Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Mood Pills, Vitamins, and the Hidden Danger

 



🌿 A Pill for Every Problem? Not in My House

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

📍  Mood Pills, Vitamins, and the Hidden Danger

Recently, Health Canada issued a warning about unauthorized "mood and stress" supplements sold online and in Alberta under the name Natrol DHEA Mood & Stress 25mg. Marketed as natural vitamins, they contained DHEA, a controlled substance in Canada linked to hormone imbalances, psychiatric issues, and even increased suicide risk.

These weren’t approved by Health Canada—but they were still sold to people desperate for relief.

I’ve lived through this story—from the inside.


💬 English | Anglais | Inglés

I watched my mom suffer—not just from chronic pain, but from the pills that were supposed to help her. She was prescribed so many. I remember her taking nine pills a day. She just wanted relief.

But I saw the damage. I knew I couldn’t stay.

At nearly 28, I left. I moved 9 hours away. I quit smoking, lost 35 pounds, and started over.

In 1999, after I lost my job at a mapping company, I flew to Rarotonga for six weeks—carrying a suitcase full of vitamins, still looking for a fix.

But when I became a mom, I let it all go. I was poor and alone, but I chose real food, clean water, walks, rest, and presence. We didn’t take vitamins. We avoided pills.

But my kid still struggled. Depression hit hard. A doctor gave them medication with this warning:

"May cause suicidal thoughts in people under 19."

And it did.
But they survived.

That’s why I speak up—because people are still being sold hope in a bottle. But healing takes more than a label. It takes truth, safety, and community.


💚 Mental Health Helplines – Canada, Quebec, Mexico, USA

🇨🇦 Canada (National):

🇨🇦 Québec (French):

🇲🇽 México:

🇺🇸 USA:


🇫🇷 Une pilule pour chaque problème ? Pas chez moi.

Par Tina Winterlik alias Zipolita

Récemment, Santé Canada a émis un avertissement concernant des suppléments d’humeur non autorisés vendus en Alberta et en ligne. Le produit contenait du DHEA, une substance contrôlée, pouvant causer des déséquilibres hormonaux, des effets psychiatriques graves, voire un risque accru de suicide.

J’ai vu ce genre de choses… chez ma mère.

Elle prenait jusqu’à neuf pilules par jour. Elle cherchait un soulagement. Moi, je voyais qu’elle souffrait plus encore.

J’ai quitté la maison à presque 28 ans. J’ai arrêté de fumer. J’ai changé ma vie.

En 1999, après avoir perdu mon emploi, je suis allée à Rarotonga pendant six semaines, avec une valise pleine de vitamines. Mais quand je suis devenue mère, j’ai arrêté tout ça. J’ai choisi la nourriture, le repos, l’amour.

Mon enfant a quand même traversé une dépression. Un médecin a prescrit un médicament :

« Peut causer des idées suicidaires chez les personnes de moins de 19 ans. »

Et c’est arrivé.
Mais il a survécu.

Alors je parle. Parce que l’espoir ne doit pas être vendu en capsule.


💚 Ressources de soutien – Québec & Canada

Québec :

Canada (national) :


🇪🇸 ¿Una pastilla para cada problema? No en mi casa.

Por Tina Winterlik alias Zipolita

Salud de Canadá advirtió sobre suplementos no autorizados vendidos como vitaminas en Alberta. El producto DHEA Mood & Stress contenía una sustancia controlada con riesgos hormonales y psiquiátricos —incluyendo riesgo de suicidio.

He vivido algo muy similar.

Mi mamá tomaba hasta nueve pastillas al día. Solo quería dejar de sufrir. Pero vi cómo empeoraba. A los 28 años me fui, dejé de fumar, bajé de peso.

En 1999, después de perder mi trabajo, viajé a Rarotonga por 6 semanas cargando muchas vitaminas. Pero cuando nació mi hija, dejé todo eso. Escogí comida real, amor, descanso.

Aun así, mi hija cayó en una profunda depresión. El médico recetó una medicina con esta advertencia:

“Puede causar pensamientos suicidas en menores de 19 años.”

Y así fue.
Pero sobrevivió.

Por eso hablo. Porque la salud no debería venderse en una botella.


