People too often neglect their mental health and deny depression, Margaret Trudeau said Wednesday during the launch of a checkup campaign.

The Mood Disorders Association of Ontario's Check Up from the Neck Up website includes information on symptoms people should look for in themselves or loved ones, and gives advice on where to turn to for help, Trudeau said.

"We ignore sometimes that we may not be functioning as we used to, that we may be going through a problem," Trudeau, the ex-wife of the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, told CBC Newsworld.

People will go to a dentist when they chip a tooth or to a doctor when they feel ill. Mental health is as important as physical health, but is often ignored, Trudeau said.

Though diagnosed with postpartum depression after the birth of her second son, Alexandre, in 1973, Trudeau said she would not accept it. In her memoirs, she referred to her life at 24 Sussex as a "tunnel of darkness."

With her bipolar disorder left untreated, Trudeau self-medicated with marijuana, which she said drove her mania to dangerous highs.

"I was a hippie in the late '60s and took to marijuana like a duck to water … It caused me difficulties in my life that I can't even mention."

Her denial was to soldier on, avoiding the stigma of mental illness, but not recognizing that the highs and lows she went through were out of proportion, the 59-year-old said.

The deaths of her son and ex-husband led to devastating lows.

"I was close to death" in 2001, Trudeau recalled. "I was no longer functioning. I had lost complete touch with reality. I was seriously ill, in crisis and hospitalized."

It was then that she realized she needed help.

"The help is often there; it's whether you accept to comply with the help that's given and offered to you."

The Canadian Mental Health Association and family doctors are often the first place people turn to, and more community-based organizations and a 24-hour mental-health crisis helpline are available, Trudeau suggested.

Family doctors are trained and equipped to diagnose and care for people with mental illness. There is a lack of psychiatrists in Canada, Trudeau said, but family doctors will refer patients in crisis.

With files from the Canadian Press