Episode description:
World Bipolar Day is on March 30. Its aim is to bring world awareness to bipolar disorders and to eliminate social stigma and discrimination.
Joëlle Pouliot is a journalist and mental health advocate. She also lives with bipolar disorder. Her first mental health episode hit her at the age of 27 when she had returned from completing a master’s degree in journalism abroad. On the cusp of her future and a successful career, she suddenly found her mind oscillating between periods of deep depression followed by hyperactive mania that alienated her friends and family.
In this first episode in her series called BETTER, Joëlle’s closest caregivers–her divorced parents and younger brother–reflect on the early days of her illness. How they struggled to understand what was happening to their child and sibling. How they overextended themselves to care for her. And ultimately, how they learned to accept help for themselves and reimagine a future that is wildly different from the one they had previously imagined.
Series description – BETTER
After a bipolar diagnosis derailed her life, journalist Joëlle Pouliot decided her only path towards recovery is to approach her illness as a reporter on a beat. Over the next half-decade, Joëlle documented the stories of a diverse group of Canadians suffering from mental illness and their caregivers — the friends, family, and community members who put their own lives on hold to look after loved ones. Using Joëlle’s experience and journals as a central story arc and punctuated by insights from AMI Quebec Executive Director (and Order of Canada recipient) Dr. Ella Amir, Better paints a candid picture of the reality of millions of Canadians who suffer from and care for people with mental illness.