July 23, 2025 • 60 mins
Courage to Come Back Winner in Mental Health: Theresa Duggan’s Journey
From childhood trauma to becoming a beacon of hope for others, Theresa Duggan’s story is one of resilience and transformation. After surviving years of sexual abuse and a suicide attempt 12 years ago, she struggled with undiagnosed bipolar disorder for much of her life — so paralyzed by her condition she couldn’t even brush her teeth or leave the house. Everything began to shift when she was properly diagnosed. Theresa works in hospital psych wards, supporting others facing mental illness. As someone who has walked the same path, she builds trust quickly with clients, offering them something rare: true understanding. Theresa’s journey is a powerful example of how tragedy and healing can exist side by side — and how lived experience can become a lifeline for others. Although winning the award happened 15 years ago, she credits it with changing how she takes on the world.
And Richard Lett/Comedian and Spoken Word Artist We are then joined by Richard Lett in an interview we did a couple months back – but really wanted to get his voice back out there. He talks about alcoholism and change and growth. He always brings his particular form of comedy and spoken word to whatever stage he is standing on.
Music by Shari Ulrich and Omar Rudberg
From childhood trauma to becoming a beacon of hope for others, Theresa Duggan’s story is one of resilience and transformation. After surviving years of sexual abuse and a suicide attempt 12 years ago, she struggled with undiagnosed bipolar disorder for much of her life — so paralyzed by her condition she couldn’t even brush her teeth or leave the house. Everything began to shift when she was properly diagnosed. Theresa works in hospital psych wards, supporting others facing mental illness. As someone who has walked the same path, she builds trust quickly with clients, offering them something rare: true understanding. Theresa’s journey is a powerful example of how tragedy and healing can exist side by side — and how lived experience can become a lifeline for others. Although winning the award happened 15 years ago, she credits it with changing how she takes on the world.
And Richard Lett/Comedian and Spoken Word Artist We are then joined by Richard Lett in an interview we did a couple months back – but really wanted to get his voice back out there. He talks about alcoholism and change and growth. He always brings his particular form of comedy and spoken word to whatever stage he is standing on.
Music by Shari Ulrich and Omar Rudberg
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Vancouver call Op Radio cfr oh one
hundred point five FM. We're coming to you from the
unseated traditional territories of the Squamish, Musquam and Sleighway Tooth
nations around Vancouver, BC. I'm your host, Bernardine Fox, and
this is this show that dares to change how we
think about mental health. Welcome to Rethreading Madness.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, Liver benfo.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
No, what the heck you're listening to Rethreading Madness on
Vancouver called Radio cfr oh one hundred point five FM.
I'm Bernardine Fox and right now I have a pleasure
of speaking with Teresa Duggan, who actually met at the
Courage to Come Back awore Galla twenty twenty five. We
got located at the same table, so it's nice to
(00:52):
see you again.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Teresa.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Thanks for coming and chatting with us.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
You won the award in twenty ten. Can you talk
a little bit about why you won that award?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, that is a very good question. I didn't even
know I was being nominated. I worked at gas Come
Vacational Services as a peer support worker. I worked five
days a week, nine to five. I got paid one
thousand dollars a month for my work, and that was okay,
(01:29):
and I enjoyed it very much. I worked directly with clients,
people who have mental illnesses in the community, and I
hooked them up to volunteer work jobs, getting around on
the bus, anything that they needed. I was there for them.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
How many people do you think you worked with?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh, my goodness, one hundreds.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
What is vocational Let's start there, because i'm so.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Vacational Services is an organization that helps people with mental
health issues regain their optimism, their hope, their compassion. We
would help them do the resumes, go for walks to
(02:23):
clear your brains, learn how to work efficiently, hire to
get along with other people. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So what would you say, was there because obstacle in
regaining a sense of hope?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
The obstacle and regain a sense of hope? Well, if
you have bipolar you're up and down. It's not like
you have control over those ups and downs. You just
go there either one. And if you're down, you lose hope.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yes, that's what depression is, right, Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
You lose your hope. And if you're up, you need
to come down a little bit because you're too energetic,
too impulsive, too fast, You're just going too fast. Your
wheels are spinning. And so we would help people come
(03:26):
to a medium and that's where they worked fast. And
they found that's where they worked fast. So they discovered
it for themselves.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So they would find where that balance was that worked
just for them, never mind everybody else. Yeah, so you
help them figure that out. What brought you to peer Support?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, I'm actually qualified as what's called the child and
youth worker. What does that mean? That is, well, what
I did. I went to college for three years and
got my diploma and child and youth work. I got
my first job at a large psychiatric hospital in Ontario
(04:15):
called Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, and it's huge. I worked with
teenagers and crisis in a lock union. I worked there
for ten years and then I started my family. So
I never actually went back to Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, but
(04:38):
that's where it started working with people with psychiatric illness.
I moved from Ontario to BC in ninety four, where
my mental illness went crazy.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
When you say mental illness, I just want to say,
we actually don't use that term on the program. We
call it mental health challenges. But there is certainly some
degree of controversy about whether or not these are illnesses
or whether these are responses to trauma. So pathologizing our
(05:18):
normal response to trauma is kind of difficult to stretch
that to become a disease.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Or an illness. Yeah, but when you.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Got here, that's when your mental health started to deteriorate. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah. So what happened was I was engaged to fella
for ten years. It's a long time to be engaged.
There was just something missing in the relationship for me,
so I couldn't make that final commitment to a wedding,
(05:52):
and I ended up addicted to opioids and I went
to approach I'm called NA Narcotics Anonymous. There I met
a man who totally intrigued me. I fell for him
the moment I saw it was like instant and we
(06:16):
connected and we loved each other. And he was a biker.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
David, Oh yeah, biker, Yes, okay, all right, well it
can be very interesting, folks. I'm not surprised. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He was a great guy in the beginning. And I
had a child with him. So I had the child
in ninety two. So you're still in Ontario and I
was still Ontario. I left Ontario in ninety four. He
took me to court to get more visitation, to have
(06:56):
part custody, and I was just flawed. I didn't want
him in her life the way that he was right,
So I bought him in Cork and I won soul
custody no access.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Wow, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
That's a very big deal.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
He must have been a bad dude to you about
at that point ninety four.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I'm considering he was the one that made a cork.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So that you're still in Ontario by that, so.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I'm still Ontario. My lawyer calls me and says, you know,
you got soul custody, no access, Yeah, out of town.
And I packed up and I left.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So your life was in danger by the sounds of that.
That's that's the unstated thing in here, that that was
going on for you.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
My life was a danger at My child's life was
in dangerous.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah. People don't understand that that when mothers take children
away from their fathers, where it's not that we're being mean,
or we're being cruel, or we're trying to get back
at them, or we're scorned lovers or whatever it is,
because we have to keep our children safe, So.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Good for you. I actually let him visit her if
I supervise, but he wanted more than that, and he
wanted her on his own. So that was the reason
he took me.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
To car So you're here, You're in Vancouver.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So I'm in Vancouver. I have family here. I moved
in a house, moved directly into a house where there
were three other people living, adults living. I stayed there
for about six months with my daughter, and we got
into single mother's housing YWCA someone gardens. It still exists.
(08:49):
It's a wonderful place. I lived there for fifteen years
and then moved to where I am now. But bringing
her up in a single mother's housing community was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I imagine that supportant together. Yeah. I lived in a
house with another woman who was also a single parent.
I was a single grandparent by that point, and our
kids were kind of the same age, and we did that.
We we would get home and say, what do you
have in your fridge? I have this, And we put
our food together, and the kids would have meals, and
(09:29):
we would have meals together, and then we would go
I mean, and the kids went back and forth a lot.
It was very wholesome. It was just very healthy.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, to do that.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I still know that person, nice, love her to death.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So what happened to me, if you know what what
happened to me was with the exhaustion and the trauma
and the fear that I was feeling once I even
arrived here. It sent me off on a depression that
(10:05):
I had never experienced before. Didn't know what was happening
to me. And a woman who worked for the like
of UCA called mental health and so you need to
come and see this person. We don't know what's going on.
So they did and they took me to hospital.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So what was going on for you? What was happening
that they were concerned for?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I was suicidal in my depressions. That's one of my
symptoms of suicidality. So I had attempted suicide when I
was twelve years old. Was very sad when I woke
up the next morning because I really wanted to die,
(10:55):
And so that kind of stuck with me. That pattern
when you get to as you die.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
It is you know, we do bring our coping skills
with us from childhood, and so one could you know,
often suicide is a coping skill. It sounds like a
ridiculous one, but it often is. What was a coping
skill for you for.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, what it did for me was it made me
reach out to other people, professionals. And even though I
didn't like the hospital, nor do I now, even though
I work in one, oh iron about it. It gave
(11:45):
me routine, It gave me food, it gave me my medication,
It gave me friendships that gave me lots of things.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
How long were you in the hospital.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
The longest I was in the hospital was two years.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Oh my goodness. I had no idea that that was
a thing that people would be there.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
For two years.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
That's quite a long time.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, it was a long time.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So have you ever figured out what was behind your
depression or is it because you have many depressive episodes or.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Well I think originally it started after being sexually abused
as a child, and I was abused for three years.
Went to my mother, told my mother what was going on,
and she did nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
That's hard.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So I just crashed and that's when I attempted suicide.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Right, So that means that the abuse started when you
were nine.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, that's very young.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, And was it somebody that knew your family.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yes, oh, yes, that was very clear.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh yes, yes, okay, So with somebody that you continued
to see on a regular basis outside of being assaulted. Yes,
so you would have seen your family interacting with that
person as if he's an okay person. And then your mother.