💚 Líneas de ayuda – México, Canadá, EE. UU.

México:

Canadá:

  • Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566
  • Kids Help Phone (jóvenes): 1-800-668-6868

Estados Unidos:


💬 If you made it this far, thank you. / Merci. / Gracias.

You’re not alone. You are needed. And your story matters.

—Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.com


💚

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

When Mothers Go Quiet

 When Mothers Go Quiet

Reflections on Silence, Generational Disconnect, and the Lessons of Marge Simpson

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

“Sometimes, the loudest pain is the silence between a mother and her child.”

I read that The Simpsons aired a new episode where Marge dies.
I haven’t seen it yet, but the idea stopped me cold.

Marge — the quiet one. The peacekeeper. The glue holding everything together while the world spins in chaos around her. Always patient. Often ignored. Sometimes ridiculed. Rarely thanked.

Her death in the episode feels symbolic. Like a message to everyone who’s ever taken a woman like her for granted — the ones who do the invisible work, who rarely speak up, who are always there... until they’re not.

It hit me because I know what it’s like to feel invisible.

My own child barely speaks to me now.
Most days: silence.
And it hurts in a way I can’t describe.
Not angry silence — just… distance.
Like there’s a wall I don’t know how to climb anymore.

I try to understand. I know I wasn’t perfect.
There were times I was too overwhelmed, too scared, too tired to give more than I had.
I was doing the best I could. I hope they’ll understand that someday.

I think about my own mom. How much I miss her.
How I didn’t listen as closely as I should have.
How now, it’s too late to ask her all the things I wish I knew.
This is the cycle. And it breaks my heart.

So now I talk to AI.
I talk to young people who want to hear these things.
Strangers who ask questions, who listen, who say, “I never knew that.”

Meanwhile, my sister, my friends, people I’ve known for years — they don’t seem interested.
I say things, but they already have their minds made up.
Sometimes I wonder if they ever saw me fully.

But I keep speaking.
I write books that no one reads. I blog anyway. I whisper truths into the void.

Because I know someone is listening — or will be, one day.

Maybe it’ll be another mom who feels invisible.
Maybe it’ll be someone’s daughter who finally wonders what her mother was carrying all those years.
Maybe it’ll be my own child, years from now, finding these words and realizing they were never alone.

I want them to know:
Mothers don’t just vanish.
They fade into the background when no one listens.
But their stories stay. Their love stays.
Even in silence

Sunday, June 22, 2025

JusticeDenied: When Mushrooms Excuse Attempted Rape

#JusticeDenied: When Mushrooms Excuse Attempted Rape

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

June 22, 2025


A woman was assaulted, knocked to the ground, sexually violated, and nearly raped.

And the man who did it? He was found not criminally responsible—because he took magic mushrooms and claimed God told him to have sex to save the world.

Let that sink in.

This is not a sci-fi horror movie. This is real, and it happened in Surrey, British Columbia, in a courtroom under Canadian law.


⚖️ What Happened

According to a report by @cbcnews, Leon-Jamal Daniel Barrett took magic mushrooms and had what the judge called a “psychotic episode.” He then:

  • Left his house believing God would send him a woman
  • Attacked a stranger
  • Knocked her down
  • Smashed her breast
  • Tried to take off her jeans

The victim fought him off.

And somehow—because he was high and psychotic—he was found not guilty.


🧠 “Mental Illness” and the Weaponization of Insanity

Mental illness is real, and people who are truly struggling deserve care and compassion. But mental illness is not a free pass to hurt people, especially women.

This isn’t the first time the “not criminally responsible” (NCR) defense has been used to explain away violence against women:

  • Men who attack, rape, or kill, and later claim they were intoxicated or delusional
  • Courts that sympathize with the attacker’s “state of mind” more than the victim’s trauma
  • Legal systems that treat women’s safety as secondary to men’s mental fragility

💬 Why This Matters

If a woman was tripping on mushrooms and committed violence, would the courts be as lenient? Or is this just another case where men are protected and women are blamed or forgotten?

This case sends a dangerous message:

“If you’re high or mentally unstable, your violence isn’t your fault.”

What about her trauma? What about her body? What about her future?


