'I am not ashamed': How Montreal musician Florence K is encouraging open dialogue about mental illness

Florence K, an award-winning Montreal musician, is well known to CBC listeners as the host of the Franco-Canadian music program C'est Formidable on CBC Radio One and CBC Music, but she's also known as a relentless advocate for mental health.
 
In The Hole Inside, Florence K shares her experience with mental illness. The radio documentary's title comes from her belief that a lot of people living with depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder "might feel like they are struggling with a hole inside that they need to fill in."

Florence K's story chronicles many aspects of mental illness, including "the young girl who seeks ways to cover up the pain, who gives her whole self to her music and her career, who becomes a young mother to an amazing child but who crashes, spirals into a depression without seeking help at first — feeling too shameful and having no clue what was happening to her."

There is no shame in dealing with mental illness.- Florence K

She says that the best way to demystify mental illness is to talk about it openly in the same way we talk about physical health. 

In 2015, Florence K published a best-selling book in French called Buena Vida (Good Life), which is a memoir of her struggles and recovery from mental illness.

She hopes her documentary The Hole Inside will encourage others struggling with mental illness to seek help and not be afraid to discuss it. 

"When I feel something, I say it. I am not ashamed," she said. 

"Talk about it. Talk about it with people around you. Tell them, 'I need help.'" 

Florence K continues to have a successful recovery, a thriving musical career, and is working towards getting a master's degree in mental health while continuing to work as an advocate for removing the stigma from mental illness.

"There is no shame in dealing with mental illness."