I'm sorry, I'm telling your story, but and then your
mother is not there for you. Yeah, that's very that's
(13:18):
a very hard reality for you and for any child
to deal with.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah. But at the same time, I was functioning quite well.
I uh, after trying to kill myself in school, I
won the mis Congeniality Award. I was like, that doesn't
(13:46):
hap up.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Kids like cope in various ways. Yeah, you kids do
exactly what you did, which if it's congeniality, that means
you were a nice person to lots of people.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Nice. So that's not surprising actually, because some people, you know,
become little terrors, and some people go the other way
and try and be perfect so that they're never in trouble.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So yeah, So peer of support works started once my
daughter turned four and I was getting their better daycare
at that point, and I started to use some of
my time to go back to the kind of job
that I had in Ontario right now without going back
(14:36):
to child and youth work, which is I didn't want
to do. I didn't want to work full time gave
me the same sensations and feelings and thoughts as being
a child and youth worker. Because I worked with people
who had meant the health challenges, who were in the community.
(15:00):
That was the only different and I loved it. I
fell in love with doing the job. And I progressed
from doing, you know, four hours a week, to doing
twenty hours a week, to doing forty hours a week
and now in my job that I have now at
(15:23):
Vgage in Trusiery, I work fifteen hours a week, which
is perfect for me. I started out four days a
week and I met another pair support worker who I
really liked. I liked his style. I liked how he
worked with the clients. He had lots of good ideas
(15:45):
for groups and things like that, and how he communicates
with the clients. And so I said to him, do
you want to share my job? Let's check into it
if you're interested. So he said, yeah, cool. So we
went through the process of management in the union and
the whole bit and we got permission to job share
(16:06):
and this is and this is that?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
V is that out of the mental health unit?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Or yes, okay, it's sort of Willow pavilion. Uh what's
it called. It's called uh, Willow pavilion, fourth floor trist
free unit. Yeah. And people come and stay maybe for
two three months, some people come for years.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Right, And so what kind of people are you working with?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well, that's an interesting question because I find that it's changing.
We're actually working with people who are uh, much more competent,
much more connected to themselves, smart people.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So what were they before?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Before? It was more depression, people suffered, schizophrenia, people suffered
on the extreme schizo, effective personality disorders, all of the above.
Now we work with those same people today, only they're
(17:27):
on a different level. Whether it's the fact that people
are looking at mental health as being functional instead of
being a person who needs help.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So the people you're seeing now that you say are
smart and functional, and why are they coming to the
psych unit?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Then a lot of times what happens to the people
we see is substance abuse that mixed with the mental
health challenge can become quite good. What's the sort debilitating
thank you yeah. So the first thing we do is
(18:15):
try and get them off the drugs. Make that a
comfortable process. And then what we do and in the meantime,
what we do is see them on a one to
one level. They live there, they're on a locked unit
and they can gain passes, but some of them don't
have passes. They're on the unit twenty four hours a
(18:37):
day for weeks and months at a time, which just
I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I couldn't be a patient there. I'd be a horror.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But weren't you in care, like in a hospital for
two years? Yes, but you were able to come and go.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Or eventually okay, I had to earn that purplege I
tried to go. When I watched them allowed to go,
I run away, run away from UBC hospital in pajamas.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Oh my, that's not good. That's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
No, it's good. Block. They found me pretty fast.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
We just need to take a little break, Teresa. We'll
be right back. Folks.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yup, QUI get euons queen snah Hi, everybody. My name
is quigate Yuon's. I'm a member of the Squamish Nation
and the yagolanis klan of the Hyda nation. You're listening
to co Op Radio cfr O one hundred point five FM.
We live, work play and broadcast from the traditional ancestral
and unseeded territories of the Musquiam, Squamish, and Slave Tooth nations.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
You're listening to read Threading Madness on Vancouver cop Radio
cfr O one five FM. I'm here on location with
Teresa Duggan talking about what led out to her Courage
to Come Back award and what she's done since then
around mental health. So, Teresa, you are a peer support worker.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I am proud to be a support worker.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
As people know on this show. I'm also proud about
peer support. I think it's one of the most healing
tools that we have because I think that there is
nothing more healing than being in the company of somebody
who truly understands what you've gone through on some level
(20:35):
and is looking at you and accepts you and hears
you and knows you and that's okay, and that's one
of the its got to be one of the most
healing things that can ever happen. So thank you for
doing that work. But tell me about what brought you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
To peer support, Well, what brought me to peer support
was trying to get back into working with people with
the healthcault. Sure that was my goal in life. I
thought it'd be a child and youth worker forever, but
that didn't happen. And I found that I got what's
(21:17):
the word guy? I got enthused, inspired, thank you with
working with peers, and once that took hold of me,
I couldn't get enough of it. I love working as
a peer support worker. I've worked at VGH Trichree for
(21:41):
fourteen years now. I love the clients. They seem to
love me. We have a different relationship than anybody else
on the unit. For example, we've just had a new admission.
He walked around a lot, didn't speak to many people.
(22:05):
Started a conversation with a gentleman who was a rehab worker,
and I was sitting off to the side and they
were talking and that I bought it in and said, oh,
I had a muscle car, I had a subnecho chevelle
and he was like what I drew him to me?
(22:29):
Immediately he was walking around with these papers that had
odd pictures on them, on pages of numbers, and the
staff we like is that part of his illness or
what is that? And so he sat down with me
and he's showing me these strawings and what they are
(22:53):
is motor carts, the muscle cars, and so we talked
about all of them, and I said, you know, also
I had a tomorrow and said twenty eight and he's like, oh,
I don't what side sen you did job? And he
pulls out the numbers and he says, these are the
(23:13):
sizes of engines for different cars and dual exhaust and
we just we just talked for like forty five minutes
and it was so rudeful morning. He shook my hand
afterwards and he wanted to give me his pictures that
I said, no, I can't take those from you. But
(23:35):
what I can do is I have a muscle card
book at home. I you know, bring it next week
when I come and we can go through it.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So what's interesting in that story is the staff are
looking at everything as part of the illness, as opposed
to this is an important thing for this person. And
you were able to come in and I mean granted
part of your history as well in terms of muscle
cars and understanding those things, but you were you didn't
(24:03):
go there. That's not where you went.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
First at all. And I went to the staff afterwards
and I said, I just had an amazing conversation with
so and so, and this is what we talked about.
And she was like, what are those drawings that he's
carrying around? And I said, those are parts of cars.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
What does she say?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
She's a holy cow? She said, I haven't seen him
speak to anybody, and YouTube were so engaged when I
saw you, then I knew something was of.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, And she came to me after first and she
was like, what did you call those cars? I want
to put it in the notes. I said, muscle cars.
But it's my experiences. Then I get to share with
clients mat or what they are, and we relate on
(25:03):
a certain level.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And they know that you are not a therapist. You're
not there to, you know, therapize them or pathologize them
or anything. You're there as another person who has lived experience. Yeah.
But I find so often that just have to edit
(25:27):
out my humming and hunging here. They're just approaching somebody,
like setting aside whatever diagnosis there is, just set it
aside and talk to that person it with respect and
the dignity that you would give any other person on
the planet goes so far that it boggles my mind
(25:47):
that a lot of people don't seem to understand that
that somehow we live in a society that thinks because
you have a mental health challenge, it is okay to
treat you in certain ways like lack of respect, conscension,
like you're you're somehow disabled in a way that makes
you incapable of doing thinking. I call it sort of
(26:12):
that a puppy syndrome. And do you find that as well? Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yes, there is a specific disorder and it has many categories.
It's called personality disorders. So there's borderline personality because are
multiple persons personality disorders.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That's no longer a thing. Multiple multiple personality change to
dissociative identities disorders, and so it's no longer a personality disorder.
I personally wouldn't call it a disorder at all, So right, right,
But there are other ones that are you know, people.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Have a there's a stigma around having a personality disorder
and it's very much alive still. And I hear it,
what do you hear? I hear people say, oh, well,
he's just a fucking personality disorder.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Oh my god, I'm not sure. That's terrible.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Oh it's terrible. I'm like, I just freaqu went I
hear things like that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Are you hearing that from staff?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yes, it's so bad. I mean I just feel terrible
every time I hear one more story about what's happening
by staff in a psych word. I had somebody on Facebook,
you know how you have that conversations back and forth,
and I can't even remember what it was about, but
she tried to pull the well I work at the
psych words, so I know, I think I responded with,
(27:45):
I think you don't really have insight into what you're
saying here or something like that, you know, using those
words back, and she just went away right like yeah,
was you know. But if unless you know that, unless
you feel like you can do that and feel confident
that you know they can, it can really undermine somebody's
sense of reality.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Quite trank, and how they're being treated. I mean, you know,
they'll it'll be medication time and they'll bring out with
a cup of water, a little pixie cup of pills,
and then they'll say, here, take this with agritude, and
it's like why do you do that just because they
(28:28):
have a personality disorder, you think they're gonna be.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Or it's okay to treat people that way.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
They do.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
They treat people with depression the same way, So it's
just people with a personality. So that's where borderline personality,
you know, ends up being such a big, huge, horrible
thing because of how people treat those people who have that.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
They come a long way in other areas. I watched
a movie a couple of months ago. It was a documentary.