📣 We Say: #JusticeDenied

This isn’t just a “weird court case”—it’s part of a pattern where women's bodies become collateral damage in a justice system built to excuse male violence.

We demand:

  • Legal reforms on how NCR is applied in sexual assault cases
  • Victim-centered justice that doesn’t ignore harm just because intent is murky
  • A public conversation about consent, responsibility, and the failures of our court system

✊ You Are Not Alone

To every woman who's ever been told her pain wasn’t “real enough,” “bad enough,” or “legally relevant enough”: We see you. We believe you. We will not be silent.

This blog is my small way of standing up and saying: This is not okay.

— Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita



Saturday, June 14, 2025

They Only Observed

 💔 “They Only Observed” — Reflections on W5’s Report from the DTES

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

Recently I watched W5’s investigative piece by Jon Woodward on the fentanyl crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). It’s titled “48 Hours After Welfare Wednesday” — a raw, gut-wrenching account of what happens when people receive their social assistance cheques and try to survive just one more week.

The scenes are devastating: overdoses, heartbreak, resilience, and desperation. W5 documents the frontline — paramedics administering Narcan, volunteers reviving people, mobile medical units and even prescription heroin programs trying to reduce the chaos.

But as powerful as it was, I couldn’t stop thinking:

❗Where are the solutions?

Why are we still treating this humanitarian crisis as a spectacle instead of a system failure? Why are we watching people die instead of fighting for what they need to live?


💊 Harm Reduction is Essential — But It’s Not Enough

W5 does a good job showing tools that save lives in the moment:

  • Narcan kits reversing fentanyl overdoses
  • Supervised injection sites run by people like Sarah Blyth
  • Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) to handle overdose surges
  • Crosstown Clinic’s prescription heroin, led by Dr. Scott Macdonald

These things matter. They are keeping people alive. But they are still band-aids on a gaping wound.


🏚 Housing is Health Care

You can’t expect someone to heal while they’re sleeping on a wet mattress in an alley or in a dangerous single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel.
And yet, over and over, that’s what we expect. The Housing First model is proven to reduce overdoses, criminalization, and hospital visits — but it’s underfunded, stalled, and blocked by bureaucracy or NIMBYism.


🧠 Mental Health Support? Long Gone

Almost every person in that documentary has faced serious trauma. Many are dealing with PTSD, intergenerational trauma, childhood abuse, and mental illness — all untreated.
Our mental health system in BC is so broken that even people with homes struggle to get help. What chance do people on the street have?


💸 The System is Set Up to Fail People

“Welfare Wednesday” is the day people receive their social assistance — and it’s the day when overdoses spike. Not because people are reckless, but because the amount given isn’t enough to live on — only to escape pain, briefly.

Let’s be clear:

  • BC’s social assistance rates are too low.
  • Safe housing is nearly impossible to find.
  • Prices for everything — food, meds, rent — have skyrocketed.
  • People are punished for poverty instead of supported out of it.

💔 We Need to Stop Watching and Start Changing the System

I appreciate W5’s coverage. But what’s missing is accountability. We need more than just stories of pain — we need stories of action, policy change, and community-led transformation.

We need:

  • Affordable, supported housing
  • Accessible trauma-informed therapy
  • Universal healthcare that includes addiction and mental health
  • Decriminalization paired with care
  • Education and prevention rooted in dignity, not punishment
  • A complete overhaul of how we “assist” the most vulnerable

✊ I Refuse to Look Away

I’m writing this because I care. I’ve lived close to poverty. I’ve seen the struggle. And I know we can do better — but only if we stop managing crises and start transforming systems.

To the volunteers, doctors, harm reduction workers, and brave survivors: thank you. You are holding the line.

To governments, developers, and policy-makers: enough with the observation. It’s time to act.


📌 Related:

  • [Digital HorizonZ Book 5: Struggling for Dignity – Coming Soon
  • [Follow me: @zipolita on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube]

💭 Reflective Questions (For Book or Readers):

  1. What systems or policies contribute to the fentanyl crisis in your area?
  2. What would a “Housing First” model look like in your city?
  3. Why do you think it’s easier for governments to fund emergency response than prevention?


