person's inborn propensity to gain weight, or cause the body to become resistant to insulin. Ms. Caplan says doctors aren't doing enough to warn patients that the drugs may cause substantial weight gain. She worries, too, that more and more people are being prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs at the same time. North Americans are working "vastly" more hours than ever, she says, and if they aren't functioning and coping the way they think they should, "or their families think they should, or their bosses think they should, the pressure is to 'get fixed,' fast. "And the quickest way to think you're going to do that is through a pill." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Poetic redemption ... The amount of pain contained within these anonymous facts - the torment, the heartache, the sorrow, the shame, the regret - is barely conceivable. What life would not be overwhelmed, utterly destroyed, by such pain? And would that pain not be made worse if it were displayed for the whole world to see and comment upon? ... Why does tragedy so often make us take sides? I guess because strong emotions move us, and we move to one side or another, so to speak, as if fleeing a car that is out of control, and it takes the passage of time, the examination of memory, for us to look back with calm sorrow, standing steadily, no longer so inclined to move and take sides. ... © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Family-to-Family Education Programs FREE education and support for families who have relatives with serious mental illness. A 12-week course for families and friends of individuals with serious mental illness. This course is taught by trained family members who have lived with this experience. All course materials are furnished at no cost to you. Many family members describe this program as life changing. The course discusses the clinical treatment of serious mental illnesses and teaches the knowledge and skills that family members and friends need to cope more effectively. Join the hundreds of families in the Ottawa are just like yours who have gained information, insight, understanding and empowerment. For more information visit our website at www.namiontario.ca To pre-register, call the CMHA, Ottawa Branch, at (613) 737-7791 NAMI The Nation's Voice on Mental Illness

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Simon

From: Bill MacPhee To: Simon Date: April 09, 2008 10:04:43 EDT (CA) Subject: It's time to talk On behalf of Schizophrenia Digest, I would like to invite you to participate in a new online community for people affected by schizophrenia. LetsTalkAboutIt.ca (http://www.letstalkaboutit.ca) is a place to share your story and read about the stories of others who have suffered, or seen their loved ones suffer, from schizophrenia. The site also facilitates a dialogue with government officials to urge them to provide better support, treatment and medicine to schizophrenia sufferers. I urge you to help schizophrenia find its voice and to improve access to important new drug therapies. Together, we can help bring those dealing with this tragic illness out of the shadows. I look forward to joining you at http://www.letstalkaboutit.ca. Sincerely, Bill MacPhee Publisher Schizophrenia Digest

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Simon

Something you need to think about... Everyone knows someone who suffers from a mental illness. You have to - one in four people suffer, after all. Here are some very real things to think about today: * today someone, somewhere, will try to or will successfully commit suicide in Ontario * today, right now, someone is battling bulimia or anorexia * today, someone may be incarcerated for a crime they committed because they went off their meds and the little voice inside their head told them to "do it" * today, someone is cutting themselves to help relieve the mental anguish they are living with * today, someone will lose their job because of their depression * today, someone may be handed divorce papers because their spouse simply can't live with the illness * today, someone will drink to excess to forget their pain All I ask is that you think of these things - just for a minute. Now imagine thinking it could NEVER happen to you. Well, think again. I said the very same thing almost eight years. As we approach Mental Health Awareness Week, please give some thought to how important it is to acknowledge that this is real and that the things I mentioned above are happening to thousand of people each and every day. You might be next. Stay Tuned..............HRH Posted Friday, May 02, 2008 8:42 AM by Heather Hennigar | 0 Comments

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Simon

For the first time this season, I went cycling over the weekend to the Champlain Lookout of the Gatineau Park. The daily intake of flaxseeds still proved to be effective.

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Simon

I saw the following notice on Canadian Mental Health Association's website. Since my 14-year old daughter has excessive anxiety, I encouraged her to participate in the research study which gives free treatment. My 17-year old would qualify for the control group to receive $100 CAD.

However, the research co-ordinator told me during a telephone interview that my 17-year old daughter does not qualify because of the family history of mental health. :-(

Anxiety Study for Youth - Recruitment Is your child SUFFERING from Anxiety? The University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research is inviting youth, ages 12-18, who are suffering from an anxiety disorder to participate in leading-edge research. The study provides each eligible participant with specialized assessment and 4 months of individual weekly sessions of psychological treatment. For more Information call Sarah: 613-722-6521 ext. 6118, or email anxiety@rohcg.on.ca Are you between the ages of 12 and 18? Researchers at the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research are recruiting for a study examining how young people cope with stress and worry. The study requires up to 4 visits, and each participant will be paid $25 per visit For more Information call Amy: 613-722-6521 ext. 6119, or email teens@rohcg.on.ca

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Child protection The Ottawa Citizen Published: Monday, May 19, 2008 We don't consider them competent enough to drive or vote. We don't consider them mature enough to watch horror movies, have credit cards or get married. There are certain things children, with their incomplete intellectual and emotional development, aren't ready to do, and making life-and-death decisions about their medical care is one of them. The limit of a child's right to self-determination has been hotly debated in Hamilton, where an 11-year-old boy suffering from a curable form of leukemia refused chemotherapy. With the treatment, the boy stands a healthy chance of recovery. Without it, doctors expect he will die within months. The boy's father supported his son's decision to decline treatment and pursue instead natural remedies such as vitamins and green tea, prompting the Children's Aid Society to obtain a court order to seize the boy and start him on chemotherapy. Forcing someone to submit to a medical intervention is an extreme course of action, and when the patient is an adult it is almost always unacceptable (exceptions are made for psychiatric patients who don't have the presence of mind to make such decisions). The rules for children are different, and the CAS was right to get involved. While an 11-year-old should be an active participant in his own treatment -- being able to express his concerns and being listened to -- it is unreasonable to expect such young children to fully comprehend the consequences of refusing treatment altogether. The Hamilton boy feels that because of the chemotherapy, he is always ill. His back hurts. He can't walk. He just wants to go home and play with his sister. It's understandable that he might hate hospitals and needles and doctors. But that doesn't make it reasonable. It is difficult, of course, to simply pick an age and designate people as "mature" when they reach it. Some mature teenagers who legally are too young to drive might well make for better, safer drivers than some reckless 40-year-olds. There are teenagers who hold down jobs, who volunteer, who get straight As. There are adults who abandon their children and abuse drugs. Wisdom does not always come with age. But even if there is one 11-year-old in a million who is mature enough to make life-and-death decisions, society still needs to operate on the assumption that there are none, just as we operate on the assumption that 11-year-olds are too young to consent to sex. We do this to protect all children. Normally it is the role of parents to protect their child, but in the Hamilton case, the father bizarrely supported the boy's right in effect to commit suicide, even though the child has fetal alcohol syndrome and is intellectually delayed. Child-welfare authorities had no option but to intervene. If the boy's disease weren't life-threatening, there might have been another way. And if the treatment were likely to be futile, resulting only in prolonged suffering, then a case could have been made that the boy should be allowed to die on his own terms. In this case, however, the choice appears to be possible recovery or certain death. It's an easy decision, but still not one a child can or should be expected to make. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Arenburg making 'farce' of trial: prosecutor Sportscaster's killer offers conspiracy theories in his defence against U.S. assault charge Lee Greenberg, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 BUFFALO, New York - Federal prosecutors asked a U.S. District Court judge to intervene in the felony assault trial of Jeffrey Arenburg yesterday, saying the schizophrenic killer is making "a farce" of proceedings and trying to back his way into an insanity defence. "The government has serious concerns about (Mr. Arenburg's) ability to represent himself," assistant U.S. attorney Aaron Mango told Judge Richard Arcara at the end of the first day of what is expected to be a short trial. The 51-year-old was arrested and charged in late November at a Buffalo border crossing after he allegedly punched a U.S. customs official. He has since been in custody in the U.S. During his opening statement and cross-examination of two prosecution witnesses, Mr. Arenburg put forward several bizarre conspiracy plots against him. They included a claim that radio stations got in touch with border officials to warn them about his arrival and that a major movie studio is using his thoughts to make films. "I am that person everyone's been hearing about on the airwaves for the last 20 years," he told the 12-member jury in his opening statement. "Where's my justice?" He later confronted his alleged victim, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Jason Hart. "Mr. Jason Hart, are you aware in Canada I called up a radio station and the person on the station let me talk on a blank tape and the next day I heard the tape playing with them talking about me in the background," he said, eliciting a bewildered look from the young border guard. "No," Mr. Hart answered softly. Mr. Arenburg's comments are reminiscent of the dark thoughts he said prompted him to shoot Ottawa sportscaster Brian Smith in a parking lot in 1995. The former scallop fisherman claimed he was trying to silence the voices inside his head when he killed Mr. Smith outside the television station where he worked. He also believed his thoughts were being broadcast at the time. The Nova Scotia native was found not criminally responsible for that act and was committed to psychiatric care. He was granted an unconditional release by the Ontario Review Board in November 2006. One year later, he was stopped by Mr. Hart, who recognized him from an unsuccessful attempt to pass through that same crossing earlier. Prosecutors played a redacted video of the second encounter in court yesterday. It shows Mr. Hart asking Mr. Arenburg to produce paperwork he needed to cross into the U.S. (including a criminal waiver from a drug possession charge from the 1980s and a mental competency letter from a doctor). "I got it all fixed up," Mr. Arenburg tells the officer, but it quickly becomes clear the forms are missing. The video shows Mr. Hart walking around the counter and starting to frisk Mr. Arenburg. "Now we're running into a little problem here," he says. "You understand?" The border agent has his head down and is searching Mr. Arenburg's jacket when Mr. Arenburg turns and delivers a heavy blow to the man's mouth. Mr. Arenburg was found competent to stand trial earlier this year, clearing the way for him to fire his court-appointed lawyer. He did so despite several warnings by another judge, H. Kenneth Schroeder, who advised him that he had "a very strong defence" -- namely, insanity -- available. Prosecutors yesterday accused him of trying to back into that defence nevertheless. "Your honour, he seems to be making a farce of this," Mr. Mango said. "He's trying to bootstrap an insanity defence." Judge Arcara overruled that objection and others, replying that Mr. Arenburg is making points that are important to him. The trial continues today. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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System fails Arenburg The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, May 22, 2008 The assault trial of Jeffrey Arenburg has become a sad and frightening spectacle. Mr. Arenburg is a schizophrenic who has suffered from paranoid delusions. When he killed Ottawa media personality Brian Smith in 1995, he was convinced there was media plot against him, involving secret broadcasts. He was committed to psychiatric care, but released in 2006 because of the substantial progress he had made. The Ontario Review Board couldn't guarantee that Mr. Arenburg wouldn't harm someone again, but it decided that he no longer posed a significant risk to the community. In November, he tried to cross the United States border. He was convicted of punching a U.S. border official. At his trial, he declared: "I am that person everyone's been hearing about on the airwaves for the last 20 years," and made other allusions to broadcasting conspiracies. This sounds eerily familiar to his times in Ottawa. It is possible, as the U.S. prosecution has suggested, that Mr. Arenburg was deliberately trying to present himself as insane. It is also possible, given Mr. Arenburg's long history of psychiatric problems, that he has relapsed into paranoia. If that's the case, it's a sign that the Canadian mental health system has failed, once again, to protect Mr. Arenburg and to protect the rest of society. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is looking for 2 new astronauts. I could not participate in the 2 previous astronaut recruitment campaigns in 1983 and in 1992 because I had very poor unaided vision, which has since been corrected to 20/20 by a successful LASIK surgery on 1997-12-03.