It was called Witches, and it was about women who
suffered post natal depression, post partum depression, and it was
(29:18):
set back in the sixties, and it showed how they
were treated in the hospital. And I was devastated because
we do so many of the same things. We haven't
grown that much, no, And.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Of course people know that I do a lot of
work around therapy, abuse and exploitation, and of course one
of the things that happens, one of the things we
really got clearly is that the abusive therapist. Of course,
there's lots of really good therapists out there. This isn't
a slight against everybody, but the ones that are abusive
are literally we replicating the same things pedophiles do. Right,
(30:05):
so they're grooming and then the exploitation and then the
threats of if you tell. But of course it takes
on this other senator sinister part of it because they
have so much power and authority in society, never mind
in your life as their client, but in society. And
so back then, when parents were, say, assaulting their child
(30:28):
and the child ran away and told the police like
they were supposed to, and the child the police brought
the child back and their parents said, oh, the little
Janie's just a liar. You can't trust anything they say.
And the police went, oh, okay, well here you go.
Here's a little janey. Off you go, and they would
leave from there. The same thing is happening with abusive therapists,
where the therapist is standing up and saying, oh, they
(30:50):
have borderline I can't tell you how many people I
work with it. The last sentence in their file is
has borderline personality, right, like it's just thrown in there
as the prison has confronted them. And you know, so
we it's become a joke when somebody says, oh, yeah,
they team, we just laugh because it is. But it
(31:11):
tells the story about how much power and authority people have.
And so if you're in a psych word and you
you are the client and you have one of those diagnoses,
then you're really at their there you're just there's nothing
you can do.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's uh, it's very sad, very sad.
But even the fact that now hospitals and institutions are
taking you on pairs of support workers because pair of
support workers have been around for a while, thirty odd
years and now they're in institutions where they can make
(31:52):
a differends. So we are changing.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Do you see the change happening.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Oh, yes, I see the change happening.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's good. That's actually really nice.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
To hear that's happening. Yeah, definitely, it is happening. Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Do people make complaints? Yes, and how are they dealt
with on the sac words, Well.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
If that's what the complaint is, I mean, if somebody's
complaining about how the doctor is treating them, the psychiatrist
is treating them, or why won't they give them this.
As a pierce ofport worker, we can advocate. That's a
part of our role is to advocate for the client.
(32:38):
So we can go to the doctor and say, you know,
I was speaking to so and so, and I think
it would be a really good idea if they tried this,
and then I would get the reaction back or it
would be icing coded and he would change his mind
(32:59):
or she would change his mine.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
And that's very helpful because you're not the person with
the mental health challenge. You are literally the person in
between those two. Yeah, that's wonderful. What else do you
do as a peer support worker? Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I run groups. My best group is bingo. They love it.
I get We have nineteen people on our floor and
we get about ten at least people out to play
bingo once a week. And the reason for that is
is I will put out prizes that they love, so
(33:37):
it'll be different. Funny shampoos, soaps, creams, chocolate bars, chips.
Those are the two that bring them in, of course,
So I put four chocolate bars out and four makes
of chips, right, that's the limits. And they have to
pick up their prizes and they can only win one
(33:59):
chocolate bar a game like a session, and then we
have other prizes that they love and they just had
so much fun.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Well it is I mean, it's not just bingo. You're
talking about socializing and you're talking yes, you know, people
engaging and people creating relationship. Yes, what happens to the
people who are like really brilliant that share up there?
What are they? What options do they have in terms
of doing more than being in the psych world twenty
(34:33):
four to seven.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, we're very fortunate. We had some really good rehab
workers and really good nurses, the best I've ever worked with.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, we we have. I am very fartunate to work there.
We have other groups. I do a book reading group
and the book I'm reading right now is Vignettes from
an Insane Asylum.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Oh cool, I haven't got it.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
And what happened was I uh, the first meditation group
I did, I did breathing. Then the next one I
went to I said, I have these three books. Instead
of doing the breathing, we could go through one of
these books and see how it goes. Oh, you have
(35:32):
the book here, I have the book.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Let's just read it out. So Vignette's from an Insane
Asylum A graduate students experience with schizophrenia, and it's zerom.
How do you say that? Zerom zerome sium. Yeah, that's
a very interesting name. I've never seen that name before.
(35:56):
But yeah, okay, so this is the one they picked.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
That's the one they Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
So we so like if I'm not there and someone
else is going to read the book, because I read
it to the group and then we talk about it. Right, Uh,
nobody else wants to touch it? Why because it's too
(36:23):
reality based.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
It's very so when you say nobody else, you're not
talking about the people.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Who rehab workers or nursists or anyone else who could.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
So these people who are dealing with really serious issues,
they come and they're they're not, they're not. What you're
saying is that people don't want to talk about serious
issues with these people who are dealing with very serious issues,
as if not talking about that somehow will make them better.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, that's so convoluted.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah, I'm glad you're doing it. And people are responding.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh yes, yes, oh yes cool, Oh yes yes. I
run a meditation group. I take care of their money.
They trust me to take care of their money.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
That's very cool.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah. Yeah, I do lots of different things. Work one
on one, take people out to learn bus routes take
people out to learn about programs that are available in
the community like Coast or MPa or get that connect
or whatever. There's so much out there that you can
(37:36):
get connected to and build community.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
With a people reconnecting with their own communities.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yes, that's good. That's very good too.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, okay, cool. So how have you done how? This
is one I one to ask. I want to ask,
how has the work you've done as a pure support
worker healed or not healed or made no difference on
the abuse you suff here as a child?
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Well, A lot of the clients that we get have
better views. So my dealing with it has a lot
to do with just talking about it, maybe not in detail,
but in a way where the person I'm speaking to
(38:32):
gets a feeling that I understand where they're coming from, yes,
and why they're coming from.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah. I asked that because as somebody who also does
peer support when I'm not on the radio, I find
it is almost a blessing really to be included in
someone's healing process, whatever point that is. It isn't going
to be a big part. It just just any part
of being involved in somebody's healing process. But the other
(39:02):
thing that happens because you're talking to so many people,
and you yourself are hearing others stories from so many people,
the same acceptance and care that we give by being
a support worker, we're getting back from those people in
a way that you know, you can't come out of
(39:23):
peer support not recognizing that you are completely normal. Really. So, yeah,
peer support is very high on my list of important
things that must be out there in the world. Yeah,
and I think it's also actually closer to what people
would normally get in a community or talking to a
(39:45):
friend or talking to their mother or the things that
don't happen as much now. But so peer support has
a very valuable part of that. How was it to
when the Courage to Come Back award?
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Oh, it was in crack. I was so shocked because
my boss from Gas to Vacational Surface has dominated me.
I was I didn't know. I was in Whistler volunteering
for the Paralympics, and I got a phone call and said,
(40:21):
you've won the peer Support a peer Sportberg Courage to
Come Backward for your peer support And I was like,
oh my god, you know what does this mean? And
they're like, we get lots of applications in we have
a group of people who goes over them and picks
(40:45):
the one who feels like they've been come from hell
to heaven heaven, worked their way there, and we just
want to represent that, and you you represent that. My
daughter was so excited. She thought I deserved it for
(41:08):
everything that we had gone through. And you know, I
used to lose custody upper on a constant basis, and
we're very close today.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Yes, well I did meet you at the gala. Your
daughter was there, your grandchild was there. Yeah, so yes, yeah,
that was clear. Has the Courage Come Back Award changed
your life?
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:34):
How did it change your life?
Speaker 2 (41:36):
It took me to a place of somebody recognizing what
I had been through, where I had gotten to, and
it made me feel like I actually had accomplished something. Yes,
that I was a winner.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yes, that's exactly how I thought. It wasn't so much
that the media came knocking on my door, big opportunities came,
It was what happened inside. Yeah, and that's very important.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Teresa. Thank you for chatting with me today about all
this and being so open and willing to share no problem,
and so thank you for the work that you're doing.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Oh, thank you. Yes, I will continue, Yes, yes, I.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Will be right back.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Folks.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Hi, folks, this is Steve ferguson your twenty first century
schitzuoid Man, and I'm the host of prog Rock Alley,
inviting you to come down and listen to our show
every week at Monday one am the very end of
the weekend. We will be looking at all forms of
progressive rock. I'm talking about space rock, art rock, math, rock, fusion, jazz.
(42:46):
You want it, I got it. Just name it, I'll
play it. We'll see you again. That's here on CFRO
one hundred point five co Op Radio Monday mornings one am.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
You're listening to Rethreading that Finess on Vancouver co Op
Radio cfr O one hundred point five f M. I'm
Bernardine Fox. Rethreading Madness is coming up to its sixth
anniversary of being on air. We produce an air each
week out of cfr O one hundred point five FM
on the unseated traditional territory of the Squamish, Muscriham and
Sligwey Tooth nations around Vancouver. Bc RTM was one of
(43:23):
the first radio programs to focus on mental health issues
here in Canada, in an area swamped with statements from
therapists rooted in colonial ideas about mental health and trained
in the DSM. RTM works to ensure that the voices
of those with lived experience have agency and opportunity to
define who they are and what is true for them
(43:45):
who listens to us. Beyond those with lived experience, our
audience includes their friends and partners, along with therapists, counselors,
and students of psychology. Since twenty twenty two, all of
our programs have been uploaded to the Mental Health Radio
Network WORK and can be downloaded from all podcast platforms.
So if this show was of interest to you, you
(44:06):
might find the rest of our programs informative as well.
You can find them by searching for Rethreading Madness wherever
you listen to your podcast.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
She gets a little high, but she feels a little loone.
Speaker 7 (44:36):
She's saying a lot of things, but she's still not all.
