ReThreading Madness

Peter, Cathleen, and Janell Morin, from the Tahltan nation, join Bernadine to chat about what happens when Alzheimers grabs hold of a family generation after generation, but mostly to describe their loving care of their mother as she makes this journey. So often we hear of older people with Alzheimers unable to care for themselves and/or plagued with a failing memory being left in care homes to wa...

Weetigo on Intergenerational Trauma, Epigenetic Memory, and Superpowers Weetigo is a brilliant 60s Scoop Survivor and band member of the Poundmaker Cree Nation. Bernadine met him through TikTok where he talks about intergenerational trauma and epigenetic memory from the perspective of indigeneity. His intriguing ideas are based on what we know about trauma that weaves its way through families and...

Outsider Arts Festival and Haida Storytelling with Giihlgiigaa Todd DeVries On ReThreading Madness we chat with the organizers and one of the performers of the Outsider Arts Festival here in Vancouver BC. Kristin Cheung, Executive Director, and Rocky Riobo of Rocky and the Gems give us the inside goods on the what, where, how, and who of this years annual VOAF from art, to performances and films a...

TRIGGER WARNING: Explicit descriptions of child sexual abuse More Than One: Dr. Colin Ross on Dissociative Identities Dr. Colin Ross, world renown expert of Dissociation, and Bernadine chat about Dissociative Identities: what is it, how to look at it, how the world copes with it, and how you can cope with it. In amongst there they compare DID to schizophrenia and chat about treatment options inclu...

A Glimmer of Hope around Recovery wieth Susi Milne TRIGGER warning Talk about alcoholism and substance abuse along with sexual trauma as a young child. Some profanity during spoken word recital. Bernadine chats with the effervescent Susi Milne about their recovery from alcoholism and substance abuse (Oxycodone and Ativan). There is literally no one who tells a story like Susi can and while taking...

Are We Old Yet? Women talking about Aging. Today on RTM, I talk with three different women all of whom are over 60 years of age and all of whom would agree that our mental health as we age has nothing to do with fashion, interior design, beauty, cooking, or the health and wellbeing of our spouses or children. So, what does it have to do with? It is about their political actions, entrepreneurship,...

Alex Sangha from Sher Vancouver and Isabella Mori on her book Believe Me about mental health and addiction Bernadine chats with Alex Sangha about Sher Vancouver Gala, Emergence, and IMigrant. Alex Sangha's birth name is Amar Singh Sangha. He was born in Gravesend, Kent, England and raised in Surrey and North Delta, British Columbia, Canada. His mother, Jaspal Kaur Sangha, and his father, Dalbir Si...

Note: Please access the transcript (see below) so that you can follow along with David as he speaks. A stroke has damaged his ability to talk and at times it is hard to understand his words A Renewed Call for a Mad Pride Revolution on the 20th Anniversary of Hunger Strike: with David Oaks and Debra Nunez from MindFreedom Bernadine chats with David Oaks and Debra Nunez about his work as a civil rig...

The incredible JD Derbyshire who is a writer, comedian, mad activist, performer, playwright, theatre maker, director, inclusive educator and innovator joins Bernadine in RTM. We talk about being mad and the need for individuals who live with mental health challenges to have agency in their lives and to consider coming out. And we laughed… we laughed a lot. (music used "It's Alright by Shari Ulrich...

Includes a Trigger Warning Bernadine speaks with Linda Peavac (also known as Emma Stevens) who spoke with us recently about the experience of being an adopted child. Today we are talking about her experience of being exploited by her therapist and her memoir which describes this experience A Fire Is Coming. Therapy Abuse is an under-acknowledged traumatic issue in our society. There may be folks l...

Lani Elliott is a 60s Scoop Survivor who grew up in foster care in the small town of Abernethy, Saskatchewan. As a child, she dreamed of working in law enforcement, and at the age of 19, joined the RCMP as a special constable, hoping to one day become a regular member of the police force. Unfortunately, Lani’s dreams were shattered when her marriage ended in an unspeakable act of violence that lef...

Mad Pride/Connection Salon July 2023 Mad Pride is a global movement of those with lived experiences of the mental health system. It is an opportunity for folks to demonstrate their pride in their mad identity and a reclamation of the terms that have been used to hurt them: mad, nutter, psycho. Mad Pride is celebrated across the globe including Canada, the USA, UK and Ireland. Mad Pride cabarets of...