I made an on-line application for the Canadian astronaut recruitment campaign. The chance of success is almost zero, but I tried to achieve my childhood dream to live in space. Although I filed my application early on the starting day, I was already number 33...

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Simon

Bizarre antics possibly 'psychotic': doctor Arenburg's strange behaviour in court could signal illness, psychiatrist says Lee Greenberg, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Friday, May 23, 2008 TORONTO - Jeffrey Arenburg's former psychiatrist says the schizophrenic killer's behaviour at a two-day assault trial in Buffalo, New York, this week indicates he might have slipped back into the grips of mental illness. "It sounds like a symptom of a psychotic illness, if he truly believes that," Dr. Robert Sheppard said when told about some of the themes Mr. Arenburg pursued while unsuccessfully defending himself against the felony count. They include Mr. Arenburg's belief that his thoughts are being broadcast by radio stations on a "drug channel" or "microwave channel" and that a major movie studio is turning his thoughts into films. He also told a 12-member jury that radio stations call people in his neighbourhood and "tell them what to think and how to treat me." Mr. Arenburg's history is dotted with increasingly violent attempts to silence those tormenting voices. They culminated in 1995, when he shot dead CJOH sportscaster Brian Smith as the popular former professional hockey player left the station after work. Mr. Arenburg was subsequently found not criminally responsible for that act. One decade later, when Dr. Sheppard became his attending psychiatrist in 2005, Mr. Arenburg's illness had stabilized, largely through treatment and the anti-psychotic drug olanzapine. He was granted an unconditional release in 2006 after a treatment team led by Dr. Sheppard unanimously concluded he no longer posed a significant threat to public safety. Almost exactly one year after that release, on Nov. 29, 2007, Mr. Arenburg punched a U.S. border guard in the mouth as he attempted to cross into Buffalo on a two-day shopping trip. On Wednesday, he was found guilty of felony assault for that incident. He now faces between four-and-a-half and six years in prison. Meanwhile, there are contradictory signs surrounding Mr. Arenburg's mental state. In April, the 51-year-old former scallop fisherman and railway worker satisfied a U.S. judge that he was competent to fire his court-appointed lawyer. During a two-hour exchange with Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder, Mr. Arenburg answered a host of questions, ranging from his personal history to his understanding of legal concepts and U.S. law. The judge ultimately declared him to have made a "knowing and intelligent" decision and allowed him to take charge. Once he took the stand in court, however, Mr. Arenburg baffled jurors and witnesses alike by focusing almost exclusively on paranoid conspiracy theories unrelated to his case. "What is the reason behind the microwave channel that you hear in the background?" he asked the prosecution's first witness, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Kelly Pinkoske, in a typical exchange. "I'm not familiar with a micro...I'm sorry, what did you call it?" Ms. Pinkoske replied. "Microwave channel. It's a channel that you ever hear in the background for the last 20 years. It went out in I think February the 6th, I think, it went out of this year that people never heard it in the background." Mr. Arenburg's mental state today appears far removed from his condition two years ago, when he was granted an unconditional release from provincial custody following a gradual re-entry into the community. "No, no," Dr. Sheppard said when asked whether Mr. Arenburg expressed any of the same delusional thoughts prior to that hearing. Indeed, Mr. Arenburg's bizarre behaviour at trial this week has raised anew questions about the circumstances of his release into the community. Alana Kainz, Mr. Smith's widow, said this week that Mr. Arenburg "should never have been released in the first place." She called him a dangerous man who has become more dangerous in the past number of years. Rhonda McMichael, a former colleague of Mr. Smith's, says the decision to release psychiatric patients like Mr. Arenburg is a balancing act that has to take into account personal freedoms and the safety of the community. "It's complicated," says Ms. McMichael, who left the CJOH parking lot half an hour before Mr. Smith was killed. "I don't know that I can sit in judgment of people who make really difficult decisions in cases like this." At the same time, she says hearing Mr. Arenburg's name in the news prompts a lot of painful emotions. "You sort of feel anger, sadness, a bit of frustration," she said. Dr. Sheppard said he didn't know enough of the facts to judge whether the Ontario Review Board, the provincial agency that oversees the province's roughly 1,350 criminally insane patients, made a mistake in releasing Mr. Arenburg when it did. The board must decide a patient poses a significant threat to public safety in order to keep that individual detained. "I mean, he wasn't released on somebody's whim, he was released because the evidence at the time pointed to him not being a risk to public safety. They obviously look at decisions like that very carefully, and that was their view of it. I don't know anything that's happened since then, so (I can't) comment on whether it was the right decision or the wrong decision." Others were not so sure. "Obviously, it wasn't the right call," said Dr. Robert Dickey, a forensic psychiatrist at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. "Having said that, wisdom in retrospect is easy. And this guy didn't reoffend in the worst way possible. "If you wanted a system that was right all the time, the only way science would allow that is to keep everybody in indefinitely. And no society is going to like that or will tolerate that." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Since the kids were not here this weekend, I went cycling 2 times to the top of the Gatineau Park, on Saturday and on Sunday. The effect of flaxseeds is still evident as I did not walk at all. It took me 2 hours and 10 minutes to get there, and 1 hour and 20 minutes to come back, for a total of 4 hours including a few pit stops which were brief due to mosquitos and black flies.

I set a life-time goal of conquering the Champlain Lookout 100 times. The score is now 16, so it is still a long way to go...