Speaker 8 (44:41):
Lie not so.
Speaker 7 (44:44):
She likes so witch shirts.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
She feels a little like.
Speaker 6 (44:53):
Spl in the summer life.
Speaker 7 (44:58):
Sust else believe someone loved and cannot stay and love be.
(45:20):
One day she mete a boy.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
He treated her.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
So good that she didn't want to hurt herself, but
he was shot. The summer breeze and I drive the
boom in she was hitting, buttom again.
Speaker 9 (45:44):
Sheep in love in the summer life shuts the dancer.
She believed someone loves her, thinking I'm free a loud. Yeah,
(46:09):
she was sired of all the friends because no one
really understood how. She was tired of pretending that of
feeling like Lousa was worm got so cold but down
they didn't anyone know.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
She made her for mine after summer because life is
just a dancing sheep blase, no one loved.
Speaker 9 (46:36):
Her, screamed and nomoust free a liver because life was
just and she believed no love and the summer it
(46:59):
because I was.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
Mind.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
You're listening to Rethreading Madness on Vancouver Call Up Radio
c f R O one five FM. We're coming to
you from the gathering place in downtown Vancouver on location
for the Mad Arts Cafe, and I'm about to talk
with Richard Lett. So you're a stand up comedian an actor.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
True, and it says.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
That you're known for comedy focusing on drug and alcohol recovery.
And at some point you were banned from a lot
of a lot of places.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
How come what happens?
Speaker 8 (47:48):
Well, I'm you know, I'm an addict, I'm alcoholic, and
I am you know, and that lends itself to all
sorts of bad choices.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
I think me being.
Speaker 8 (48:03):
Banned from comedy rooms had as much to do with
my you know, provoking style, but also I didn't present
very well when I'd been drinking or using. And then
just a couple of years ago, I took to stealing
(48:28):
to make my living when I was homeless and out there,
and so you know, that really undermines people's sense of
safety if somebody is around that.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Might be sealing from me.
Speaker 8 (48:43):
It's a pretty gross thing to do, yes, But when
you know, I mean the drug induced psychosis of.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
You know, just thinking that rules.
Speaker 8 (48:57):
Don't apply to you, or that you're just finding doing it,
or that you're smarter than anyone else, or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Drugs can give you those ideas.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
They sure do.
Speaker 8 (49:08):
Like I say, you know, I talked about I ended
up you know, using crystal math, which is horrible stuff,
but you know it it gives you the energy to
just you know, go and you know, escape and not
(49:29):
really care It's probably the most damaging thing about that
drug is it undermines your ability to understand what you're
doing is wrong, and that should be enough of a
reason not to do it. You live in another dimension,
you know, a place of you know where they're very grandiose.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
I kind of thought I was like the Pink Panther.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
You know, just amazing person or Pink Pathed the cartoon.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Well, they were both burglars.
Speaker 8 (50:05):
They were yeh famous, So I saw myself it was
this kind of an elegant thief. I stole from you know,
hotel lobbies and you know, took paintings and uh all
sorts of things. So and I, you know, I eventually
was uh caught and charged with that. I the sort
(50:29):
of punishment that I got was pretty minor.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
I was.
Speaker 8 (50:34):
Not allowed to go into polt Renfrews or Apple stores.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
Wow. How do they make sure.
Speaker 8 (50:43):
You face recognition or or if you go in there
again and they catch you stealing again, then they go, ah,
now we're gonna throw you in.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Gen Yeah yeah, So were you always a comic? Were
you a funny when you were a kid?
Speaker 8 (50:59):
Oh yeah, I used comedy as a you know, sort
of social lubricant.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
You know.
Speaker 8 (51:05):
I was, you know, the class clown and that sort
of thing, and I always had kind of a funny
way of expressing myself. So I was actually a school teacher,
an English drama teacher initially after graduating from university. But
then comedy clubs started opening up and I tried that
(51:27):
and it was successful at it rather quickly.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
It became you know, someone that you know.
Speaker 8 (51:34):
Often takes a long time for people to evolve from
their first open mics to headlining shows, but for me,
it was just a couple of years. So yeah, I
was sort of born.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
As a comic. Do you always do not just you,
but other comics? Do you always use your own personal story?
Does that make it unire or is that just because
that is something you know and you can twist it
to make it funny? Am I saying that asking the
right question?
Speaker 3 (52:08):
I think? So, you know, we draw from our own
experiences most.
Speaker 8 (52:13):
Writers, and writing stand up is a form of writing,
so we're always you know, drawing from what's going on,
you know.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
Plus, you know, there's a uniqueness.
Speaker 8 (52:26):
To you know, talking about your own life if you
just sort of talking about what everybody else is talking
about from a sort of a large, you know, sort
of framework of what people think and feel.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
Then it gets.
Speaker 8 (52:44):
You know, pretty typical, pretty stereotypical, nothing too original about it.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
So one of the ways to maintain an.
Speaker 8 (52:52):
Originality is to just draw from your own experience.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
You performed at the friend yes, many times, many times
he did one called hard to Kill. I'm not a
stranger to the fringe only because I was a stage
mom to a kid that was acting oh okay, and
so I sort of behind the scenes of theater a lot.
But times actually tell us about hard to Kill.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Well, that was.
Speaker 8 (53:17):
When I had, you know, gone through some dire experiences.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
That was right in the middle of COVID. So there
was you know, this.
Speaker 8 (53:29):
It was rather a peculiar situation because you know, there
was the first phase, but I guess I called it
and then and then there was a bit of a
break where we were able to do shows, but everybody
had to sit at a distance and I couldn't cross
the line getting too close to the audience. But anyway,
I had COVID, you know a few months before that,
(53:51):
so then you know, I started writing jokes about that,
and then you know, I dealt with I had recovered
from answer about a decade before that, and I was also,
you know, in recovery from addiction, so it just seemed
like I had a whole.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
Bunch of stuff that could have killed me that didn't.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
So you took to really dire situations and made something funny.
Speaker 3 (54:15):
Yes, this is you know, this is what we do.
Speaker 8 (54:17):
They you know, there's that old expression, you know, tragedy
plus time equals comedy. So you know, whatever situation you're in,
you know eventually you're going to have to make light
of it. I think that's a very natural experience that
people have, whether it's you know, whether you're comedian or not,
(54:40):
that you know, you go through a very harsh situation
and then as time goes on, you're able to talk
about it and you're sharing a light situation, and we
tend to, you know, sort of make bits.
Speaker 3 (54:54):
When I explained to people, you know, how your write material.
You know, it's a very natural thing.
Speaker 8 (55:00):
So we go to the dentists and it's you know,
not a good experience, and so you tell someone about it,
and then you tell another person and usually by the.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Third time you've told it, you've started writing it.
Speaker 8 (55:14):
You're imitating the receptionist's voice, and you're you know, coming
up and maybe you're changing the order a bit so
that it flows better.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
And we just sort of naturally are storytellers.
Speaker 8 (55:27):
So that's, you know, generally, what happens is that we
you know, by the time, you know, we've told it
a few times, you know, we know where the laughs are,
so we wait for them. And everyone does that except
maybe accountants.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
Well, it's reminding me of being in a room with
anybody who's a mental health consumer, somebody who's lived with
mental challenges, but there's no therapist in the room, and
then the dark humor that comes out in that time
is absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Sure, you know, you couldn't do it with a therapist
in the room. They might lock you up because they
think you're really not support They.
Speaker 8 (56:09):
Would lecture you for being you know, minimizing or saying that,
you know, oh, you shouldn't talk about yourself that way,
or all these.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
Sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Yes, yes, and that's the title of our program, Recreating Madness.
You know, we we take on our own names, you know,
our own labels. We reteem them so crazy and mad
and psycho and whatever. That's you know, people have their
own choices. What are you doing tonight? What are we
gonna hear?
Speaker 3 (56:39):
Well, I'll be.
Speaker 8 (56:41):
You know, I won the National Poetry Slam. I don't know,
I guess over a decade ago now, But so I
spent a lot of time doing slam poetry.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
So I have.
Speaker 8 (56:56):
Spoken word is a sort of umbrella for all sorts
of things, stand up comedy being one of them, slam
poetry being another.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
So you know, I'm gonna do a couple.
Speaker 8 (57:09):
Of poems to sort of bookend the show, and then
I'll you know, do some comedy about what's going on
in the world and my observation of things, reflection on
my whole life as a as a single dad, you know,
my uh you know, battles with you know, drug addiction
(57:29):
and alcoholism and you know, so you know, that's It's
something I've.
Speaker 3 (57:36):
Been doing for for a long time.
Speaker 8 (57:38):
Once I got into recovery, then it didn't take long
for people asking me to do shows or be part
of evance where I could you know, sort of make
fun of or lightening the mood, you know, as it were.
Speaker 3 (57:54):
So this is just another experience I was asked to
do this.
Speaker 8 (58:00):
You know, the guy that's producing the show saw me
perform in another event and so you know, he asked
me if i'd come along to do that.
Speaker 3 (58:09):
So while you know, I'll.
Speaker 8 (58:11):
Be trying to, you know, talk about what's going on
in the world is pretty chaotic.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Right now, it is so chaotic. Yeah, well, thank you
Richard for giving me your time and we'll be right back. Folks.
