Cindy Blancher is a lawyer with the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee in Ontario, and before entering that career path, she was a registered nurse in a psychiatric hospital. She’s also an advocate around issues related to mental illness, although it’s a term she isn’t a fan of.
“ I have a relative who has diabetes, and when he’s talking about it, he doesn’t say, I have a physical illness. He says, ‘I have diabetes,'” she said. “ I think we’d be better off if we could just say, ‘I have depression,’ or ‘I have bipolar disorder,’ or whatever.”
“If I was the queen of the world, we’d call it a disease of the mind, because I think that’s kind of romantic and slightly mysterious.”
Blancher spoke with People First Radio about her experiences with severe clinical depression.
“In 2005, I had my first major depressive episode. I started not being able to think clearly. I couldn’t read, I couldn’t do any sort of math. I would go to the grocery store and not know what bills to give out to the cashier to pay for my purchases,” she said.
“I was crying all the time, I had to put the TV on low to drown out the voice in my head, which was my own, telling me how worthless I was and how everyone would be just so much better off if I was dead I couldn’t sleep. And, basically I stopped functioning.”
Cindy Blancher spoke with People First Radio about experiences personal and professional linked to mental illness
Blancher says she went on medication, started doing therapy, and slowly got better. In 2006, it happened again.
“ I was told then that the probability was that I have something that’s called severe or clinical, major depression,” she said.
Blancher says every two or three years her illness recurs with varying frequency and intensity.
“ It’s kind of like a unwelcome relative that you don’t invite to your house, but they come and then you can’t get rid of them.”
Blancher also shared the story of a period in 2020 during which she experienced a severe cognitive decline, was given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and had to move in with her sister.
“ I think that one of the reasons I talk about it all the time is to let people know that you can get really sick. Like, nobody knew what was wrong with me, and everybody thought that, you know, this was it,I’m going into a psych facility for the rest of my life,” she said.
“So when I talk about it and I talk to you and I can string a sentence together and I can count past five, it gives people some hope and loved ones too, that you can have somebody who’s really, really sick and they can get better.”
Listen to the full interview to hear more about Blancher’s experiences both personal and professional, which Blancher also describes on her website.
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