Margaret Trudeau: Changing her mind

One of the most striking things about Margaret Trudeau's new memoir, Changing My Mind, is the pictures.

There are photos of her as a political wife and mother, magazine covers with Mick Jagger and snapshots of her very private life with her second husband, Fried Kemper. For the most part, the pictures show very happy times.

The words, however, tell a different story. That's where the reader comes to see the dark moments of Trudeau's life — when she was even close to taking her own life.

Trudeau has been dealing with bipolar disorder for most of her life. It's only recently, though, that she has been able to find the tools to live her life well, thanks to connecting with the right doctor who asked the right questions. She has now become one of the country's leading advocates for mental health.

Changing My Mind, her third memoir, is a candid account of Trudeau's journey from confusion to advocacy, and the lessons she learned along the way.

"They used to give me drugs that I called chemical lobotomies," Trudeau told Shelagh Rogers in a recent interview on The Next Chapter. "They took all my spark away."

As the wife and then ex-wife of one of Canada's most famous politicians, Trudeau's private struggles were played out on an extremely public stage. Stepping away from the limelight, when she eventually did so, helped somewhat. But that didn't make it all go away, she said.

Trudeau is extremely honest in Changing My Mind, writing openly about her tendency to self-medicate with marijuana, alcohol and those infamously wild parties. It's as if she hopes that being so open herself will encourage others to be as well.

"[Mental illness] is the elephant in the room, and it's one that needs to be addressed," she said. "Let's get the conversation going around the table. Not just the hockey scores."

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