Peer Connections/Jamie Smallboy/Madness Canada In this program, Bernadine interviews Adam Milne from Peer Connections in Winnipeg and Cindy Jiang from Madness Canada in Toronto about their programming and resources that are made available to people who live with mental health challenges. Madness Canada has also become a hub of archival material regarding the history of the Mad Movement. Jamie Smal...

In 1895, the Canadian government banned the Sundance. Intent on destroying the first nation’s way of life and spiritual practices, the colonizers banned various ceremonies and certain practices (like piercing) along withholding sacred objects required for those ceremonies. While this was legally reversed in 1951, it took many years before all First Nation Communities were aware of this change, man...

Lack of services makes Rose Finlay’s liveable disability life-threatening. Rose Finlay has been a quadriplegic since a swimming accident at 17 yrs broke her neck. She has been a powerhouse working for change as a published author, keynote speaker, model, disability advocate, accessibility consultant, certified holistic health coach and reiki master. Up until recently, she has been able to cobble t...

“ I am a Transwoman” Jodi Gray, winner of the 2023 Courage To Come Back award in Mental Health, speaks with Bernadine about being a transwoman. Jodi came from a childhood filled with severe abuse and poverty. This led to anxiety and depression that plagued her for decades and cost her jobs and relationships. The hardest relationship for her to lose was the one with her son, James. Jodi transitione...

What is it Like to be an Adopted Child? Emma Stevens, author (The Gathering Place and A Fire is Coming) and US domestic adoptee from birth during the Baby Scoop Era, has survived layers of trauma throughout her life. She visits ReThreading Madness and delves into the reality that adoptees face struggling between being the good, adopted child in fear of being sent back and finding their own true se...

Bernadine chats with two women, Jane Bouey and Isabella Mori, who live with Long COVID after a relatively short and mild form of COVID itself. They describe how COVID impacted on their brains and what they experience because of it: brain fog, exhaustion, strange emotional reactions, etc. They discuss whether this is a mental health issue from the impact of the debilitating aspect of the physical d...

Insanity explores the disappearance of Bruce Hill-Tout disappeared during an episode of paranoia generated from schizophrenia in 1998. “Through interviews with her father and siblings, family photos and dramatizations, Hill-Tout tells her brother’s story. But it’s not a mystery. The family doesn’t spend much time in the film unravelling clues. Instead, they share their feelings of guilt, loss and...

Rodney DeCroo’s newly released book “Fishing for Leviathan” (Anvil Press) takes us into his journey through his childhood. “ At theatre school they tried to correct my posture and make my diction soft. But I was a razor wrapped in black velvet soaked in possum’s blood.” Anvil writes “these poems are from a writer who has crawled through a mile of broken glass and come out the other side more or le...

What is Structural Violence with Heather Tunold: How it impacts on the residents the DTES The question of Structural Violence came up for me as I listened to Heather Anita Tunold talk about it on a recent panel. She sat down with me to chat about how structural violence impacts on the residents of the DTES here in Vancouver BC. What she described is a unworkable situation where those who need the...

Grandparents (and other relatives) raise the children of other family members at a rate that far surpasses the number of children in our current foster cares system here in BC. In fact, even the government recognizes that they are a largely hidden and unrecognized social service system. On ReThreading Madness Bernadine, a grandparent who raises a grandchild herself, speaks with three other grandmo...

This is Part 2 of Bernadine’s chat’s with Irit Shimrat, author, editor, advocate and agitator around her experience of being psychiatrized. Irit has a long history being involved in and critiquing the mental health field - although she would label that differently: health being the misnomer. We address the problems of language, the shadow reports she is a part of writing for the Convention of the...

“Bullseye The Clown™ is on a mission to empower those who have lost their hope and belief due to bullying to stand up, speak out and reclaim their authority!” He comes and chats with Bernadine about bullying and what we can do about it. music Shari Ulrich Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support . www.rethreadingmadness.ca

Bernadine chats with Irit Shimrat, author, editor, advocate and agitator around her experience of being psychiatrized. Irit has a long history being involved in and critiquing the mental health field - although she would label that differently: health being the misnomer. We talk language, consequences to people's lives from being psychiatrized, and the danger of psychiatry in our lives. Even if yo...