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Simon

Man feared he was possessed by devil Father heard voices in his head before mass killing, sources say BY JASON VAN RASSEL, JOEL KOM AND KRISTEN ODLANDWITH FILES FROM RICHARD CUTHBERTSON AND MICHELLE LANG, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE CALGARY • Hard-working, devoted father Joshua Lall heard voices in his head and believed he was possessed by the devil before the mass killing that claimed his life and four others, sources told the Calgary Herald. About two weeks ago, Mr. Lall began acting strangely and work stresses seemed to be bothering him a great deal, police sources said. Others familiar with the case were more specific, saying Mr. Lall expressed fears he was possessed by the devil. "He said he was hearing voices in his head," said one source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Officially, police investigators said yesterday it will take more time to say for certain whether Mr. Lall killed his wife, two of their children and a female tenant inside the family's Calgary home before taking his own life. "The preliminary indications … have led us down that path," said Insp. Guy Slater, commander of the major crimes section. "We continue to pursue that as one of many possibilities in this investigation." Joshua Lall, 34, his wife, Alison, 35, and their two daughters, Kristen, 5 1/2, and Rochelle, 3 1/2, were found dead in the home. The couple's one-year old baby, Anna, was the sole survivor of the slayings. Police and paramedics found her in the home Wednesday, crying, but unharmed. Amber Bowerman, 30, who was renting a basement suite in the house, was also killed. Ms. Lall's mother, Sheila Fraser, described her daughter as completely devoted to her own three young daughters. "It's just a tremendous loss," Ms. Fraser said. "She was an absolutely beautiful human being who did everything and did it very well." The fact investigators are focusing on Mr. Lall as the culprit is at odds with a lifetime spent making positive contributions. He was a high-school valedictorian, track star and volunteer fundraiser for his community association. Police are continuing to call the case a "domestic homicide," but stressed autopsies haven't been completed and investigators are still in the process of analysing a large amount of evidence from the grisly scene. Sources said the killings were committed with an edged weapon, but investigators are awaiting autopsy results before commenting. "Information is coming in by the minute, in terms of background information, family information," Insp. Slater said. Another ominous sign that has come to light is a phone call Mr. Lall made to his parents in Ontario a few days before the killings. The conversation was troubling enough to prompt his parents to book a flight to Calgary. They arrived, however, Wednesday night - too late to intervene before tragedy struck. A close friend detected some anxiety from Mr. Lall during a visit a few weeks ago, but said it didn't appear too serious. "He was a little stressed with work," said Jennifer Klein, who lives in Edmonton. "We talked about it openly when they were here." Ms. Klein declined to specify what was on Mr. Lall's mind, though she said they all talked about what options he had to deal with his worries. However, she said there was no hint of marital discord. "Over a weekend, you can't hide (marital problems)," Ms. Klein said. "You can't be on your good manners all the time. There wasn't even a hot temper." Mr. Lall also had "some big exams coming up," Ms. Klein said, tests that could have allowed him to fulfil his ambition of becoming an architect. Mr. Lall was an intern architect at the Calgary firm Cohos Evamy, but called in sick on Monday. On Tuesday, he asked for a week off. Nevertheless, the firm's studio chairman, Rob Adamson, said Mr. Lall had never come to him with any personal problems and didn't appear to be under an unusual amount of stress at work. Mr. Lall, who had worked for the company for five years, specialized in universal design. "He was working with a team of 16 people on a very largescale project … designing for people with disabilities," said Mr. Adamson. "That was his passion - that's what he loved to be part of. "He was stellar, a hardworking guy, energetic, liked by everybody, kind-hearted, capable, professional, polished, well-spoken, highly educated." Mr. Lall's previous career was in occupational therapy. "Joshua spoke to me often that he saw a real marriage between his training as an (occupational therapist) and the ability to plan spaces," said Mr. Adamson. The company said they will help in any way to support Mr. Lall's surviving daughter, Anna. "We're considering what options we have internally here to set up a trust for the young girl, or make donations if there was a different trust." Although people with mental illness often have a long history of psychiatric problems, experts said it's possible for some to not have any psychotic episodes until their 30s, brought on by anything, such as major depression, a thyroid disorder or other medical problems. "With psychotic symptoms, you can develop them at different stages of life," said Dr. Cynthia Baxter, a forensic psychiatrist. Mental health professionals say it's possible for adults to experience a psychotic episode, even if they don't suffer from a long-term disease like schizophrenia. In psychosis, the patient loses touch with reality and can hear or see things that aren't there. They can also experience paranoia. "If I were to see a 35-year-old professional in the emergency room with psychotic symptoms, schizophrenia would be (possible), but it would more likely be depression or a mood disorder like bipolar," said Dr. Baxter. "Being mentally ill doesn't make you more likely to kill your family," said Dr. Baxter. "The vast, vast majority of mentally ill people are never going to harm anyone else." Investigators continued their work yesterday, but took down the yellow tape surrounding the Lalls' home, allowing a steady stream of people to come and pay their respects. As the day wore on, a memorial of flowers and toys grew below a weeping birch in front of the house. Jeremy Colpitts, a father of two young daughters, brought a stuffed toy leopard to the home. He had heard about the tragedy on the news and felt compelled to visit the home. "I've got kids, too," he said. "I couldn't imagine. It's very sad." Alka Chandiramani, who worked with Ms. Lall for just over two years at the Providence Children's Centre, hadn't seen her friend for a long time before they ran into each other recently at an elementary school function. She and her five-year-old twin girls brought flowers to the site. They also said a prayer. "I wanted to show my kids why I was grieving and to say goodbye to the family," Ms. Chandiramani said. Rev. Paras Persad, a minister at the Eastside Baptist Church, also arrived at the Lall home. He said a lot of people in the community are supporting one another to get through this difficult time. "Pain runs deep and it takes a while to unpack emotions." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Mother died defending children Husband stabbed wife, daughters in bedroom after killing tenant Jason van Rassel, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, May 31, 2008 CALGARY - Alison Lall died protecting her children from her knife-wielding husband Joshua after he had already killed a woman living in a basement suite in the family's northwest Calgary home. The revelation came yesterday as police confirmed that Joshua Lall was the person responsible for killing his wife, daughters Kristen and Rochelle, and the family's tenant, Amber Bowerman, sometime Tuesday evening. "Every indication is that Alison fought to protect her children," said Insp. Guy Slater. The attack on Alison and her daughters happened in the upstairs master bedroom of the home, sometime after Mr. Lall began his baffling outburst of violence by attacking Ms. Bowerman, 30, inside her basement suite. "It was a surprise attack," Insp. Slater said. After Mr. Lall, 34, went upstairs and killed Alison, 35, Kristen, 51/2, and Rochelle, 3 1/2, he went into the nursery, where the couple's youngest daughter, Anna, lay in a crib. He then stabbed himself. "We found him deceased on the floor," said Insp. Slater. Anna was not harmed. Autopsies revealed all suffered multiple stab wounds, but police are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests that may answer the most pressing question: why? The crime scene yielded no clues that there had been any disturbance in the home before Mr. Lall's rampage. "From all intents and purposes, we believe the evening was like any other evening," Insp. Slater said. A knife was also recovered at the scene. No description of the weapon was given. Although anonymous sources have told Canwest News Service Mr. Lall was hearing voices in his head and believed he was possessed by the devil, Insp. Slater said it's premature to say if a mental breakdown triggered the killings. "We will leave that to mental health professionals to make that determination." Police sources have said that, about two weeks ago, Mr. Lall began acting strangely and work stresses seemed to be bothering him a great deal. "He said he was hearing voices in his head," said one source, speaking on condition of anonymity. For a second day in a row, people stopped outside the Lalls' home in northwest Calgary yesterday to pay their respects. The people who have left flowers, stuffed animals and notes of condolence have included friends, neighbours and strangers. Yesterday afternoon, a police officer who was inside the home Wednesday morning returned to the scene. John Finot said he didn't see the most gruesome parts of the crime scene, but the experience affected him to the extent that he wanted to bring his son, Justin, to lay a white teddy bear next to the memorial on the home's front lawn. "The one question he asked me that surprised me was, 'How? How did they get hurt?'" Officer Finot said. "I don't know how I'm going to answer that one. He keeps asking me." "He asked me, 'Are they coming home?' I had to tell him, 'No, they're not coming home'." The news of the killings and Mr. Lall's possible mental distress have startled friends and family members who knew him as a doting father and a high-achiever. He was a high school valedictorian, track star and volunteer fundraiser for his local community association. A friend detected some anxiety from Mr. Lall during a visit a few weeks ago, but said it didn't appear to be more than what he and his wife could handle. "He was a little stressed with work," said Jennifer Klein, who lives in Edmonton. "We talked about it openly when they were here." Mr. Lall was an intern architect at firm Cohos Evamy, but called in sick on Monday. On Tuesday, he asked for a week off. Nevertheless, the firm's studio chair, Rob Adamson, said Mr. Lall had never come to him with any personal problems and didn't appear to be under an unusual amount of stress at work. Although people with mental illness often have a long history of psychiatric problems, experts said it's possible for some to not have any psychotic episodes until their 30s. Such episodes can be triggered by anything from major depression to a thyroid disorder. Alison Lall's mother, Sheila Fraser, described her daughter as completely devoted to her own three young daughters. "It's just a tremendous loss," Ms. Fraser said. "She was an absolutely beautiful human being who did everything and did it very well." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Family's killings likely planned, psychologists say Mental illness alone unlikely to explain father's deadly knife attacks Linda Nguyen, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, May 31, 2008 Mental illness alone seldom explains why some people kill their spouses and children, according to Canadian experts in psychology and family homicide. Sources told the Canwest News Service that Joshua Lall -- who killed five people, including himself, inside an upscale Calgary home earlier this week -- recently reported hearing voices and thought he was possessed by the devil. Calgary police confirmed late yesterday that Mr. Lall stabbed his family to death, along with a tenant in his home, some time Tuesday morning. But Martin Daly, a professor in neuroscience and behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, said mental illness is seldom enough to drive someone to kill his whole family. "People with major psychiatric disorders are scarcely more violent than the rest of the population," Mr. Daly said yesterday. "They are commanded by the voices to do things like jump in front of a train (or) leap out of a window because they think they can fly -- or go to the top of a mountain because they believe they will be taken away by a flying saucer. "Guys who off their whole family are typically not mentally ill. They've decided to do this over some period of brooding and made a plan." Mr. Lall, 34, his 35-year-old wife Alison, and their two daughters, Kristen, 5 1/2, and Rochelle, 3 1/2, were found dead in their Calgary home on Wednesday. Their one-year-old daughter, Anna, was unharmed. Tenant Amber Bowerman, 30, was also killed. Don Dutton, one of the country's foremost experts in domestic homicides, said most men who kill their wives and children are severely depressed. "They're at the point where they can't see any point of going on," said Mr. Dutton, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. "Their depression is absolutely unmanageable, unescapable, and they feel they failed in some crucial way." He said depression can manifest in ways that cause the sufferer to blame the people closest to him -- his wife, even his children. He said the decision to kill one's own children, usually seen in the public's eyes as innocent victims, can also have religious or symbolic connotations for the killer. "The murder of their children can happen for a couple of reasons. If they're very religious, they want to see the child in heaven," Mr. Dutton said. "If they're not religious, they don't want the child left on their own, because there would be no one to look after them, as bizarre as that sounds. They want to take everything with them." Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, said whatever factors contributed to the killings -- rage, jealously, depression, paranoia or something else entirely -- substance abuse could make those black emotions far worse. "Alcohol can take a bad situation and make it a really bad situation, really fast," Mr. Peterson said. Mr. Peterson said Mr. Lall's decision to use knife in the killings may have been due merely to its availability. "Usually, in domestic homicides, men use knives because they're more common," he said. "There's one in every house. In the U.S., it is more likely to be guns." Mr. Peterson also offered a possible explanation for why one-year-old Anna was spared. "Babies are innocent. You have to be bloody out of your mind to kill them," he said. "That could've been his limit. He hit his limit and was so overwhelmed by the realization of what he had done that he had to stop." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

I attended "Ottawa Hospital Research Day: Regenerative Medicine–Developing the Therapies of Tomorrow" at the University of Ottawa.

Since 3 years ago, I had constantly been feeling moderate chest pain. While I was in the care of the psychiatrist at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, the doctor told me that it was a reaction to my emotional state. I did not actually believe it, and believed that it was a cardiovascular problem because I was eating a lot of cheese which contains cholesterol. A few days ago, the chest pain stopped, so I am relieved that the pain was not due to a cardiovascular problem after all.

