Skip to content

Crazy Talk speaker series aims to give hope

THUNDER BAY -- Kim Mik is a good wife, mother and neighbour and she has bipolar disorder.
364396_88740976
Kim Mik will share her story at the Victoria Inn Wednesday evening. (Jodi Lundmark, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- Kim Mik is a good wife, mother and neighbour and she has bipolar disorder.

Diagnosed with type 1 of the disorder in 2005, Mik never thought she would have a life of love and hope with a family, but that’s exactly what her life is now.

She wants to spread that hope and does through speaking engagements called That’s Crazy Talk; she’ll be addressing a crowd at the Victoria Inn in Thunder Bay Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“It was a pretty big shock to me and my whole world changed afterwards from the way I thought people were looking at me to what I thought was available for job opportunities to what I see my future as with a family,” she said.

“I have a pretty big mouth and started talking and talking and talking and eventually giving speeches and running support groups and trying as much as I can to be as loud as I can about what it’s really like to have a mental illness and an addiction and the fact that it’s actually pretty OK.”

She uses the word crazy when talking about herself and her disorder because people often have a misconception of what it means to be crazy.

“I think when they hear the word crazy, they picture people out on the streets acting weird and doing completely inappropriate things,” she said, adding when she tells people she is crazy, she imagines in the back of their minds, they’re thinking to back away slowly.

“I’m fine. I’m a good neighbor. I’m a good wife. I’m a good mother. I’m a good employee … I want crazy associated with my life and the way I handle my life, not what they are stereotypically thinking of.”

During her talk, Mik will share her story – her life before her diagnosis and then her journey facing the illness, including the cycles of recovery and relapse and a drug addiction she also dealt with.
She’ll also discuss what her life has become, which she describes as “wonderful” with a family and all the things she thought she’d never have when she was diagnosed.

“That’s what I want people in Thunder Bay to take away from my talk. Nothing is dashed forever.

This is a completely manageable illness, that most mental health issues are completely manageable … coming out of it, there is hope we can be living a life that is so normal and meeting all of our expectations,” she said.





push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks