For Devon Serket, trying to find treatment for mental illness was like travelling to hell and back. The toll was very nearly his life.
Serket, 24, a Toronto graphic design student who suffers from bipolar disorder, started dealing with mood swings and depression when he hit puberty.
“It was oftentimes really, really debilitating. I couldn’t do my assignments. I couldn’t get through school. I had a lot of interpersonal problems, major mood swings,” he says.
He says he started trying to get help for his symptoms when he was in high school. But instead of the sympathetic care he was looking for, Serket says he was shunted between counsellors, misdiagnosed, placed on long waiting lists and refused care because he wasn’t considered sick enough.