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Simon

Calgary man to be buried with family he killed Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 CALGARY - Joshua Lall's remains will be buried alongside those of his wife and two young daughters, all of whom died at his hand, the man's mother-in-law said yesterday. Sheila Fisher, the mother of Alison Lall, made the statement on the same day Mr. Lall's family released a statement saying they may never know what led him to commit last week's horrific murder-suicide. Ms. Fisher, who has returned with her husband to their rural home outside Guelph, told Canwest News Service that any memorial service will pay tribute to the Lall family as a whole -- including Mr. Lall. "We're sticking together," she said. Mr. Lall, 34, killed Alison, his 35-year-old wife, and their two daughters, five-year-old Kristen and three-year-old Rochelle, according to police. Mr. Lall also killed Amber Bowerman, a 30-year-old journalist who was renting a basement suite in the family's home. The sole survivor of the attack, the family's one-year-old daughter, Anna, was found unharmed in her crib. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

I attended a Community Forum "Schizophrenia: Let's talk about it" at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Centre.

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Simon

For the last few weeks, I have watched Mini-Med and Mini-Psy on an educational TV channel. Mini-Psy is about mental illness, and the one about schizophrenia was very relevant to my ex-wife's condition.

Session 2007 L'école Mini Psy a été coordonnée et supervisée par Hani Iskandar, M.D., Chef clinique de l'unité de soins intensifs en psychiatrie et coordonnateur de la formation médicale, à l'Institut Douglas. Notre cerveau si fantastique Sonia Lupien, Ph.D. L'anatomie et le fonctionnement du cerveau Les neurotransmetteurs La psychiatrie et la psychologie : Deux approches complémentaires de l'étude du fonctionnement du système nerveux (neurobiologie) L'instabilité du cerveau en formation : la pédopsychiatrie Johanne Renaud, M.D. Une étude de cas : présentation et évaluation Quel est le comportement normal d'un enfant? Les types de pathologies - Trouble du déficit de l'attention et d'hyperactivité (TDAH) - Troubles de l'anxiété, dépression - Troubles de l'alimentation - Troubles bipolaires - Toxicomanie Les traitements et les soins Au bout du rouleau : le burn-out et la dépression Camillo Zacchia, Ph.D. Une étude de cas : présentation et évaluation Qu'est-ce qu'un comportement normal? Les types de pathologies - Burn-out : en quoi est-il lié à la dépression? - Dépression - Les facteurs de risque d'ordre biologique, socioculturel et socioéconomique Nourrir l'espoir : les troubles de l'alimentation Howard Steiger, Ph.D. Une étude de cas : présentation et évaluation Quels comportements sont jugés normaux? Les types de pathologies - Anorexie nerveuse - Boulimie - Les facteurs de risque d'ordre génétique et socioculturel Les traitements et les soins Complexes mais rares : la schizophrénie et les troubles bipolaires Ridha Joober, M.D., Ph.D. Une étude de cas : présentation et évaluation Identifier les psychopathologies Les types de pathologies - La schizophrénie - Les troubles bipolaires - Les facteurs de risque d'ordre génétique et/ou socioéconomique Les traitements et les soins Vieillir sur la voie de la dépendance : la maladie d'Alzheimer Serge Gauthier, M.D., FRCPC Une étude de cas : présentation et évaluation En quoi consiste le vieillissement normal? Les types de pathologies - Dépression, démence et maladie de Parkinson - Maladie d'Alzheimer - Les facteurs de risque : gènes, stress et hormones Les traitements et les soins

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Simon

I went cycling to the Champlain Lookout of the Gatineau Park. It was the 5th time this year. As usual, I did not walk at all, thanks to daily mega-doze of flaxseeds. It took me 2 hours to get to the summit, and 1 hour and 45 minutes to come back.

I left a comment on website http://youknowwhoiam.com/.

I watched an iDocs programme on iChannel TV: "Dangerous Passions: A story driven series exploring the 3 most volcanic emotions we experience when we love: desire, jealously and anger". The programme explained that dopamine causes a tunnel vision to ignore the global picture, which is exactly what my ex-wife was doing.

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Simon

I encouraged my daughters to participate in an anxiety research study at the Youth Research Unit of uOttawa Institute of Mental Health Research. My younger daughter is much more anxious than my older daughter, so I was hoping that both would be accepted as research subjects. They would be happy to receive $25 CAD/visit for 4 visits.

Unfortunately, I was informed that due to the family history, my older daughter cannot be a control subject. After lengthy interview sessions, my younger daughter decided not to participate in the research which would have given her either Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) or medication to suppress anxiety.

However, I was able to receive advice from the professor of psychiatry and psychology at uOttawa on my ex-wife's refusal to seek medical treatment.

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Simon

I received an E-mail message from the professor at uOttawa Institute of Mental Health Research, saying that she can refer my ex-wife to a special schizophrenia programme at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. The kids say that their mother no longer trusts them, so they believe that there is no point. However, I forwarded the message anyway just in case...

I also received a letter from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) informing me that I would be receiving GST credit of $92.25 CAD based on the family net income of $22 586 CAD. So, I am officially poor yet again!

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Simon

Deep brain stimulation helps people with severe depression, tests show Sharon Kirkey, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Testing on severely depressed patients shows that brain implants can successfully "re-set" the brain's mood switch from sad to normal, with results that last for at least a year, Canadian researchers are reporting. Deep brain stimulation not only provided "striking" improvements in more than half of patients treated, it also improved mood, anxiety, sleep, appetite control and the ability to put thoughts into action, the team reports in Biological Psychiatry. "It's like the butterfly flapping its wings," says Toronto neurosurgeon Andres Lozano. "We're seeing changes locally where we're stimulating, and also in the circuitry of the brain." "And it's not just a temporary response lasting a week or two." Improvements were seen within a month, "and remained statistically significant for the entire 12 months of the trial," according to the researchers. "It appears to be sustained," Dr. Lozano reports. Some patients are doing well five years after having the electrodes implanted in their brain. Severe depression affects an an estimated 120 million people worldwide. Deep brain stimulation is geared to the 10 to 20 per cent who are "treatment-resistant," meaning antidepressants, psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy, or "shock therapy," don't work for them. Their cases are the "worst of the worst," and about 15 per cent commit suicide, Dr. Lozano says. "There's nothing out there that really makes them better." Three years ago, his team reported on the first six cases of using deep brain stimulation in major depression. Today, they're reporting on the results of those six patients, plus an additional 14, for a total of 20 followed for at least one year. Nine men and 11 women were treated, the youngest in their 20s, the oldest in their 70s. "We can confirm, at one year, about 60 per cent of the patients have a significant response," says Dr. Lozano, a neurosurgeon at Krembil Neurosciences Centre at Toronto Western Hospital and Canada Research Chair in neuroscience. The procedure, which is reversible, also appears safe. "We've not seen any serious adverse effects and we've seen, in fact, improvements in some cognitive functions in these patients." Some of the changes were instantaneous: Three-quarters of the patients reported experiencing an immediate effect in the operating room as soon as the current was switched on. "The most common thing they say is, the black cloud is lifting, the weight is leaving," Dr. Lozano says. One patient told Dr. Lozano: "It's as if I'm always in a room with 10 screaming children. I don't know what you just did, but the children have left the building." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

I went cycling to the Champlain Lookout of the Gatineau Park. It was the 7th time this year. I set a record of 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to the summit, and 1 hour and 30 minutes to come back. So, the entire trip takes less than 4 hours.

On CTV Canada AM this morning, there was a short segment about a new mental condition "Truman Show Delusion".

Truman Syndrome: Are you on TV? Two Montreal psychiatrists have identified a possible condition they label 'Truman Show delusion' that arises out of the popularity of reality TV.

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Simon

I applied to become a Canadian astronaut on-line on the CSA website 2008-05-22. Earlier this month, I was informed that there were 5 351 applicants, and that I was invited to complete the second application form.

Since my childhood dream was living and working in space, I prepared a Cover Letter based on the theme of Star Trek. I wrote that I look forward to training on the Vomit Comet, and that I am up to the challenge of wearing a diaper and repairing a broken toilet on the International Space Station (ISS). I also revealed that I have survived a personal tragedy which involved mental illness of a family member.

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Simon

Friend fears woman influenced killer Victim's text message said some passengers were taking ecstasy By: Mike McIntyre Updated: August 5, 2008 at 12:45 AM CDT The seeds for Tim McLean's brutal murder on board a Greyhound bus last week may have been planted when the accused killer, Vince Li, spent nearly an hour chatting up the victim's female co-worker during their ride through western Manitoba, the Free Press has learned. Li, 40, took a seat at the front of the bus beside the woman after getting on board in Brandon. The pair chatted and were even seen smoking cigarettes together during a rest stop. As the bus resumed its ill-fated journey towards Winnipeg, Li suddenly moved to the back of the bus and sat down beside McLean, who was listening to his headphones and apparently asleep. It was just moments later that Li allegedly began stabbing McLean repeatedly with a large hunting knife, eventually severing his head, defiling his body and holding police at bay for a couple of hours after passengers scrambled off the bus. McLean's family and friends don't believe Li's change-of-seating was a coincidence. And they question why he was charged with second-degree murder and not first-degree murder, which indicates planning and premeditation. "I have this unbelievably strong feeling that him sitting beside Stacy had something to do with this," McLean's former girlfriend, Alexandra Storey, told the Free Press in an exclusive interview Monday. Tim and Stacy had become friends while working together at various western Canadian fairs through North American Midway Entertainment. They were travelling together to Winnipeg -- although seated separately in different areas of the bus -- and had planned to meet up with a mutual friend in the city before all heading back out to British Columbia. McLean's loved ones now desperately want to speak with the woman to find out more about her dealings with Li on the bus. They only know that she quickly returned to B.C. after McLean's killing, and presumably after an interview with police. A call to North American Midway Entertainment seeking information about the woman wasn't returned on Monday. Storey is also haunted by a series of text messages McLean sent to her as he made his way through Manitoba. Her ex-boyfriend -- who she remained very close to -- mentioned that some people were doing ecstasy on the bus. Could Li have been one of those people? Some medical experts say the combination of a powerful stimulant drug such as ecstasy, combined with pre-existing mental health conditions, could trigger a violent episode. Storey isn't buying it. "Even if he was doing drugs, it wouldn't make him do something like that. There's no excuse. The guy is (an alleged) cannibal. I don't care how sick he was," she said. A Winnipeg family that had extensive dealings with Li during his two years spent living in the city told the Free Press on Saturday they believe he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. However, he refused to go see a doctor to be diagnosed or be prescribed any medication, despite a strong push from the family and members of a local church where he attended and briefly worked as a janitor. Li's erratic behaviour included making statements about always being watched and taking sudden, unexplained bus trips to various locales including The Pas and Toronto. He eventually left his wife, Anna, in 2006 and moved to Edmonton, where he began delivering newspapers and briefly worked at McDonald's. Anna recently left Winnipeg to join him out west. Li last delivered newspapers on July 28, according to his boss in Edmonton, Vincent Augert. On Tuesday, he "fell off the face of the earth," Augert said, which was unlike Li. Augert phoned him and a woman who identified herself as Li's wife called back, saying Li's disappearance wasn't planned. "She said to me, 'I don't know where he is, he had to leave town, it was an emergency,'" Augert said. Li had told Augert three weeks ago that he had plans to go to Winnipeg for a job interview. It's not officially known yet why Li was on the Greyhound headed for Winnipeg Wednesday. Li has no prior criminal record in Canada, according to RCMP. Storey told the Free Press they are disgusted by media reports that they believe paint Li in a sympathetic light, regardless of any medical issues he may have. "Everyone is talking about his background, how he went to church, was a good guy...He never gave Tim a chance," she said. "Mental illness or not, you don't do that to another human being." "We're wondering so many things. The possibility that he was a hit man. Could this have been some kind of terrorist attack? Was he being paid by someone to go and do something disgusting to another human being?" said Storey. "We want (the person responsible) to pay for this." McLean's family is in the planning stages for his funeral, which is expected to be a small, private affair despite the worldwide attention and condolences his killing has generated, she said. www.mikeoncrime.com