Speaker 10 (58:25):
Hey, did you know Red Eye has a podcast. You
can tune in to Red Eye every Saturday morning from
ten am to noon, and now you can catch our
interviews anytime. Look for the Red Eye podcast on iTunes,
tune in radio, or a host of other podcast apps,
or you can check out our latest episode right on
our website co op radio dot org slash red Eye.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
You're listening to Rethreading Madness on Vancouver cap Radios FR
one hundred point five FM, and that's our show. My
thanks to Teresa Duggan for welcoming me into her home
to chat about her peer support work and how winning
the Cares to Come Back Award in twenty ten has
impacted her life. And to Richard Lett, Canadian stand up comedian,
poet and actor whom we caught up with at a
(59:09):
recent Mad Pride Cafe here in Vancouver. Music Today was
by Sherry Alrich and Omar Rudberg and to you are listeners,
thank you for joining us today. Stay safe out there.
You've just listened to Rethreading Madness, where we dare to
change how we think about mental health. We air live
on Vancouver co Op Radio CFRI one hundred point five
(59:31):
FM every Tuesday at five pm, or online at co
opradio dot org. If you have questions or feedback about
this program, or want to share your story, or have
something to say to us, we want to hear from you.
You can reach us by email Rethreading Madness at co
opradio dot org. This is Bernardine Fox. We'll be back
next week.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
Until then, will ever been fir
You're listening to Vancouver call Op Radio cfr oh one
hundred point five FM. We're coming to you from the
unseated traditional territories of the Squamish, Musquam and Sleighway Tooth
nations around Vancouver, BC. I'm your host, Bernardine Fox, and
this is this show that dares to change how we
think about mental health. Welcome to Rethreading Madness.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, Liver benfo.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
No, what the heck you're listening to Rethreading Madness on
Vancouver called Radio cfr oh one hundred point five FM.
I'm Bernardine Fox and right now I have a pleasure
of speaking with Teresa Duggan, who actually met at the
Courage to Come Back awore Galla twenty twenty five. We
got located at the same table, so it's nice to
(00:52):
see you again.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Teresa.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Thanks for coming and chatting with us.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
You won the award in twenty ten. Can you talk
a little bit about why you won that award?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, that is a very good question. I didn't even
know I was being nominated. I worked at gas Come
Vacational Services as a peer support worker. I worked five
days a week, nine to five. I got paid one
thousand dollars a month for my work, and that was okay,
(01:29):
and I enjoyed it very much. I worked directly with clients,
people who have mental illnesses in the community, and I
hooked them up to volunteer work jobs, getting around on
the bus, anything that they needed. I was there for them.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
How many people do you think you worked with?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh, my goodness, one hundreds.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
What is vocational Let's start there, because i'm so.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Vacational Services is an organization that helps people with mental
health issues regain their optimism, their hope, their compassion. We
would help them do the resumes, go for walks to
(02:23):
clear your brains, learn how to work efficiently, hire to
get along with other people. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So what would you say, was there because obstacle in
regaining a sense of hope?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
The obstacle and regain a sense of hope? Well, if
you have bipolar you're up and down. It's not like
you have control over those ups and downs. You just
go there either one. And if you're down, you lose hope.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yes, that's what depression is, right, Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
You lose your hope. And if you're up, you need
to come down a little bit because you're too energetic,
too impulsive, too fast, You're just going too fast. Your
wheels are spinning. And so we would help people come
(03:26):
to a medium and that's where they worked fast. And
they found that's where they worked fast. So they discovered
it for themselves.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So they would find where that balance was that worked
just for them, never mind everybody else. Yeah, so you
help them figure that out. What brought you to peer Support?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, I'm actually qualified as what's called the child and
youth worker. What does that mean? That is, well, what
I did. I went to college for three years and
got my diploma and child and youth work. I got
my first job at a large psychiatric hospital in Ontario
(04:15):
called Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, and it's huge. I worked with
teenagers and crisis in a lock union. I worked there
for ten years and then I started my family. So
I never actually went back to Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, but
(04:38):
that's where it started working with people with psychiatric illness.
I moved from Ontario to BC in ninety four, where
my mental illness went crazy.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
When you say mental illness, I just want to say,
we actually don't use that term on the program. We
call it mental health challenges. But there is certainly some
degree of controversy about whether or not these are illnesses
or whether these are responses to trauma. So pathologizing our
(05:18):
normal response to trauma is kind of difficult to stretch
that to become a disease.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Or an illness. Yeah, but when you.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Got here, that's when your mental health started to deteriorate. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah. So what happened was I was engaged to fella
for ten years. It's a long time to be engaged.
There was just something missing in the relationship for me,
so I couldn't make that final commitment to a wedding,
(05:52):
and I ended up addicted to opioids and I went
to approach I'm called NA Narcotics Anonymous. There I met
a man who totally intrigued me. I fell for him
the moment I saw it was like instant and we
(06:16):
connected and we loved each other. And he was a biker.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
David, Oh yeah, biker, Yes, okay, all right, well it
can be very interesting, folks. I'm not surprised. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He was a great guy in the beginning. And I
had a child with him. So I had the child
in ninety two. So you're still in Ontario and I
was still Ontario. I left Ontario in ninety four. He
took me to court to get more visitation, to have
(06:56):
part custody, and I was just flawed. I didn't want
him in her life the way that he was right,
So I bought him in Cork and I won soul
custody no access.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Wow, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
That's a very big deal.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
He must have been a bad dude to you about
at that point ninety four.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I'm considering he was the one that made a cork.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So that you're still in Ontario by that, so.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I'm still Ontario. My lawyer calls me and says, you know,
you got soul custody, no access, Yeah, out of town.
And I packed up and I left.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So your life was in danger by the sounds of that.
That's that's the unstated thing in here, that that was
going on for you.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
My life was a danger at My child's life was
in dangerous.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah. People don't understand that that when mothers take children
away from their fathers, where it's not that we're being mean,
or we're being cruel, or we're trying to get back
at them, or we're scorned lovers or whatever it is,
because we have to keep our children safe, So.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Good for you. I actually let him visit her if
I supervise, but he wanted more than that, and he
wanted her on his own. So that was the reason
he took me.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
To car So you're here, You're in Vancouver.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So I'm in Vancouver. I have family here. I moved
in a house, moved directly into a house where there
were three other people living, adults living. I stayed there
for about six months with my daughter, and we got
into single mother's housing YWCA someone gardens. It still exists.
(08:49):
It's a wonderful place. I lived there for fifteen years
and then moved to where I am now. But bringing
her up in a single mother's housing community was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I imagine that supportant together. Yeah. I lived in a
house with another woman who was also a single parent.
I was a single grandparent by that point, and our
kids were kind of the same age, and we did that.
We we would get home and say, what do you
have in your fridge? I have this, And we put
our food together, and the kids would have meals, and
(09:29):
we would have meals together, and then we would go
I mean, and the kids went back and forth a lot.
It was very wholesome. It was just very healthy.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, to do that.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I still know that person, nice, love her to death.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So what happened to me, if you know what what
happened to me was with the exhaustion and the trauma
and the fear that I was feeling once I even
arrived here. It sent me off on a depression that
(10:05):
I had never experienced before. Didn't know what was happening
to me. And a woman who worked for the like
of UCA called mental health and so you need to
come and see this person. We don't know what's going on.
So they did and they took me to hospital.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So what was going on for you? What was happening
that they were concerned for?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I was suicidal in my depressions. That's one of my
symptoms of suicidality. So I had attempted suicide when I
was twelve years old. Was very sad when I woke
up the next morning because I really wanted to die,
(10:55):
And so that kind of stuck with me. That pattern
when you get to as you die.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
It is you know, we do bring our coping skills
with us from childhood, and so one could you know,
often suicide is a coping skill. It sounds like a
ridiculous one, but it often is. What was a coping
skill for you for.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, what it did for me was it made me
reach out to other people, professionals. And even though I
didn't like the hospital, nor do I now, even though
I work in one, oh iron about it. It gave
(11:45):
me routine, It gave me food, it gave me my medication,
It gave me friendships that gave me lots of things.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
How long were you in the hospital.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
The longest I was in the hospital was two years.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Oh my goodness. I had no idea that that was
a thing that people would be there.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
For two years.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
That's quite a long time.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, it was a long time.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So have you ever figured out what was behind your
depression or is it because you have many depressive episodes or.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Well I think originally it started after being sexually abused
as a child, and I was abused for three years.
Went to my mother, told my mother what was going on,
and she did nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
That's hard.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So I just crashed and that's when I attempted suicide.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Right, So that means that the abuse started when you
were nine.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, that's very young.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, And was it somebody that knew your family.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yes, oh, yes, that was very clear.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh yes, yes, okay, So with somebody that you continued
to see on a regular basis outside of being assaulted. Yes,
so you would have seen your family interacting with that
person as if he's an okay person. And then your mother.
I'm sorry, I'm telling your story, but and then your
mother is not there for you. Yeah, that's very that's
(13:18):
a very hard reality for you and for any child
to deal with.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah. But at the same time, I was functioning quite well.
I uh, after trying to kill myself in school, I
won the mis Congeniality Award. I was like, that doesn't
(13:46):
hap up.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Kids like cope in various ways. Yeah, you kids do
exactly what you did, which if it's congeniality, that means
you were a nice person to lots of people.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Nice. So that's not surprising actually, because some people, you know,
become little terrors, and some people go the other way
and try and be perfect so that they're never in trouble.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So yeah, So peer of support works started once my
daughter turned four and I was getting their better daycare
at that point, and I started to use some of
my time to go back to the kind of job
that I had in Ontario right now without going back
(14:36):
to child and youth work, which is I didn't want
to do. I didn't want to work full time gave
me the same sensations and feelings and thoughts as being
a child and youth worker. Because I worked with people
who had meant the health challenges, who were in the community.
