I haven’t written a lot about the “mad pride” movement in the world, because frankly I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve lived my entire life seeing people I love devastated by the effects of mental illness, including a good friend who took his own life because of his deep depression. Contrast that with people who have been forcibly medicated, only to find when they stopped the medication, they could get better on their own, and I’m left scratching my head.
Of course, these are just two anecdotes out of the millions of stories we live and breathe about mental illness. To me, there is no “right answer” about the One True Path to find enlightenment or to relieve one’s suffering from mental illness.
So when I read an article in the National Post that talks about a conference in Toronto about “mad pride,” I’m a little shocked at the tone either the author of the article — or the “mad pride” organizers — are taking…