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Simon

Documents prove guilt in anthrax attack: U.S. Scientist killed himself before case was made Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, August 07, 2008 WASHINGTON - Less than a month ago, army scientist Bruce Ivins angrily told his therapy group that authorities suspected him of the worst bio-terror attack on the U.S. and he planned to do something about it. "He said he was not going to face the death penalty, but instead had a plan to kill co-workers and other individuals who had wronged him," postal inspector Charles B. Wickersham told a judge in a sworn affidavit. "He had a bulletproof vest and a list of co-workers, and added that he was going to obtain a Glock firearm from his son." The police were called, and Mr. Ivins underwent psychiatric observation after the July 9 incident. Within three weeks, Mr. Ivins was dead from a self-inflicted drug overdose after being publicly identified as the prime suspect in the unsolved 2001 bio-terror attack that killed five, rendered 17 ill, paralysed Washington and shocked the U.S. in the weeks following the 9/11 terror attacks. The documents released yesterday paint a portrait of a man unhinged, whose mental health began deteriorating before 9/11, but whose actions were not connected to, or inspired by them. Instead, Mr. Ivins' "incredible paranoid, delusional thoughts" started a chain of events that managed to dovetail tragically with the greater fears unleashed after 9/11. In an unprecedented move, federal law enforcement pulled back the veil on one of the most complex murder investigations in U.S. history, unsealing hundreds of pages of material in an attempt to show the public that Mr. Ivins was, in fact, guilty and acted alone. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Cyanide victim 'not a terrorist': family Ottawa man with schizophrenia was in Denver on a vacation, sister says Andrew Seymour, Andrew Duffy, Gary Dimmock and Neco, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, August 14, 2008 OTTAWA - An Ottawa man whose mysterious death in a Denver hotel room is under investigation by the FBI was diagnosed with schizophrenia three years ago, his family revealed yesterday. Preliminary autopsy results show Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, may have died from exposure to cyanide, a rapidly acting chemical described by one expert as "the ideal terrorist weapon." Denver police confirmed yesterday that the jar of white powder found in Mr. Dirie's hotel room contained sodium cyanide, the crystal form of the chemical. The incident has raised disturbing new security concerns on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which is to open in Denver on Aug. 25. The convention will officially nominate Illinois Senator Barack Obama as the party's presidential candidate. In Ottawa, Mr. Dirie's sister told the Citizen that her brother suffered from mental illness, and she angrily rejected any suggestion that he was tied to terrorism or had any intention of harming Mr. Obama. "He was not a terrorist," said the sister, who declined to give her name. "We don't want to hear that word, it hurts us. It is against our religion." Her brother, she said, had travelled alone to Colorado for a vacation. The family, she said, was devastated to learn that he had died in his Denver hotel room. "He was just going on a trip," his sister said. "He just told us he wanted to go on a vacation and then we heard our brother had died," the sister said. Mr. Dirie's sister said her brother had been doing well since he began receiving treatment for his illness at the Royal Ottawa Hospital about three years ago. "He was fine. He was just a normal person." Her brother was taking his medication regularly when he left Ottawa, she said, and was not suicidal. She did not know how or why he would have come in contact with cyanide. A Canadian citizen, Mr. Dirie had lived in Ottawa for 13 years. His family arrived as refugees from Somali when he was 17. At the Dirie family home yesterday, his grieving mother was comforted by friends and close relatives, who described Mr. Dirie as a "good guy." He had studied hard at university, they said, before complications from diabetes forced him out of school. He subsequently spent a lot of time alone, they said, often reading books and watching television. He never got into trouble with the law, according to friends, family and police. A few weeks ago, Mr. Dirie said he was feeling pretty good and announced that it was time to take a summer vacation. For some reason, he decided on Denver. "He wanted a summer vacation and said he'd be back sometime," one relative said. Jone Shakka, a professional entertainer who dances at Ottawa 67's games, lives a few doors down from the Dirie home. "He never got around with the wrong crowd," Mr. Shakka said. "He was a good man. He was quiet -- kept to himself and never had any issues with neighbours or the police." An older brother, Hassan Dirie, travelled to Colorado yesterday to claim Mr. Dirie's body. Osman Abdi, fleet manager at a Thrifty car rental shop on Bank Street, worked with Hassan and had met Saleman Dirie, whom he described as about six-foot-four and more than 300 pounds. Mr. Abdi said he last saw Saleman Dirie about two weeks ago when he rented a car for a five-day family trip to Toronto. Denver police say Mr. Dirie had been dead for several days when his body was discovered in the fourth-floor room of the Burnsley Hotel on Monday. Near Mr. Dirie's body was a container with a white, powdery substance that has been identified as sodium cyanide, said Denver police spokesman John White. It's not clear, Mr. White said, why the Ottawa man was in possession of cyanide or what he intended to do with the potentially deadly chemical. "Sodium cyanide is readily available commercially," he noted. "It's found in rat poison; it's used to plate metals like gold-plated watches and gold-plated rings." Police are still waiting for a coroner's report to tell them whether Mr. Dirie died from cyanide exposure. The FBI has joined the Denver police investigation. Special Agent Kathy Wright said the bureau wants to know what Mr. Dirie was doing with sodium cyanide in his hotel room. "That in itself raises a lot of questions, so we're investigating that," she told the Citizen yesterday. Agent Wright cautioned, however, that investigators have no reason to believe the incident has any connection to terrorism or to the Democratic National Convention. "We don't have any information this is related to the DNC," she said, "but that comes to mind because it is only a week and a half away." The RCMP confirmed yesterday that it has been contacted by U.S. authorities for assistance in the investigation, but an official spokesman refused to detail the kind of information being sought. "I can only tell you we are assisting the U.S. authorities at their request," said Cpl. Pat Flood. Members of Ottawa's Somali community expressed surprise that Mr. Dirie's death is now the subject of so much concern among U.S. authorities. "It's a tragic story: this is a good family," said Abdirizak Karod, executive director of the Somali Centre for Family Services. He said the Somali community in Ottawa holds no radical Islamist elements. "It's not our culture," said Mr. Karod, who knows Mr. Dirie's brother, Hassan, and once met Saleman. The police, he said, should reveal what quantity of poison was found in Mr. Dirie's room since a small amount would seem to pose little danger. According to a report in the Rocky Mountain News, the FBI recovered a jar labelled hazardous, which contained about half a litre of white powder, from Mr. Dirie's hotel room. That powder has been identified as cyanide, but Denver police would not confirm how much of the chemical was found. In a 2006 article published in the Journal of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Dr. Mark Keim, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that "the characteristics of cyanide are those of the ideal terrorist weapon." "Cyanide has a long history of use as a murder weapon, terrorist weapon and weapon of war as well as an agent of suicide and attempted genocide," he wrote. In 2001, he noted, four Moroccan men were arrested for their role in a plot to poison the U.S. embassy's water supply with sodium cyanide. In 1978, more than 900 people died after ingesting cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in Jonestown, Guyana, where the Rev. Jim Jones had established a commune. The chemical is readily available, with an estimated 1.84 billion pounds of cyanide produced each year for use in industrial processes, such as the making of paper, textiles and plastics. It is susceptible to theft, he said, while being transported on railways and trucks. In its crystal form, cyanide can be introduced into the water supply or into food, Dr. Keim said, and does not require specialized skills to handle. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cyanide prevents the cells of the body from using oxygen. It can cause nausea, dizziness and headaches within minutes; exposure to a significant amount of the chemical can produce convulsions, unconsciousness, respiratory failure and death. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Nearly half of Canadians say mental illness used as an excuse Poll shows extent of discrimination, CMA says Sharon Kirkey, Canwest news service Published: Monday, August 18, 2008 Nearly one in two Canadians believes mental illness isn't always "real" but a cop-out for bad behaviour and personal weakness, a new national survey shows. One in four is afraid to be around someone with a serious mental illness, and about half of the 2,024 Canadians surveyed online said they would avoid socializing with, or marrying someone with a mental illness. The Ipsos Reid survey, commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association, will be released today at their annual meeting in Montreal. It "shines a harsh, and frankly unflattering light on the attitudes we Canadians have concerning mental health," CMA president Dr. Brian Day said in a release. "In some ways, mental illness is the final frontier of socially-acceptable discrimination." The irony is that 15 per cent of adults polled reported having been diagnosed by a doctor as being clinically depressed; another 23 per cent reported feelings of worthlessness and helplessness. Meanwhile, the number of prescriptions dispensed for antidepressants in the country is approaching one prescription per Canadian per year. The online survey, conducted in June, might explain why: - Just half would tell friends or co-workers they have a family member suffering from a mental illness, as opposed to 72 per cent who would share a diagnosis of cancer - One in four (27 per cent) said they would be fearful being around someone with a serious mental illness - Nearly half (46 per cent) agreed that "we call some things mental illness because it gives some people an excuse for poor behaviour and personal failings." - Two in five (42 per cent) aren't certain they would socialize with a friend with a mental illness - 55 per cent said they would be unlikely to marry someone with a mental illness - Most wouldn't hire a lawyer, someone to teach or take care of their child, a financial adviser, a doctor or a landscaper who has a mental illness. "I wish I could say I was knocked off my feet. I wish I could say this came as a huge surprise and disappointment," says Dr. David Goldbloom, vice-chairman of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which is charged with developing a national mental health strategy. "The reality is, in 21st century Canada, that it doesn't." "If somebody said to you they had a pain in their stomach, you wouldn't assume it was fake; you would assume they had a problem and had to get it looked at," says Canada's mental health commissioner, Michael Kirby. "People aren't willing to recognize that mental illness is a genuine illness." Fewer than half of Canadians think alcohol and drug addiction is a mental illness and only one in five would socialize with someone struggling with substance abuse, according to the survey. The attitudes reflect "an almost religious judgment of people involved with alcohol or drugs as sinners," says Dr. Goldbloom, senior medical adviser in education and public affairs at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. A psychiatric diagnosis can threaten a person's sense of identity, and that "is a huge source of fear," Dr. Goldbloom says. "As visible as the person on the street corner who is sleeping on a grate and hallucinating is in the downtown core of any city, there is also an invisible army of people walking to work in the office towers around that grate, who themselves have also experienced some form of mental illness and substance abuse, who have recovered, who are back in the workforce, who are back with their families," Dr. Goldbloom says. "But the message is very clear from this survey: They're not going to talk about it. They're not going to disclose. And they're not going to disclose as long as there is a culture of shame, secrecy and stigma." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Canadians Abroad. Murder trial under way for Halifax man Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 The trial of a Canadian man on U.S. murder charges got underway yesterday in Plattsburgh, New York. Glen Race, 27, of Halifax, is on trial by judge alone for the murder of Darcy Manor of Moers, New York, about 80 kilometres south of Montreal. The body of Mr. Manor, a 35-year-old father of two, was found at an isolated hunting camp in northern New York State. He had been shot to death. Mr. Race, a paranoid schizophrenic, is also accused of killing Paul Knott, 44, and Trevor Brewster, 45, near Halifax in May 2007. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Cornwall murder suspect attacked stepfather in past Last year, panel found stepson threat to public despite making progress with mental condition Neco Cockburn and David Gonczol, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, September 13, 2008 A 41-year-old mentally ill Brockville man charged with first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of his stepfather in Cornwall had tried to kill him before, believing he was lifting a curse. Michael Madsen, a 59-year-old arena security guard, was stabbed several times in his upper body, according to a witness, at his Baldwin Avenue home shortly after 3 p.m. on Thursday. Cornwall police arrested his stepson, Jonathan Madsen, at the scene without incident. Mr. Madsen has been found not criminally responsible for trying or travelling to kill his stepfather twice within the past decade. In October of last year, the Ontario Review Board -- which reviews the status of every person who has been found not criminally responsible or unfit to stand trial because of a mental disorder -- found he was a significant threat to the safety of the public, although it stated his "major mental illness" appeared to be "well-stabilized" and he had made "significant and praiseworthy progress." Mr. Madsen's psychiatrist also found that he remained a danger to his stepfather, with whom he was ordered not to have contact or communication unless in the presence of hospital staff or an approved person. Mr. Madsen has struggled with mental illness for years. On Dec. 11, 2003, he was found not criminally responsible on a charge of aggravated assault after he stabbed his stepfather in the family home. When officers arrived, Mr. Madsen told them he had put a curse on himself and the world three years before the incident. He said since then, he had received messages from the TV and radio advising him that the world must end "and, even though he loved his father very much, his father had to die first," review board documents state. Mr. Madsen appeared to be remorseful and told officers he did not want to stab his father, but had to, the documents state. On March 8, 2005, Mr. Madsen called police from a Cornwall truck stop and told a dispatcher that he wasn't feeling well and needed police help. He told officers who arrived that "I was going to kill my dad," review board documents state. Police found he had a hunting knife with a 12- to 15-centimetre long blade. Mr. Madsen was found not criminally responsible on charges of uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm and disobeying a court order after that incident. Since February 2007, he had lived in Brockville in a two-bedroom apartment that he shared with a forensic outpatient, according to review board documents from the October hearing. At the hearing, Mr. Madsen's psychiatrist, Dr. Neil McFeely, told the board that his patient had done well over the previous six months and that his mental status at the time was the best he had seen in seven years of treatment. Dr. McFeely said he still believed Mr. Madsen remained a danger to his stepfather "and that it was important that his mental status and his behaviours be modified by the hospital," review board documents state. The psychiatrist also stated Mr. Madsen's medication had helped "significantly with his delusional system," according to the documents. Although Cornwall police released few details about the events leading up to the stabbing on Thursday, a man reached at Mr. Madsen's Brockville home said he had moved out two days ago. The man would not provide further information. Neighbours in Cornwall remained shocked by the death of Michael Madsen, recalling how he would stop and chat while heading to and from his job as a security guard at the Cornwall Civic Complex. "He was a great man and a great neighbour. He was a funny guy," said Yvon D'Aoust. Mr. D'Aoust said he was sitting on his front step on Thursday when he heard a noise and went to the back of the Madsen home to investigate. He said he saw a man standing over Mr. Madsen before he dropped a knife and fell down. Mr. D'Aoust ordered the man to sit on the ground while he called 911 and then attended to Michael Madsen, who appeared to have suffered at least 10 stab wounds on his head, neck and rib area, he said. Mr. D'Aoust said police arrived quickly. Michael Madsen was transported to Cornwall Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Yesterday, police sealed off the home and a police tent could be seen in the backyard. Jonathan Madsen wore blue police-issued overalls and did not speak during a brief court appearance yesterday afternoon. He was remanded in custody until his next scheduled court appearance on Monday morning. ncockburn@thecitizen.canwest.com © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

