Bipolar disorder took Margaret Trudeau on an extreme, emotional roller coaster.
From the depths of postpartum depression to manic frenzy that drove her to run off to New York to take acting lessons and dance the nights away at Studio 54 — Canada’s youngest first lady shared her lonely, frightening journey to recovery as keynote speaker at the one-day conference Mental Health in the Workplace in Lacombe on Tuesday.
She said her troubles began in her late teens with stress, lack of sleep and marijuana. In her 20s, she fell into a deep depression after giving birth to her second child with former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
“Within about three weeks it was like a light switch had turned off in my brain. I had no diagnosis. No medication. No followup,” said Trudeau, 65, who spoke before an audience of over 280 people at Lacombe Memorial Centre.
Mania followed a few months later when the disorder caused dopamine to flood her brain. One day instead of visiting Montreal as planned, she took off for Paris and Greece without a passport.
“You have one great idea after the next. I wasn’t eating. I wasn’t sleeping. I was in a frenzy.”
Trudeau said that led to her first stay on a locked hospital ward. When she got out, her emotions continued to ricochet for a few years until she left 24 Sussex Dr., the prime minister’s official Ottawa residence, and fled to New York. A doctor she met there identified her condition and prescribed lithium which finally gave her life some balance.
She said after another marriage, more children, and going off the lithium by herself, the mania returned. Being prescribed the antidepressant Prozac only made her mania worse.
She turned to marijuana and alcohol to deal with her pain after her son Michel died in an avalanche, followed by the illness and death her ex-husband Trudeau.
She said it took another hospital stay, plus pharmaceuticals and cognitive behavioural therapy, to begin to recover.
Trudeau said she couldn’t have done it alone. Her family pointed her in the direction and she had to trust the medical community.
She said good mental health is possible.
“Trust me on this. You can’t just get it from a pill, though. You have to be actively involved. You have to want to get better,” said Trudeau when she took a break from signing copies of Changing My Mind, her book about her experience with bipolar disorder.
And she urged new mothers to be honest about how they feel and to reach out for help if needed.
“It’s not the worst thing in the world to say you’re overwhelmed. Being a new mom with a crying baby that is so small and so fragile — be authentic. If you want to cry, cry, but get someone to cry on their shoulder. Don’t do it alone.”
Mental Health in the Workplace was hosted by Lacombe Action Group and Lacombe Employment Centre.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com