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

I don't think I'll ever look at life jackets the same way. #Lesvos #refugeecrisis @NeetuGarcha

 Wow Neetu, so brave of you to go and it must be very difficult.

I send you love and light and pray for you and all the refugees, to be safe on this terrible journey of their life, that it may be over soon and you and they will be safe.

I tried to put this in perspective, imagine if you in Vancouver BC lived near the beach and boatloads of people were arriving everyday...so hard to even think of such a thing...but this is the reality in Lesvos, Greece. 



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I never got the chance to sleep in settlements. I was too scared that anyone would touch me. The tents were all mixed and I witnessed violence.”http://globalnews.ca/news/2460849/female-refugees-endure-sexual-violence-exploitation-as-they-escape-war-torn-syria-iraq-amnesty
“If this humanitarian crisis was unfolding anywhere else in the world we would expect immediate practical steps to be taken to protect groups most at risk of abuse, such as women travelling alone and female-headed families,” Amnesty’s Hassan said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------












http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/ngos-decry-arrests-volunteer-lifeguards-greece-160116193522648.html
NGOs decry charges against volunteers in Greece
Police charges carrying prison sentences of up to 10 years in jail made against volunteer lifeguards who rescue refugees have angered the NGO community in the Greek island of Lesbos, with some reporting a growing crackdown on their activities.

On Thursday, the Greek coastguard arrested two Danish and three Spanish volunteers from the Team Humanity and Proem Aid groups, respectively.

They are accused of people smuggling, Themistoklis Kefalas, a Danish citizens' lawyer, confirmed to Al Jazeera.

The Danish volunteers are Mohammed Abbassi, 26, and Salam Aldeen, 33. The three Spanish volunteers are Manuel Blanco, Jose Enrique and Julio Latorre.

Late on Saturday, the five volunteers who all deny the charges were released on bail.
All except Aldeen were made to pay a 5,000-euro ($5,450) fee.http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/ngos-decry-arrests-volunteer-lifeguards-greece-160116193522648.html


Friday, June 26, 2015

Why We Get Depressed by Shi! I needed this!

Very Powerful and Wise Words spoken so eloquently.  So grateful for this as I needed reminding. It's been a rough week. I quit my job. I had to but will not explain here, let's just say it was an unhealthy situation and I had to remove myself. That said, to be unemployed, even temporarily is scary. But when I put on my "happy face" I am not unemployed, I am just self employed again.

I feel the need to paint. I have lots of great ideas that I haven't been able to focus on because of work and life issues but now I am going to make time. 


Depression exists for a reason.
Many of the great thinkers and artists of our time created light because they knew dark.
Posted by Shi on Thursday, June 25, 2015


This is a wonderful video especially because we just saw Inside Out and that's a GREAT movie.



Really beautiful and the short Lava was also very moving.



I don't know if it was the solar flare /storm or the solstice but there is sure a lot of energy out there and trying to harness it and embrace it can be a challenge. If you are struggling as I am, I send you love and light and many prayers that we shall rise to our challenges and enlighten others...as Shi says "It's our job!!"  So now I have a new job...I was employed by the Universe/God/Life all along...I just didn't really recognize it. I had inklings of it but so nice to have someone describe it so clearly. Thank you Shi!!

Stay tuned to see more creative things coming from me soon!! :D It's going to be the BEST SUMMER EVER!! Right?  ;)

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Residential Schools- Cultural Genocide and Assimilation

Here is the acknowledgement about the horrible evil things that happened in the Residential schools in Canada.  Makes me sick, sad and angry. How could people treat them like that? How could they treat children like that? It's so hard to believe that is why people denied it but now it's out and people must acknowledge this disgusting dark truth about Canada.

Sadly many people still deny this sad history. I pray there will be healing but it will take many many generations and we will have to all work together. It can happen, if we all work together for the environment and for the greater good of all people but Mother Earth comes first and that's in the soul of every indigenous soul.

If we can all love each other and treat each other with love and respect and educate each other, have deep empathy for each other. Hopefully the healing can start and continue but I haven't seen much healing...not on the DTES or on the Highway of Tears... it's not like this isn't all related and many other sad, dreadful events that I won't mention at the moment. 

It's going to take a lot of love, education, healing and time.