Grisly killings expose system's failure He was hearing voices and cried for help. When no one answered, he butchered them KIRK MAKIN JUSTICE REPORTER September 23, 2008 at 9:14 PM EDT Hours before he locked his family in their basement apartment on Feb. 9, 2006, and butchered them, Huc Minh Chau was still crying out for help. In a moment of lucidity - when the voices in his head briefly stopped ordering him to kill the demons he believed were inhabiting his wife and two young children - he telephoned a friend and asked to be taken to a hospital. The friend arrived too late. In a frenzy of chopping and slashing with a meat cleaver, Mr. Chau ended the life of his common-law wife, Shao-Fang Liang, and three-year-old daughter, Vivian. Believing his five-month-old baby, Ivan, to be possessed, Mr. Chau carved his brain from his skull in order to remove "Buddha's beads ... implanted into the head of this dog spirit." "I didn't want things to happen like that," Mr. Chau, 43, said in an exclusive interview yesterday. "I feel so sad. I cry every night for my wife and daughter and son." Huc Minh Chau was found not criminally responsible for killing his wife, Shao-Fang Liang, daughter, Vivian and his infant son Ivan. (handout photo) As a weeping Mr. Chau was removed from a Toronto courtroom to begin an indefinite stay in Whitby Mental Health Centre, hard questions about the medical system's failure to prevent the tragedy took centre stage. Crown and defence lawyers pointed straight at Mr. Chau's family doctor - Edmond Lo - who kept his patient on a low dosage of his monthly medication, and said after the killings that he cannot, as part of his job, be expected to keep tabs on even seriously ill mental patients. "He never followed up to see if Mr. Chau was taking his medication," defence lawyer Peter Lindsay said in an interview. "He never booked another appointment." Mr. Lindsay said that Mr. Chau apparently failed to show up for his regular monthly injection in January, 2006, weeks before the killings. The tragedy might have been averted had there been a mechanism in place in Dr. Lo's office to follow up on him - and had Dr. Lo probed the paranoid hallucinations his patient was experiencing, Mr. Lindsay said. "There were clear warning signs that something was wrong," he said. In a joint submission yesterday to Ontario Superior Court Judge David McCombs, Mr. Lindsay, and prosecutors Phil Kotanen and Kim Motyl said that Mr. Chau's 18-year history of hallucinations, paranoia and bizarre behaviour worsened considerably in late 2005. His monthly injections of Piportil were losing their effectiveness, they added. "Mr. Chau saw his family doctor, Dr. Edmond Lo, several times in the fall of 2005, reporting symptoms consistent with a breakthrough of his schizophrenia," the statement said. "These could have been addressed by increasing his dosage, administering it more frequently, or changing medications. None of these steps were taken, however." Cogent and occasionally animated in the interview yesterday, Mr. Chau - a native of Vietnam who immigrated to Canada in 1981 - repeatedly referred to the attack on his family as "the accident." He said that he had depended on doctors to keep his symptoms under control, and they failed him. "It was because of my medication," Mr. Chau said. "I lost my control." He added that he looks forward to being released in the near future: "Now, I am very well," he said. "I am getting injections." By the terms of an order issued by Judge McCombs, Mr. Chau - who was deemed not criminally responsible - will be assessed by the Ontario Review Board within 45 days and every year thereafter. He can be released only if the board determines that he no longer presents a threat to the community. At the time of the tragedy, the Chau family was subsisting mainly on donations from relatives. Ms. Liang, who was working in a dim sum restaurant when she met Mr. Chau five years ago, had become primarily a dedicated stay-at-home mother. Jenny Chu, one of Mr. Chau's eight siblings, said in an interview yesterday that she lodged a complaint soon after the killings against Dr. Lo with the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. She said that she intends to file a second complaint against Mr. Chau's long-time psychiatrist. Ms. Chu said that her brother showed unmistakable signs of growing problems in late 2006. Family members soon became "100 per cent" certain that Mr. Chau would end up going berserk, she said. He refused to go near his son and began to irrationally boil water, Ms. Chu said. Mr. Chau also shaved his hair as a form of spiritual cleansing, destroyed Buddhist shrines at his sister's home and his own, cut up his children's clothes and photographs of them, and repeatedly threw the contents of his home outside. At the same time, Mr. Chau also appeared to have periods in which he recognized that he was ill and might even present a danger. A sense of this came across when he placed a 911 call to police after the killings, describing himself as "crazy." In a psychiatric report filed with the court yesterday, Ms. Chu said that she had accompanied her brother on Jan. 6, 2006, to visit a psychiatrist who was treating him, Dr. Hung Tat Lo. Even though Mr. Chau was saying that "the devil was telling him to kill the family," she said that the psychiatrist was unwilling to try to have him committed to a hospital: "He told me to stop talking," she added. "He was rude." According to transcripts from Mr. Chau's preliminary inquiry, Dr. Lo, the family doctor, said that during the final appointments, he failed to ask Mr. Chau whether he was suffering from delusions. Dr. Lo conceded that he ought to have sought more information from Mr. Chau's psychiatrist. "Do you have any excuse why you didn't?" Mr. Lindsay asked in cross-examination. "No," Dr. Lo replied. Chi-Kun Shi, a lawyer who is helping the family, said that Ms. Liang had another young son from a previous relationship who was not at home on the day of the killings. She said that soon after the tragedy the boy and his grandmother disappeared. Relatives have been unable to locate them to give the boy $40,000 donated by the Chinese community. Ms. Chu said that her extended family has been in shock since the killings. "My hands shake," she said. "I can't sleep. I'm still under care by a psychiatrist." She said that her children have never been told the truth about what happened; they believe that their cousins died in an accident. In light of her family's tragedy, Ms. Chu said that health authorities should carefully reconsider how potentially dangerous patients are assessed and handled. © Copyright 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Simon

• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/breakdown

I left a comment in the "Speak your mind..." section. I also joined the Breakdown series Facebook group.

• http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16204889503

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Simon

Mentally ill Canadian convicted of murder in U.S. court Man still faces charges in two Halifax slayings Andrea Van Valken burg and Ken Meaney, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, September 27, 2008 PLATTSBURGH, New York - A U.S. judge found a Canadian man with a history of schizophrenia guilty yesterday of first-degree murder, the first of three murder charges he is facing. Glen Race, 27, of Halifax stood trial by judge alone in Plattsburgh, New York, for the shooting death of Darcy Manor of Mooers, New York, about 80 kilometres south of Montreal. Mr. Race, who was sought for two Halifax murders at the time, crossed the U.S. border in May 2007 and shot Mr. Manor in the back through the window of a hunting cottage as Mr. Manor worked on the cottage's water system. Mr. Race showed no emotion as Judge Kevin Ryan announced his decision, but dozens of Mr. Manor's family members clutched one another and cried. Mr. Manor's wife, Heather, smiled outside the courthouse and said she was "very happy with the verdict." Mr. Race's parents, Mark and Donna, and his only brother, Douglas, had attended the trial since it began and were shaken by the verdict. "We, as a family, are very discouraged by the outcome of the trial," Mr. Race's brother said in a brief statement afterward. "We will continue to strive toward the health and well-being of our family member." His family said "extradition and appeals are possibilities that will be researched and pursued in the future." District attorney Andrew Wylie said he will work to keep Mr. Race in the New York prison system. "We're certainly going to make sure that Mr. Race serves his sentence in New York," he said outside the courthouse. He did hold out the possibility that Mr. Race could be briefly returned to Halifax to face the other murder charges. But Chris Hansen, spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service, said the province would be "proceeding vigorously" with attempts to have Mr. Race extradited to face murder charges in the May 2007 deaths of Paul Knott, 44, and Trevor Brewster, 45, near Halifax. "Just because Mr. Race has been found guilty of murder in the United States and would be incarcerated there for a long time does not in any way mean we intend to forget about the charges here, for the sake of Mr. Brewster and Mr. Knott and their families," Mr. Hansen said. Mr. Race is expected to return to the U.S. court for sentencing Dec. 9. He faces a minimum of 25 years to life in prison or a maximum term of life without the possibility of parole. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

It is the Mental Illness Awareness Week between 2008-10-05 and 2008-10-11. I attended the uOttawa Institute of Mental Health Research Public Lecture entitled "Breaking the Barriers: Out of the Shadows Through Science (Exploring the stigma of mental illness)". The auditorium at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre was full house.

I was in newspaper Ottawa Citizen 2 times this week, i.e., in article "Online poll declares Harper debate's victor, with Layton second" on 2008-10-03, and in article "Readers tell us: 'The most exciting time of my life'" on 2008-10-04. The article states: "I have survived a personal tragedy which involved mental illness of a family member."

I submitted my story about mental illness of a family member to syndicated newspaper column "Dear Abby" once again, but it was not published. :-(

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Simon

I went cycling to the Champlain Lookout of the Gatineau Park for the 22nd time this year, the last time for this season. The lifetime count is 35 times. I set a personal record of less than 3 hours for the round-trip, i.e., 1 hour and 35 minutes to go up there, 10 minutes of rest at the summit, and 1 hour and 10 minutes to come back. Before taking flaxseeds, it was taking me 6 hours for the round-trip, so it is 1/2 time now.

Last week, I went to see a movie "Flash of Genius (2008)" with my 15-year old daughter. I hope that my life will be captured in a real-story movie blending "The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)" and "Flash of Genius (2008)"...

I also watched "Psycho III (1986)" on TV. Previously, I regarded those Psycho movies simply as horror movies, but I now understand the mental condition of Norman Bates.

Here is a sad but interesting story.

Stripped to nothing For Better or For Worse cartoonist reveals that her life does not imitate art Rebecca Field Jager, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Sunday, October 19, 2008 For Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better or For Worse, one of the most successful comic strips of our time, April 23, 2007 was an ordinary Saturday. Weather-wise, it was a good day, the kind residents of Northern Ontario live for: warm and sunny, swollen with the promise of summer. ... If Lynn can't remember the details of the day she'll never forget, she knows this much is true: Around eight o'clock in the evening her husband of 30 years walked into the kitchen and broke her heart. I'm leaving you, he told her. I've been seeing another woman for some time. You know her. It may not have come out in precisely those words or in that exact order, but he was going and that was that; he made no amends for his betrayal. ... Although talent, tenacity and the unwavering support of friends have seen her through this time of crisis, it is her children, Aaron, 35, and Kate, 31, who held her hand and, when need be, held her up. "I really appreciate my kids so much more now. I'm mean, they really looked after me." The experience has made them closer as a family, she says, albeit with one person missing. "It's an interesting thing why somebody would walk away from their history, their photographs, their life, their children, their possessions, their partner, their best friend ..." Interesting, but baffling. These are the very things Lynn treasures. "I'm the type of person who wants to know why things happen and I want to understand what happened here. Maybe it's just that when your partner has a fantasy, a woman he doesn't have to live with every day, you can't live up to that. You're real, you're not perfect, you just can't live up to a fantasy.' Would she take him back? 'No. It was unforgivable, absolutely unpardonable -- but I'm not a person who can hate.' ... © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Simon

It is interesting how the brain interprets/misinterprets. So many problems in the world are the result of plain misunderstanding instead of bad intentions. Yesterday, I watched a documentary called "Fixing My Brain". On the same day, my 17-year old daughter was complaining about her inability to understand when she reads a book. She is in the arts programme at a college. She sees the world in pictures instead of in words. I encouraged her by saying that Albert Einstein had the same problem. It is not dyslexia, so I am going to explore it further.

• http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/thelens/2008/fixingmybrain/

I discussed her condition over breakfast, and it is clear that her case is not dyslexia. It seems to be a concentration problem, something like a mild case of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) according to self-diagnosis. She can have a razor-sharp focus on things she likes. On other topics, her concentration drifts off. Well, I gather that Issac Newton had that problem...

Come to think of it, I do excellent work on certain topics. On other subject (mostly related to money-making), I am worse than a student or a bum. So, it seems to be hereditary, I am afraid.

