It seems to me that ignorance and denial is one of the biggest problems when it comes to depression, mental illness and suicide, regardless of your country of origin. Firstly, it is a well publicised fact that apart from China, males have the highest suicide rates in all other countries. Secondly, just because an individual doesn't display outward signs of an internal struggle with depression does not mean they are not suffering from it. In fact, many people who successfully commit suicide appeared completely "normal" to their family and friends beforehand. Those who suffer from severe depression often cannot verbalise their struggles and in a way seem to live an alternative false external life away from their inner life of depression.

I found some very interesting wiki stats here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Canada which may or may not be completely accurate, but certainly give a picture of the problem of suicides in this country. It seems to me that mental illness is still "taboo" and considered a weakness as opposed to a very real problem that anyone could suffer from at some point in their lives. Bravo to those who have spoken about their personal struggles on this thread, because that takes guts and is exactly what we need, to be able to speak about this subject without fear of recrimination and to be able to search for solutions.

Oh for sure they spend far more money in the long run doing it the way they do it.

I figured it out last year and based on prices at a private outpatient DBT facility in Vancouver a year of weekly individual therapy, and group therapy meeting once per week, would cost roughly 5,000.

How much did 6 weeks inpatient, and 12+ ER visits end up costing for me over the same time frame? Probably more then 5,000.

I do my best, but I am nowhere near perfect, and when the perfect mix of stress, emotions etc line up, I end up back in the ER, or at times self harming or overdosing on my medications.

It's hard to explain how fast suicidal thoughts can come on and how fast things can go down hill.

I am the first person to admit, those with bpd are difficult to handle at times, but there is now effective treatment, and if we could just access said treatment, most of us could live very functional and productive lives.

Like all illnesses the are different levels of severity with bpd, some people are less severe and some more severe, and some people are more functional then others.


There are people with bpd who can hold jobs, have families and manage their symptoms, but there are also those with bpd who can't hold a job, can't manage relationships, end up in unstable situation which increases the chances of suicide and self harm and frequent ER visits.

I am not able to hold long term employment, I end up so stressed, and emotional turmoil, that I almost always end up losing my job, I am always one foot from being on the streets which adds stress and the in turn worsens symptoms, increases the risk of self harm and the list goes on.

There was a spate of it in Wales not so long ago in Bridgend.

That's where I was born. Perhaps that's why I'm such a misery guts.

A few years ago, I took some thanatology courses at a local uni. One of the other students presented a piece about her work as a teacher at a community in Iqualuit. It was very moving and eye opening. The parents in that community almost have the mentality that they assume they will lose at least one of their children to suicide before the reach adulthood. She was there for 3-4 years I think, and the list of names she read out was horrific These are people who have been stripped of their identity and are now being given no support and seem to just keep crumbling.

There is definitely a lack of provision here, and as all healthcare seems to boil down to money I'm not surprised.

First nations people have their own healthcare that's funded differently to the rest of us.

This is a rather shocking statistic (taken from Wikipedia): During 1999-2003, the suicide rate among Nunavut males aged 15 to 19 was estimated to exceed 800 per 100,000 population, compared to around 14 for the general Canadian male population in that age group.

Nevertheless, I find it hard to accept the "stripped of their identity" thing. To me it seems more a case of struggling with their identity, not willing to live in their ancient culture, yet resisting modernisation and assimilation with the rest of Canada. To the extent that Canada enables this dichotomy by funding and being involved, Canada is to some extent culpable.

Definitely not Ireland anyways it's just bed and board in the hospitals, patients usually given meds and discharged ASAP! Forget any therapy as it costs way too much money and hence we have the revolving door of the psychiatric hospital.... It's funny that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting differenT results!! I used to work in MH until I realised that these patients are treated like second class citizens. The system was too mighty for me to 'fight' on my own. Soul destroying for anyone affected involved with the system....

Its pretty similar in the hospitals I have in. The goal is to discharge as soon as possible.

In my lengthy stay in the hospital last year, I only stayed as long as I did because I ended up harming myself 2 days after they had released me the first time.

This is what the day consisted of:

Wake up around 8am, get pills, and have breakfast.

At 1030 there was an arts group one could go to that was 1 hour.

At 2pm there was a 30 minute relaxation group.

Lunch was at 12, and dinner between 530 and 6.

TV was allowed on from 6 to 10pm and 6am to 9am.

On Thursdays at 7pm to 730, there was a dog that came by.

The rest of the day there was nothing to do, most slept, some got visitors, and those with hospital passes would walk around the hospital.

I had hospital pass, so I was allowed to leave the unit but not the hospital grounds, I spent most of my time in the hospital lobby people watching or in the ER waiting room to pass time.

It was just too boring on the unit to sit and do nothing all day.

In the mornings during breakfast the psychiatrists would come by and see you quickly, I mean a few minutes at most, to see if your medications were working, if you said no, they just raised the dose, and off you went.

There really is this whole mentality in the medical community now, that medications will fix all issues, which is so not true, but as we all know, doctors know best.

The younger the psychiatrist is in my experience, the more they rely on medications.

By and large the powers that be like to say they invest X amount in mental health, but reality is far different.

JSmth, did you move to Canada in an attempt to get better care or did you make the move for other reasons and assume the care was a background issue? Is it possible that a change of country would impact on your BPD?

I moved to Canada when I was 23 as I was married to a Canadian, and while I felt depressed and moody at times, I never thought much of it, had stability in my younger years, so symptoms never flared up.

It was after the move and constant instability of the past 5 years where symptoms really started to flare up, and hospital stay after hospital stay started and finally a diagnoses, and reading up on it all, it describes me perfectly, it was just before when I had a very stable and low stress life, I was just managing better I guess.

Now I dont know where I will go month to month, or where basic needs like food will come from etc, and its all gone south since then.

I am not from the UK or Europe, US originally and going back there means no help at all due to cost being even more expensive and being single the government wont help out.

Damn, that's tough. Now I'm not a religious guy (not in the least!) but have you thought of maybe going to a church and getting some support through that community. From your explanations it sounds like the level of care that you need from the health community is not really available (hanging around hospitals for brief visits from doctors for example) and it sounds like quite an ongoing condition. Maybe if you could join a nurturing community of sorts it would help stabilise things until you are at the point where you can get back on your feet again.

I've thought about it before, but haven't been able to put my beliefs to the side and actually go to a church.

I really just need to figure out how to get into a larger city like Edmonton or Vancouver where they do have programs that are covered, with wait lists of course, but better then living in an area where there will never be an option for treatment anytime in the near future.

Housing is always the issue, its difficult to find and secure long term stable housing with minimal resources and income.

Good that you have at least thought of going to a church. Now you just need to wheel yourself in the door. Put your "beliefs" to one side and do it for purposes of therapy. In fact, you could be fairly up front about it and say to the church people that you are having problems and you are wondering about god. Pretty sure they will "pounce" and be open minded toward it. There must be many people in modern churches that are conflicted in their idea of a super-natural god and you can take that stance. The point is to get into a caring community, that might even help you get over to Edmonton if that's where you want to go. I think Christians (Muslims too) are open to people who are pondering their faith. In this case you have an ulterior motive, but it's not a bad motive. Indeed any Christian worth his salt should be going out of his way to support you since their whole religion is based on the concept of charity. That's my two cents J.

This is great advice. Suffering from mental illness? Go join a cult.

Listening to that claptrap is not the answer.