Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I think that people with mental health problems and illnesses are already being discriminated against routinely. Our rights are routinely violated, and that's actually the problem. That's what's getting us to the point where we feel we have no other option than to request MAID. T

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Like [Inaudible—Editor].

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Sure. I don't have a blanket opposition to medical assistance in dying, no. I think it's a false comparison between the two, however.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I'm saying that the treatment pathway for each of those conditions is very different. Chances are somebody who has end-stage cancer—as a previous witness mentioned—has a much clearer picture that that their condition is indeed irremediable and that they are indeed going to die an

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I wish I could tell you that it was something more eloquent than luck and time, because some of the treatments I received made me a lot worse. There is a well-known warning on prescribing antidepressants to kids—now if they're under 30, but especially if they're just teenagers, a

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Well, you yourself can't, but you learn, when you've been an in-patient in a hospital enough times, what to tell doctors in order to get them to do what you need them to do. I was able to get out of hospital when I shouldn't have been. I was able to get into hospital when I shoul

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you for that question and the opportunity to follow up on that. I am convinced that I would have been an eligible candidate. I had been in and out of hospital involuntarily more than half a dozen times. I had been transferred to different hospitals. I was on locked wards.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I've never applied for medically assisted death.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes, that's correct. Had it been available during the peak of my struggles, and in fact throughout the duration of my chronic mental illness, there were many times when I would have applied.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  No. It wasn't available.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you very much for this time to express myself on such a vital matter. First, I think most importantly what I'd like to say is that I come here as a person with lived expertise of a once treatment-resistant, long-term, major depressive disorder, comorbid with a social anxie