Robin Harvey of Toronto

Robin Harvey manages her illness and uses her writing talent to educate others.

Robin Harvey began experiencing “incapacitating black depressions and restless, hypomanic highs” when she was just 12.   She could be fun and outgoing sometimes, then instantly furious at other times.  She would crash for 20 months and then do remarkably well for the next 20.Despite her extreme highs and lows, Robin was also exceptionally motivated, driven and talented, so it was hard for her to accept her extreme behaviours.  As a result, she suffered from untreated bipolar disorder for much of her life.

Finally, at the top of her game as a successful, award-winning journalist, she became pregnant with her first child and instead of being overjoyed, her illness surfaced again as severe post partum depression.

That did it.  Robin decided to go on medication.  For good.

Now her mood changes are manageable, she sees a doctor regularly and uses cognitive therapy. As an award-winning journalist with the Toronto Star for over 20 years, she is using her knowledge, courage and passion for writing to help others.  She often writes about mental health issues with the powerful conviction of someone who truly understands living life with a mental illness.  She conducts seminars about mental illness, helped establish the first Institute of Addiction and Mental Health Studies for Journalists at CAMH, and volunteers her time for mental health organizations.

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