(15:00):
That was the only different and I loved it. I
fell in love with doing the job. And I progressed
from doing, you know, four hours a week, to doing
twenty hours a week, to doing forty hours a week
and now in my job that I have now at
(15:23):
Vgage in Trusiery, I work fifteen hours a week, which
is perfect for me. I started out four days a
week and I met another pair support worker who I
really liked. I liked his style. I liked how he
worked with the clients. He had lots of good ideas
(15:45):
for groups and things like that, and how he communicates
with the clients. And so I said to him, do
you want to share my job? Let's check into it
if you're interested. So he said, yeah, cool. So we
went through the process of management in the union and
the whole bit and we got permission to job share
(16:06):
and this is and this is that?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
V is that out of the mental health unit?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Or yes, okay, it's sort of Willow pavilion. Uh what's
it called. It's called uh, Willow pavilion, fourth floor trist
free unit. Yeah. And people come and stay maybe for
two three months, some people come for years.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Right, And so what kind of people are you working with?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well, that's an interesting question because I find that it's changing.
We're actually working with people who are uh, much more competent,
much more connected to themselves, smart people.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So what were they before?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Before? It was more depression, people suffered, schizophrenia, people suffered
on the extreme schizo, effective personality disorders, all of the above.
Now we work with those same people today, only they're
(17:27):
on a different level. Whether it's the fact that people
are looking at mental health as being functional instead of
being a person who needs help.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So the people you're seeing now that you say are
smart and functional, and why are they coming to the
psych unit?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Then a lot of times what happens to the people
we see is substance abuse that mixed with the mental
health challenge can become quite good. What's the sort debilitating
thank you yeah. So the first thing we do is
(18:15):
try and get them off the drugs. Make that a
comfortable process. And then what we do and in the meantime,
what we do is see them on a one to
one level. They live there, they're on a locked unit
and they can gain passes, but some of them don't
have passes. They're on the unit twenty four hours a
(18:37):
day for weeks and months at a time, which just
I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I couldn't be a patient there. I'd be a horror.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But weren't you in care, like in a hospital for
two years? Yes, but you were able to come and go.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Or eventually okay, I had to earn that purplege I
tried to go. When I watched them allowed to go,
I run away, run away from UBC hospital in pajamas.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Oh my, that's not good. That's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
No, it's good. Block. They found me pretty fast.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
We just need to take a little break, Teresa. We'll
be right back. Folks.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yup, QUI get euons queen snah Hi, everybody. My name
is quigate Yuon's. I'm a member of the Squamish Nation
and the yagolanis klan of the Hyda nation. You're listening
to co Op Radio cfr O one hundred point five FM.
We live, work play and broadcast from the traditional ancestral
and unseeded territories of the Musquiam, Squamish, and Slave Tooth nations.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
You're listening to read Threading Madness on Vancouver cop Radio
cfr O one five FM. I'm here on location with
Teresa Duggan talking about what led out to her Courage
to Come Back award and what she's done since then
around mental health. So, Teresa, you are a peer support worker.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I am proud to be a support worker.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
As people know on this show. I'm also proud about
peer support. I think it's one of the most healing
tools that we have because I think that there is
nothing more healing than being in the company of somebody
who truly understands what you've gone through on some level
(20:35):
and is looking at you and accepts you and hears
you and knows you and that's okay, and that's one
of the its got to be one of the most
healing things that can ever happen. So thank you for
doing that work. But tell me about what brought you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
To peer support, Well, what brought me to peer support
was trying to get back into working with people with
the healthcault. Sure that was my goal in life. I
thought it'd be a child and youth worker forever, but
that didn't happen. And I found that I got what's
(21:17):
the word guy? I got enthused, inspired, thank you with
working with peers, and once that took hold of me,
I couldn't get enough of it. I love working as
a peer support worker. I've worked at VGH Trichree for
(21:41):
fourteen years now. I love the clients. They seem to
love me. We have a different relationship than anybody else
on the unit. For example, we've just had a new admission.
He walked around a lot, didn't speak to many people.
(22:05):
Started a conversation with a gentleman who was a rehab worker,
and I was sitting off to the side and they
were talking and that I bought it in and said, oh,
I had a muscle car, I had a subnecho chevelle
and he was like what I drew him to me?
(22:29):
Immediately he was walking around with these papers that had
odd pictures on them, on pages of numbers, and the
staff we like is that part of his illness or
what is that? And so he sat down with me
and he's showing me these strawings and what they are
(22:53):
is motor carts, the muscle cars, and so we talked
about all of them, and I said, you know, also
I had a tomorrow and said twenty eight and he's like, oh,
I don't what side sen you did job? And he
pulls out the numbers and he says, these are the
(23:13):
sizes of engines for different cars and dual exhaust and
we just we just talked for like forty five minutes
and it was so rudeful morning. He shook my hand
afterwards and he wanted to give me his pictures that
I said, no, I can't take those from you. But
(23:35):
what I can do is I have a muscle card
book at home. I you know, bring it next week
when I come and we can go through it.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So what's interesting in that story is the staff are
looking at everything as part of the illness, as opposed
to this is an important thing for this person. And
you were able to come in and I mean granted
part of your history as well in terms of muscle
cars and understanding those things, but you were you didn't
(24:03):
go there. That's not where you went.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
First at all. And I went to the staff afterwards
and I said, I just had an amazing conversation with
so and so, and this is what we talked about.
And she was like, what are those drawings that he's
carrying around? And I said, those are parts of cars.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
What does she say?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
She's a holy cow? She said, I haven't seen him
speak to anybody, and YouTube were so engaged when I
saw you, then I knew something was of.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, And she came to me after first and she
was like, what did you call those cars? I want
to put it in the notes. I said, muscle cars.
But it's my experiences. Then I get to share with
clients mat or what they are, and we relate on
(25:03):
a certain level.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And they know that you are not a therapist. You're
not there to, you know, therapize them or pathologize them
or anything. You're there as another person who has lived experience. Yeah.
But I find so often that just have to edit
(25:27):
out my humming and hunging here. They're just approaching somebody,
like setting aside whatever diagnosis there is, just set it
aside and talk to that person it with respect and
the dignity that you would give any other person on
the planet goes so far that it boggles my mind
(25:47):
that a lot of people don't seem to understand that
that somehow we live in a society that thinks because
you have a mental health challenge, it is okay to
treat you in certain ways like lack of respect, conscension,
like you're you're somehow disabled in a way that makes
you incapable of doing thinking. I call it sort of
(26:12):
that a puppy syndrome. And do you find that as well? Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yes, there is a specific disorder and it has many categories.
It's called personality disorders. So there's borderline personality because are
multiple persons personality disorders.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That's no longer a thing. Multiple multiple personality change to
dissociative identities disorders, and so it's no longer a personality disorder.
I personally wouldn't call it a disorder at all, So right, right,
But there are other ones that are you know, people.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Have a there's a stigma around having a personality disorder
and it's very much alive still. And I hear it,
what do you hear? I hear people say, oh, well,
he's just a fucking personality disorder.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Oh my god, I'm not sure. That's terrible.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Oh it's terrible. I'm like, I just freaqu went I
hear things like that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Are you hearing that from staff?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yes, it's so bad. I mean I just feel terrible
every time I hear one more story about what's happening
by staff in a psych word. I had somebody on Facebook,
you know how you have that conversations back and forth,
and I can't even remember what it was about, but
she tried to pull the well I work at the
psych words, so I know, I think I responded with,
(27:45):
I think you don't really have insight into what you're
saying here or something like that, you know, using those
words back, and she just went away right like yeah,
was you know. But if unless you know that, unless
you feel like you can do that and feel confident
that you know they can, it can really undermine somebody's
sense of reality.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Quite trank, and how they're being treated. I mean, you know,
they'll it'll be medication time and they'll bring out with
a cup of water, a little pixie cup of pills,
and then they'll say, here, take this with agritude, and
it's like why do you do that just because they
(28:28):
have a personality disorder, you think they're gonna be.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Or it's okay to treat people that way.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
They do.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
They treat people with depression the same way, So it's
just people with a personality. So that's where borderline personality,
you know, ends up being such a big, huge, horrible
thing because of how people treat those people who have that.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
They come a long way in other areas. I watched
a movie a couple of months ago. It was a documentary.
It was called Witches, and it was about women who
suffered post natal depression, post partum depression, and it was
(29:18):
set back in the sixties, and it showed how they
were treated in the hospital. And I was devastated because
we do so many of the same things. We haven't
grown that much, no, And.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Of course people know that I do a lot of
work around therapy, abuse and exploitation, and of course one
of the things that happens, one of the things we
really got clearly is that the abusive therapist. Of course,
there's lots of really good therapists out there. This isn't
a slight against everybody, but the ones that are abusive
are literally we replicating the same things pedophiles do. Right,
(30:05):
so they're grooming and then the exploitation and then the
threats of if you tell. But of course it takes
on this other senator sinister part of it because they
have so much power and authority in society, never mind
in your life as their client, but in society. And
so back then, when parents were, say, assaulting their child
(30:28):
and the child ran away and told the police like
they were supposed to, and the child the police brought
the child back and their parents said, oh, the little
Janie's just a liar. You can't trust anything they say.
And the police went, oh, okay, well here you go.
Here's a little janey. Off you go, and they would
leave from there. The same thing is happening with abusive therapists,
where the therapist is standing up and saying, oh, they
(30:50):
have borderline I can't tell you how many people I
work with it. The last sentence in their file is
has borderline personality, right, like it's just thrown in there
as the prison has confronted them. And you know, so
we it's become a joke when somebody says, oh, yeah,
they team, we just laugh because it is. But it
(31:11):
tells the story about how much power and authority people have.