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Simon

Reality age drives delusion to new heights: experts 'Truman Show Syndrome' a 21st-century affliction, researchers say 27 Nov 2008 BY TOM LEONARD THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NEW YORK · In the 1998 film The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays a man whose life is an elaborate hoax broadcast 24 hours a day to a global television audience. It is the perfect illness for the reality-television generation: a paranoid fear of being stuck in a TV show. Mental health experts have identified a 21st-century form of delusion - described as The Truman Show Syndrome - whose sufferers are convinced that their lives are being played out in front of an audience. The self-exposure culture peddled by reality shows such as Big Brother and Internet sites such as Facebook and YouTube has provided an incubator for those inclined to delusional behaviour, encouraging them to put their fantasies on a global stage, researchers said. Dr. Joel Gold, a New York City psychiatrist, and his brother Ian, a Montreal academic, said they had been inundated with cases of The Truman Show Syndrome, named after the 1998 film starring Jim Carrey. In the movie, the central character gradually realizes that his humdrum life is being filmed for a reality show and that everyone he knows is acting. The condition might seem comical - one man went to a U.S. government building and announced that he wanted his show to end - but it tended to be "absolutely debilitating" because sufferers believed they could trust no one, said Dr. Gold, the head of psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He said he had been contacted by the father of a girl who had contemplated suicide because she believed it was the only way of "getting out of the show." It was also difficult to treat because, as he had found himself, sufferers will dismiss their doctors and psychiatrists as actors. The existence of a specific Truman Syndrome has divided experts, with critics pointing out that delusional patients have long believed that friends or relatives have been replaced by impostors. However, the Gold brothers counter that the Truman Syndrome is different because of the "sweeping" scope of the delusion, taking in society at large. "We're not claiming it's a new form of mental illness and we're not suggesting these people would be well if there was no YouTube," Dr. Gold said. "But we've passed a watershed moment with respect to the Internet, in which you can do something very silly and without skill, and yet become famous instantly." Critics who have dismissed sufferers as narcissists were missing the point, he said. "These are not people who want to be famous: quite the contrary, they want to be left alone." © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Alberta man testifies about stabbing girlfriend's parents in their home Steinke tells court he was shocked to see girl cut brother's throat BY SHERRI ZICKEFOOSEDECEMBER 2, 2008 CALGARY - An Alberta man facing three counts of first-degree murder described yesterday how he broke into the home of his then-12-year-old girlfriend, stabbed her mother and father, and watched while the girl cut her eight-year-old brother's throat. An emotional Jeremy Allan Steinke, testifying in his own defence, said that on April 23, 2006, he got into the basement of the home in Medicine Hat, Alta., through a backyard window. His girlfriend's mother came down the stairs, turned on the light and screamed. Mr. Steinke said he was wearing a black Neoprene mask, black hoodie and black jeans. "I freaked out and I ended up pulling a knife out of my hoodie pocket and inflicting a wound on (my girlfriend's) mother," he said. "Where?" asked defence lawyer Alain Hepner. "In her abdomen. ... I only recall stabbing (her) once. She had fallen and I turned around and seen (my girlfriend's father) come running down the stairs. He got to the bottom of the stairs and there was a screwdriver sitting near the bottom of the stairs and he picked it up. There was a standoff before he lunged at me." Mr. Steinke said the father also punched him or jabbed a finger in his eye. "When he attacked me with the screwdriver, I tripped and fell. He jumped on top of me, and that's when I started stabbing him," he said. "And then I somehow got out from underneath him and turned to run, and he had grabbed me in a chokehold and that's when I began to stab him again. The next thing I remember, I blacked out or something. He was lying on the ground on his stomach. "I turned around to walk away. I climbed the stairs to the kitchen. I stood there and that's when (my girlfriend) came downstairs, gave me a hug, kissed me and told me that she loved me. "She turned around and went back upstairs. I waited for maybe 30 seconds. I don't know how long, but I turned to go upstairs to see what she was doing. I assumed she was grabbing some belongings or something, and I heard some kind of conversation, I don't know what was said. I got to the top of the stairs and that's when I looked into (her brother's) room and I seen her cut his throat. He was lying on his back on the bed and she was standing over him." Mr. Steinke said he did not go into the brother's room and did not touch him or stab him. "I stood there in shock and she walked past me casually into the bathroom. I stepped into the bathroom to check out my eye and went downstairs. She came down, gave me another hug, grabbed me by my arms and told me to wait for her. I told her I couldn't breathe and that I was going outside for some fresh air." Mr. Steinke said he waited several minutes, panicked, then ran to his truck, drove back to his mother's trailer and showered. Earlier yesterday, Mr. Steinke, now 25, described himself as a paranoid schizophrenic and the product of a brutal childhood. He told the court he suffered beatings and was subjected to cruelty as a child at the hands of his alcoholic mother's abusive ex-husband and boyfriends. An unstable and impoverished childhood saw a disenfranchised Mr. Steinke teased by classmates, who called him "Stinky Steinke." "I only had a few friends because I was always moving around," said Mr. Steinke, who dropped out of school in Grade 10. The teasing led him to befriend younger students who didn't poke fun at him, he said. In a soft voice, Mr. Steinke said he is taking anti-depressants and medication for paranoid schizophrenia. He choked back tears while describing his mother's terminal lung illness. He said he has battled thoughts of suicide and has been cutting himself since he was 15. He said he made a half-hearted attempted to harm himself on Saint Valentine's Day, 2006. Three days later, he began his illicit romance with a 12-year-old girl he met at a Medicine Hat shopping mall. He said he thought the girl was 16 and only learned her real age when the two were arrested at gunpoint in Leader, Sask., the morning after the killings. "Did you not have a concern about the age difference?" asked Mr. Steinke's lawyer, Alain Hepner. "At the time, no, I didn't," said Mr. Steinke. Mr. Steinke's then-girlfriend -- the daughter of the slain Medicine Hat family, who took the stand at her own trial last year -- has been convicted on three counts of first-degree murder. She is serving a youth sentence involving time at a psychiatric hospital. Her father, mother and eight-year-old brother were stabbed to death in the middle of the night. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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Margaret Trudeau to write about struggle with mental illness BY PAUL GESSELLDECEMBER 10, 2008 Margaret Trudeau is writing a book about her struggles with bipolar disorder. Photograph by : Mike Carroccetto, The Ottawa Citizen OTTAWA - Margaret Trudeau is writing a memoir, to be published in the fall of 2010, detailing her many years struggling with bipolar depression. News of the forthcoming book was announced Wednesday by Ms. Trudeau's Toronto-based publisher, HarperCollins Canada. "The memoir, intended to guide and inspire others suffering from mental illness, will also describe in some detail how the Canadian medical system helped her and where it fell short," according to a statement from HarperCollins. Iris Tupholme, vice president, publisher and editor-in-chief of HarperCollins, says the former wife of the late Pierre Trudeau will be offering "a very honest, very candid account" of her battle with a mental illness that affected her and those close to her. "This is a brave and compassionate book - one that will remain an important part of the Canadian consciousness for years to come," Ms. Tupholme says. Ms. Trudeau, while the prime minister's wife in the 1970s, publicly acknowledged that she had sought psychiatric treatment for "severe emotional stress," but not until 2006 did she publicly describe herself as suffering from bipolar disorder. She has since lent her name and profile to educating the public about mental illness. Her efforts have been recognized. She won the 2008 Lectureship Award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada. She sits on the University of British Columbia's Mental Health Institute Executive Advisory Board and will receive the 2009 Humanitarian Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry in May 2009. Ms. Trudeau, 60, has written two other autobiographical books, both of a kiss-and-tell nature. Beyond Reason and Consequences dealt with her rocky marriage to Mr. Trudeau, the initial years after their 1977 separation and various romantic adventures after leaving 24 Sussex. The Trudeaus had three sons, Justin (currently a Montreal MP), Alexandre (a Montreal film-maker) and Michel (who was killed in an avalanche in British Columbia in 1998). After divorcing Pierre in 1984, Margaret married Ottawa businessman Fried Kemper. They had two children, Kyle and Alicia. That marriage also faltered. Ms. Trudeau now lives in Montreal. While still in Ottawa, Ms. Trudeau volunteered with various charitable organizations and frequently appeared in gossip columns. In an interview in 2007, she said she wanted to help others who "feel so helpless they consider suicide because they don't think there's any way they're going to get off the (bipolar) roller-coaster." There are, in fact, ways to get off that roller-coaster, she said. "You can get off if there is good treatment and medical science has come a long way in the last 10 or 15 years to create drugs and therapies that really help you to achieve balance." © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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A memoir worth writing DECEMBER 12, 2008 Margaret Trudeau's decision to write a memoir about living with bipolar disorder was likely a difficult one but in the end a good one. The book, to appear in 2010, could provide a real service, especially for women. Consider Ms. Trudeau's own situation. Think of all those years, during and after her marriage to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, that she was ridiculed and shamed for what was euphemistically called "erratic" behaviour. Historically, men who exhibited symptoms of mental illness -- even before anyone knew what mental illness was -- were called eccentric. In some cases this even had a positive connotation. Abraham Lincoln is thought to have been a depressive but this endowed him with a seriousness of purpose, even a gravitas. Women on the other hand would get saddled with labels like hysterical. Margaret Trudeau was written off as weird or flaky. It's painful now to think that Canadians may have been making fun of someone who wasn't well. Now, when Ms. Trudeau first went public a couple of years ago about being bipolar, she made clear that she was always destined to be a "high-spirited person," despite the disorder. And remember, she was very young -- 22 -- when she married the prime minister. If she made errors of judgment during her tenure at 24 Sussex, many of them were no doubt a product of her own immaturity. Even so, Ms. Trudeau acknowledges that something was not quite right. In a 2006 interview with writer Anne Kingston, Ms. Trudeau said that her family members look back to when she was very young and realize that the emotional swings were likely the harbinger of trouble ahead. "So I ask parents to watch their teenagers and see if their emotions are out of proportion -- if they're too high or too talkative, not sleeping, not eating," she told Ms. Kingston. This is the sort of first-person insight -- the wisdom of experience -- that gives value to memoirs about confronting, and surviving, illness. The case of Margaret Trudeau is instructive because it reminds us just how slow society was to accept the legitimacy of mental illness. Ms. Trudeau's children were born in the 1970s -- not that long ago -- but even the wife of a prime minister had trouble finding anyone who took postpartum depression seriously. Back then, as she told Ms. Kingston, everyone assured her she was simply having the "baby blues." They assured her it would disappear in a few months, but it didn't. There are many Canadian women who will know exactly what Ms. Trudeau is talking about. As health professionals will testify, diseases that carry social stigmas are hard to fight. Because colorectal cancer affects a very private and sensitive part of the body, people are still reluctant to discuss symptoms and screening. In many parts of the world, the stigma attached to AIDS is an obstacle to preventing and treating the disease. Mental illness has long carried a terrible stigma, which public awareness efforts such as the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health's You Know Who I Am campaign are working to erase. To this end, Margaret Trudeau can make a valuable contribution. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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