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So, I am sitting here with Caroline Fei-Yeng Kwok.
Caroline and I have actually known each other for a long time.
And I first met Caroline because she had written a book called A Tormented.
Mind. And I was, I had read the book and loved
it and actually started using it in a course that I was teaching about social
work practice and mental health because it, it was such a compelling story of the
experience of mental illness. since then Caroline has also written
another book called Free to Fly: A Story of Manic Depression.
And in addition to being an author, Caroline
also is somebody who speaks around the world, particularly in Hong Kong, about
the experience of mental illness and recovery from mental illness.
She is a highly educated woman, she has her A diploma in education from the
University of Hong Kong. and then since coming to Canada has had a
Bachelor of Education and a Master of Education from the University of Toronto.
She worked as an ESL teacher in Toronto district school board for several years
and continues to be an ESL teacher now, working in the community mental health
care system with people who are diagnosed with mental illness.
So a very accomplished and interesting woman and I thought she would be a great
person to talk about recovery in mental illness and just to give us her
perspective based on somebody who has been an advocate and a user of services.
Again if something has worked with clients.
So, with that, I'm going to start talking to Caroline.
Well, my first question to you, Caroline, is you know, can you tell us a bit about
yourself and maybe you can start by telling us, what made you decide to start
writing about your experience? Well I had also to be a writer, ever since I was a
little girl. Girl.
So I went to Yale University and that was an encouragement of Dr.
Richard Selzer. he happened to be a surgeon and happened
to be a well known writer. He encouraged me to write this book.
And also, at one time, i was hospitalized ain England.
And also, ev, even here, in Mt. Sinai, the head of the department asked
me, Caroline you have to write a book. So that is what motivated me to write a
book. And then in those days, because I was an
inpatient, I said to myself, well Why should I write a book? You know, I was
not motivated, and also is English is my second language.
So, I didn't have any confidence in writing the book as such, although it was
my dream to write one. But as I mentioned to you earlier with
Dr. Richard Selzer Of Yale University, when I
took the creative writing course, it was so encouraging.
So when I wrote this book, Free to Fly, A Story of Manic Depression, you know, it
was you, Charmaine, who encouraged me to write the second second version of the
Tormented Mind, in which I did it for a lot of my experiences in different sets
of hospitals. For example, Mt.
Sinai Hospital, where I suffered from a coma, 2 week coma because of, because of
the overdose of medications given to me by a psychiatrist there.
And also, because in my book, I also talk about my experience, in England.
Which gives me a little bit of a different, perspective.
And also, in the book, also talk about fellow clients.
Speaker: Mm-hm. Speaker: And the kind of treatments that
I had, and as well as they had. Speaker: Mm-hm.
Speaker: So that is what made me to write this book, Free to Fly, A Story of Manic
Depression. And also a Chinese version, titled [FOREIGN] has also been in print.
It's the shorter version but for the Chinese version, I have an, I've added
the symptoms of driven major mental illnesses, at the end.
And I've talked more about the worries that my mother had, as a caregiver.
Because, my mother, she was, I mean, she was a, she was also an immigrant.
Speaker: Mm-hm. Speaker: And then she didn't understand
my, any English at all. So you know like, you know like the kind
of nervousness, and there's a lack of understanding of the mental illness, and
there wasn't, there was not any professional support for her.
And this is what motivated me to write the book.
I hope that people. I mean, the mainstream organizations
would be able to provide more support for the immigrant family education.
So, when you think about these books like Freda Fly and the Tormented Mind, who are
you hoping is reading them? Speaker: Those books.
Speaker: For the general public, for the mental health professionals, for the
psychiatrists, and for the psychiatric residents, and for the survivors.
And in fact, because this, because of this version right, and the Chinese
version in particular, I find that a lot of these readers that come to see me.
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They talked about their, their mental illness, or some of their loved ones.
Speaker: Mm-hm. Speaker: And I found it is very helpful.
Speaker: Mm-hm. Speaker: Except the psychiatrists.
They just said, all right. It's a very well-written book, but they
never exposed their self identity. Speaker: [LAUGH] Speaker: [LAUGH] Maybe
they don't suffer from any mental illness at all, but I don't think so.
Speaker: [LAUGH] Speaker: [LAUGH] Speaker: So part of, I mean, you make a,
an excellent point. Part of the thing about writing a book
like this is that you put yourself out there as somebody who's had these kinds
of experiences. Speaker: Yeah, right.
And also, to teach those mental health professionals the other side.
Speaker: Mm-hm. Speaker: Of the clients so that hopefully
they'll be able to provide better and more humane treatment to their clients
and I particularly would like to have this book to be promoted to university,
to universities and to these mental health with clinics, or within mental
health institutions, for these mental health professionals, to know what it is
about, and especially for the survivors.
Charmaine WilliamsAssociate Professor