And so if you're in a psych word and you
you are the client and you have one of those diagnoses,
then you're really at their there you're just there's nothing
you can do.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's uh, it's very sad, very sad.
But even the fact that now hospitals and institutions are
taking you on pairs of support workers because pair of
support workers have been around for a while, thirty odd
years and now they're in institutions where they can make
(31:52):
a differends. So we are changing.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Do you see the change happening.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Oh, yes, I see the change happening.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's good. That's actually really nice.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
To hear that's happening. Yeah, definitely, it is happening. Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Do people make complaints? Yes, and how are they dealt
with on the sac words, Well.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
If that's what the complaint is, I mean, if somebody's
complaining about how the doctor is treating them, the psychiatrist
is treating them, or why won't they give them this.
As a pierce ofport worker, we can advocate. That's a
part of our role is to advocate for the client.
(32:38):
So we can go to the doctor and say, you know,
I was speaking to so and so, and I think
it would be a really good idea if they tried this,
and then I would get the reaction back or it
would be icing coded and he would change his mind
(32:59):
or she would change his mine.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
And that's very helpful because you're not the person with
the mental health challenge. You are literally the person in
between those two. Yeah, that's wonderful. What else do you
do as a peer support worker? Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I run groups. My best group is bingo. They love it.
I get We have nineteen people on our floor and
we get about ten at least people out to play
bingo once a week. And the reason for that is
is I will put out prizes that they love, so
(33:37):
it'll be different. Funny shampoos, soaps, creams, chocolate bars, chips.
Those are the two that bring them in, of course,
So I put four chocolate bars out and four makes
of chips, right, that's the limits. And they have to
pick up their prizes and they can only win one
(33:59):
chocolate bar a game like a session, and then we
have other prizes that they love and they just had
so much fun.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Well it is I mean, it's not just bingo. You're
talking about socializing and you're talking yes, you know, people
engaging and people creating relationship. Yes, what happens to the
people who are like really brilliant that share up there?
What are they? What options do they have in terms
of doing more than being in the psych world twenty
(34:33):
four to seven.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, we're very fortunate. We had some really good rehab
workers and really good nurses, the best I've ever worked with.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, we we have. I am very fartunate to work there.
We have other groups. I do a book reading group
and the book I'm reading right now is Vignettes from
an Insane Asylum.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Oh cool, I haven't got it.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
And what happened was I uh, the first meditation group
I did, I did breathing. Then the next one I
went to I said, I have these three books. Instead
of doing the breathing, we could go through one of
these books and see how it goes. Oh, you have
(35:32):
the book here, I have the book.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Let's just read it out. So Vignette's from an Insane
Asylum A graduate students experience with schizophrenia, and it's zerom.
How do you say that? Zerom zerome sium. Yeah, that's
a very interesting name. I've never seen that name before.
(35:56):
But yeah, okay, so this is the one they picked.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
That's the one they Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
So we so like if I'm not there and someone
else is going to read the book, because I read
it to the group and then we talk about it. Right, Uh,
nobody else wants to touch it? Why because it's too
(36:23):
reality based.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
It's very so when you say nobody else, you're not
talking about the people.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Who rehab workers or nursists or anyone else who could.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
So these people who are dealing with really serious issues,
they come and they're they're not, they're not. What you're
saying is that people don't want to talk about serious
issues with these people who are dealing with very serious issues,
as if not talking about that somehow will make them better.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, that's so convoluted.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah, I'm glad you're doing it. And people are responding.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh yes, yes, oh yes cool, Oh yes yes. I
run a meditation group. I take care of their money.
They trust me to take care of their money.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
That's very cool.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah. Yeah, I do lots of different things. Work one
on one, take people out to learn bus routes take
people out to learn about programs that are available in
the community like Coast or MPa or get that connect
or whatever. There's so much out there that you can
(37:36):
get connected to and build community.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
With a people reconnecting with their own communities.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yes, that's good. That's very good too.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, okay, cool. So how have you done how? This
is one I one to ask. I want to ask,
how has the work you've done as a pure support
worker healed or not healed or made no difference on
the abuse you suff here as a child?
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Well, A lot of the clients that we get have
better views. So my dealing with it has a lot
to do with just talking about it, maybe not in detail,
but in a way where the person I'm speaking to
(38:32):
gets a feeling that I understand where they're coming from, yes,
and why they're coming from.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah. I asked that because as somebody who also does
peer support when I'm not on the radio, I find
it is almost a blessing really to be included in
someone's healing process, whatever point that is. It isn't going
to be a big part. It just just any part
of being involved in somebody's healing process. But the other
(39:02):
thing that happens because you're talking to so many people,
and you yourself are hearing others stories from so many people,
the same acceptance and care that we give by being
a support worker, we're getting back from those people in
a way that you know, you can't come out of
(39:23):
peer support not recognizing that you are completely normal. Really. So, yeah,
peer support is very high on my list of important
things that must be out there in the world. Yeah,
and I think it's also actually closer to what people
would normally get in a community or talking to a
(39:45):
friend or talking to their mother or the things that
don't happen as much now. But so peer support has
a very valuable part of that. How was it to
when the Courage to Come Back award?
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Oh, it was in crack. I was so shocked because
my boss from Gas to Vacational Surface has dominated me.
I was I didn't know. I was in Whistler volunteering
for the Paralympics, and I got a phone call and said,
(40:21):
you've won the peer Support a peer Sportberg Courage to
Come Backward for your peer support And I was like,
oh my god, you know what does this mean? And
they're like, we get lots of applications in we have
a group of people who goes over them and picks
(40:45):
the one who feels like they've been come from hell
to heaven heaven, worked their way there, and we just
want to represent that, and you you represent that. My
daughter was so excited. She thought I deserved it for
(41:08):
everything that we had gone through. And you know, I
used to lose custody upper on a constant basis, and
we're very close today.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Yes, well I did meet you at the gala. Your
daughter was there, your grandchild was there. Yeah, so yes, yeah,
that was clear. Has the Courage Come Back Award changed
your life?
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:34):
How did it change your life?
Speaker 2 (41:36):
It took me to a place of somebody recognizing what
I had been through, where I had gotten to, and
it made me feel like I actually had accomplished something. Yes,
that I was a winner.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yes, that's exactly how I thought. It wasn't so much
that the media came knocking on my door, big opportunities came,
It was what happened inside. Yeah, and that's very important.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Teresa. Thank you for chatting with me today about all
this and being so open and willing to share no problem,
and so thank you for the work that you're doing.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Oh, thank you. Yes, I will continue, Yes, yes, I.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Will be right back.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Folks.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Hi, folks, this is Steve ferguson your twenty first century
schitzuoid Man, and I'm the host of prog Rock Alley,
inviting you to come down and listen to our show
every week at Monday one am the very end of
the weekend. We will be looking at all forms of
progressive rock. I'm talking about space rock, art rock, math, rock, fusion, jazz.
(42:46):
You want it, I got it. Just name it, I'll
play it. We'll see you again. That's here on CFRO
one hundred point five co Op Radio Monday mornings one am.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
You're listening to Rethreading that Finess on Vancouver co Op
Radio cfr O one hundred point five f M. I'm
Bernardine Fox. Rethreading Madness is coming up to its sixth
anniversary of being on air. We produce an air each
week out of cfr O one hundred point five FM
on the unseated traditional territory of the Squamish, Muscriham and
Sligwey Tooth nations around Vancouver. Bc RTM was one of
(43:23):
the first radio programs to focus on mental health issues
here in Canada, in an area swamped with statements from
therapists rooted in colonial ideas about mental health and trained
in the DSM. RTM works to ensure that the voices
of those with lived experience have agency and opportunity to
define who they are and what is true for them
(43:45):
who listens to us. Beyond those with lived experience, our
audience includes their friends and partners, along with therapists, counselors,
and students of psychology. Since twenty twenty two, all of
our programs have been uploaded to the Mental Health Radio
Network WORK and can be downloaded from all podcast platforms.
So if this show was of interest to you, you
(44:06):
might find the rest of our programs informative as well.
You can find them by searching for Rethreading Madness wherever
you listen to your podcast.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
She gets a little high, but she feels a little loone.
Speaker 7 (44:36):
She's saying a lot of things, but she's still not all.
Speaker 8 (44:41):
Lie not so.
Speaker 7 (44:44):
She likes so witch shirts.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
She feels a little like.
Speaker 6 (44:53):
Spl in the summer life.
Speaker 7 (44:58):
Sust else believe someone loved and cannot stay and love be.
(45:20):
One day she mete a boy.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
He treated her.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
So good that she didn't want to hurt herself, but
he was shot. The summer breeze and I drive the
boom in she was hitting, buttom again.
Speaker 9 (45:44):
Sheep in love in the summer life shuts the dancer.
She believed someone loves her, thinking I'm free a loud. Yeah,
(46:09):
she was sired of all the friends because no one
really understood how. She was tired of pretending that of
feeling like Lousa was worm got so cold but down
they didn't anyone know.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
She made her for mine after summer because life is
just a dancing sheep blase, no one loved.
Speaker 9 (46:36):
Her, screamed and nomoust free a liver because life was
just and she believed no love and the summer it
(46:59):
because I was.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
Mind.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
You're listening to Rethreading Madness on Vancouver Call Up Radio
c f R O one five FM. We're coming to
you from the gathering place in downtown Vancouver on location
for the Mad Arts Cafe, and I'm about to talk
with Richard Lett. So you're a stand up comedian an actor.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
True, and it says.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
That you're known for comedy focusing on drug and alcohol recovery.
And at some point you were banned from a lot
of a lot of places.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
How come what happens?
Speaker 8 (47:48):
Well, I'm you know, I'm an addict, I'm alcoholic, and
I am you know, and that lends itself to all
sorts of bad choices.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
I think me being.
Speaker 8 (48:03):
Banned from comedy rooms had as much to do with
my you know, provoking style, but also I didn't present
very well when I'd been drinking or using. And then
just a couple of years ago, I took to stealing
(48:28):
to make my living when I was homeless and out there,
and so you know, that really undermines people's sense of
safety if somebody is around that.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Might be sealing from me.
Speaker 8 (48:43):
It's a pretty gross thing to do, yes, But when
you know, I mean the drug induced psychosis of.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
You know, just thinking that rules.
Speaker 8 (48:57):
Don't apply to you, or that you're just finding doing it,
or that you're smarter than anyone else, or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Drugs can give you those ideas.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
They sure do.
Speaker 8 (49:08):
Like I say, you know, I talked about I ended
up you know, using crystal math, which is horrible stuff,
but you know it it gives you the energy to
just you know, go and you know, escape and not
(49:29):
really care It's probably the most damaging thing about that
drug is it undermines your ability to understand what you're
doing is wrong, and that should be enough of a
reason not to do it. You live in another dimension,
you know, a place of you know where they're very grandiose.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
I kind of thought I was like the Pink Panther.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
You know, just amazing person or Pink Pathed the cartoon.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Well, they were both burglars.
Speaker 8 (50:05):
They were yeh famous, So I saw myself it was
this kind of an elegant thief. I stole from you know,
hotel lobbies and you know, took paintings and uh all
sorts of things. So and I, you know, I eventually
was uh caught and charged with that. I the sort
(50:29):
of punishment that I got was pretty minor.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
I was.
Speaker 8 (50:34):
Not allowed to go into polt Renfrews or Apple stores.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
Wow. How do they make sure.
Speaker 8 (50:43):
You face recognition or or if you go in there
again and they catch you stealing again, then they go, ah,
now we're gonna throw you in.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Gen Yeah yeah, So were you always a comic? Were
you a funny when you were a kid?
Speaker 8 (50:59):
Oh yeah, I used comedy as a you know, sort
of social lubricant.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
You know.
Speaker 8 (51:05):
I was, you know, the class clown and that sort
of thing, and I always had kind of a funny
way of expressing myself. So I was actually a school teacher,
an English drama teacher initially after graduating from university. But
then comedy clubs started opening up and I tried that
(51:27):
and it was successful at it rather quickly.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
It became you know, someone that you know.
Speaker 8 (51:34):
Often takes a long time for people to evolve from
their first open mics to headlining shows, but for me,
it was just a couple of years. So yeah, I
was sort of born.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
As a comic. Do you always do not just you,
but other comics? Do you always use your own personal story?
Does that make it unire or is that just because
that is something you know and you can twist it
to make it funny? Am I saying that asking the
right question?
Speaker 3 (52:08):
I think? So, you know, we draw from our own
experiences most.
Speaker 8 (52:13):
Writers, and writing stand up is a form of writing,
so we're always you know, drawing from what's going on,
you know.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
Plus, you know, there's a uniqueness.
Speaker 8 (52:26):
To you know, talking about your own life if you
just sort of talking about what everybody else is talking
about from a sort of a large, you know, sort
of framework of what people think and feel.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
Then it gets.
Speaker 8 (52:44):
You know, pretty typical, pretty stereotypical, nothing too original about it.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
So one of the ways to maintain an.
Speaker 8 (52:52):
Originality is to just draw from your own experience.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
You performed at the friend yes, many times, many times
he did one called hard to Kill. I'm not a
stranger to the fringe only because I was a stage
mom to a kid that was acting oh okay, and
so I sort of behind the scenes of theater a lot.
But times actually tell us about hard to Kill.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Well, that was.
Speaker 8 (53:17):
When I had, you know, gone through some dire experiences.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
That was right in the middle of COVID. So there
was you know, this.
Speaker 8 (53:29):
It was rather a peculiar situation because you know, there
was the first phase, but I guess I called it
and then and then there was a bit of a
break where we were able to do shows, but everybody
had to sit at a distance and I couldn't cross
the line getting too close to the audience. But anyway,
I had COVID, you know a few months before that,
(53:51):
so then you know, I started writing jokes about that,
and then you know, I dealt with I had recovered
from answer about a decade before that, and I was also,
you know, in recovery from addiction, so it just seemed
like I had a whole.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
Bunch of stuff that could have killed me that didn't.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
So you took to really dire situations and made something funny.
Speaker 3 (54:15):
Yes, this is you know, this is what we do.
Speaker 8 (54:17):
They you know, there's that old expression, you know, tragedy
plus time equals comedy. So you know, whatever situation you're in,
you know eventually you're going to have to make light
of it. I think that's a very natural experience that
people have, whether it's you know, whether you're comedian or not,
(54:40):
that you know, you go through a very harsh situation
and then as time goes on, you're able to talk
about it and you're sharing a light situation, and we
tend to, you know, sort of make bits.
Speaker 3 (54:54):
When I explained to people, you know, how your write material.
You know, it's a very natural thing.
Speaker 8 (55:00):
So we go to the dentists and it's you know,
not a good experience, and so you tell someone about it,
and then you tell another person and usually by the.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Third time you've told it, you've started writing it.
Speaker 8 (55:14):
You're imitating the receptionist's voice, and you're you know, coming
up and maybe you're changing the order a bit so
that it flows better.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
And we just sort of naturally are storytellers.
Speaker 8 (55:27):
So that's, you know, generally, what happens is that we
you know, by the time, you know, we've told it
a few times, you know, we know where the laughs are,
so we wait for them. And everyone does that except
maybe accountants.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
Well, it's reminding me of being in a room with
anybody who's a mental health consumer, somebody who's lived with
mental challenges, but there's no therapist in the room, and
then the dark humor that comes out in that time
is absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Sure, you know, you couldn't do it with a therapist
in the room. They might lock you up because they
think you're really not support They.
Speaker 8 (56:09):
Would lecture you for being you know, minimizing or saying that,
you know, oh, you shouldn't talk about yourself that way,
or all these.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
Sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Yes, yes, and that's the title of our program, Recreating Madness.
You know, we we take on our own names, you know,
our own labels. We reteem them so crazy and mad
and psycho and whatever. That's you know, people have their
own choices. What are you doing tonight? What are we
gonna hear?
Speaker 3 (56:39):
Well, I'll be.
Speaker 8 (56:41):
You know, I won the National Poetry Slam. I don't know,
I guess over a decade ago now, But so I
spent a lot of time doing slam poetry.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
So I have.
Speaker 8 (56:56):
Spoken word is a sort of umbrella for all sorts
of things, stand up comedy being one of them, slam
poetry being another.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
So you know, I'm gonna do a couple.
Speaker 8 (57:09):
Of poems to sort of bookend the show, and then
I'll you know, do some comedy about what's going on
in the world and my observation of things, reflection on
my whole life as a as a single dad, you know,
my uh you know, battles with you know, drug addiction
(57:29):
and alcoholism and you know, so you know, that's It's
something I've.
Speaker 3 (57:36):
Been doing for for a long time.
Speaker 8 (57:38):
Once I got into recovery, then it didn't take long
for people asking me to do shows or be part
of evance where I could you know, sort of make
fun of or lightening the mood, you know, as it were.
Speaker 3 (57:54):
So this is just another experience I was asked to
do this.
Speaker 8 (58:00):
You know, the guy that's producing the show saw me
perform in another event and so you know, he asked
me if i'd come along to do that.
Speaker 3 (58:09):
So while you know, I'll.
Speaker 8 (58:11):
Be trying to, you know, talk about what's going on
in the world is pretty chaotic.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Right now, it is so chaotic. Yeah, well, thank you
Richard for giving me your time and we'll be right back. Folks.
Speaker 10 (58:25):
Hey, did you know Red Eye has a podcast. You
can tune in to Red Eye every Saturday morning from
ten am to noon, and now you can catch our
interviews anytime. Look for the Red Eye podcast on iTunes,
tune in radio, or a host of other podcast apps,
or you can check out our latest episode right on
our website co op radio dot org slash red Eye.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
You're listening to Rethreading Madness on Vancouver cap Radios FR
one hundred point five FM, and that's our show. My
thanks to Teresa Duggan for welcoming me into her home
to chat about her peer support work and how winning
the Cares to Come Back Award in twenty ten has
impacted her life. And to Richard Lett, Canadian stand up comedian,
poet and actor whom we caught up with at a
(59:09):
recent Mad Pride Cafe here in Vancouver. Music Today was
by Sherry Alrich and Omar Rudberg and to you are listeners,
thank you for joining us today. Stay safe out there.
You've just listened to Rethreading Madness, where we dare to
change how we think about mental health. We air live
on Vancouver co Op Radio CFRI one hundred point five
(59:31):
FM every Tuesday at five pm, or online at co
opradio dot org. If you have questions or feedback about
this program, or want to share your story, or have
something to say to us, we want to hear from you.
You can reach us by email Rethreading Madness at co
opradio dot org. This is Bernardine Fox. We'll be back
next week.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
Until then, will ever been fir
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