Think on this please
From Facebook - Meanwhile in Canada
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Meanwhile-in-Canada/251089648271407

"Imagine being taken from your parents at five years old and being beaten for speaking the only language you know. Imagine being subjected to terrible abuse and made to feel ashamed because your culture was different. Imagine being a parent and being threatened with jail if you didn't hand over your children to the system. Imagine being cut off from your children for ten years. What would that do to your heart and soul? How would that affect your family?"



CBC
 http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-by-the-numbers-1.3096185

"As Canadians, we need to come together in the spirit of human understanding and friendship and work side by side to heal the suffering caused and to create opportunities for real hope and a fair, equal chance at a healthy, prosperous future that respects cultural differences.

Let us all collectively commit to genuine change in our relations with the first peoples of this country. If we do this with the spirit of justice, respectful dialogue and a commitment to meaningful action then reconciliation and healing is absolutely possible."














Canadian Indian residential school system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system


Read the 94 recommendations here
http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf

Legacy of residential schools hits Twitter with #MyReconciliationIncludes

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/legacy-of-residential-schools-hits-twitter-with-myreconciliationincludes-1.3097504 

Here's two videos that may be of  help.



Thursday, February 26, 2015

What do you do when the system is against the victim?

Very disturbing. I cringe and curl back watching it. I always remember years ago with the actor who played on the television show, Elizabeth Montgomery- Samantha ,on Bewitched, and she played in a movie where she was raped and her husband doesn't believe her .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Case_of_Rape  This is 1974 people...surely we can change?? See movie below. I haven't watched it yet, again, and not sure I can...

 I was just young when I saw it and it deeply imprinted me. Please watch and let's change the system.



Published on Feb 24, 2015 Written/Directed/Edited by Cynthia Kao Cast (in alphabetical order) Pam Murphy (Officer Mulligan) Mark Schroeder (Tom) Paul Welsh (Officer Sakula) Crew Yesel "Yak" Manrique (titles) Ed Spangler (sound) Allyson Schwarz (gaffer) Rose Arscott (pa) Zoe Andrikidis (pa) Special Thanks Jennie Church-Cooper Donna Thomas Ed Spangler Code Fischer Mary Sasson Bill Posley Honora Talbott Dave Thuene Connie Shin

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Be the Difference- STOP BULLYING


Blog post by Tina Winterlik © 2012
tina_winterlik@yahoo.com
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/#!/zipolita @zipolita
http://gplus.to/zipolita Google+



Yesterday my little girl came home and she was telling me about how they were talking about bullying and what happens. They were even discussing suicide which shocked me a bit. I asked her why, and she explained that sometimes when kids are really bullied they commit suicide. "Wow," I said," how did you feel.?" "How did the other kids feel, were you upset?". She said she was okay. Pretty heavy things to be talking about in grade school but that is exactly where the bullying is coming from and growing everyday. We can all make a difference. This movie will make a difference, but kids need to see it!

I hate that when people say "Oh they are just being kids." That's crap. We have to all work together and really teach our children to treat others as they wish to be treated. Teach them how to respond when kids taunt them or their friends. Let them know they are not alone. When someone is being singled out by a bully, take that kid's side, and get others to join. Don't let the bully win.

I've blogged alot about bullying. Recently I put my daughter into school. It was hard as the bullies/mean girls are one of the big issues why I didn't want her to go and one of the most difficult things to deal it. We were shocked at the things they said and did. I have been protecting my girl from this. It's a big reason we homeschooled.

I didn't want her damaged. I was horribly bullied through my youth and I didn't want her to feel that pain. She has though been hurt. Thankfully she tells me what's going on and I constanting try to scope out the situation and let her know I have her back.  Luckily the teachers and principal have been really great addressing things. For now I feel pretty good right, but I really don't know if I want to keep exposing her to this negativity. 

We have talked about all of it and we have addressed it and we are constantly talking about it and how we can handle different situations.  It's a tough battle, as it is so emmersed in our entire environment, school, community, work, our whole welfare system, the police...it's everywhere, it's a nightmare.

But WE MUST NEVER GIVE UP,  WE MUST STAY STRONG AND UNITED!   Get educated about what you can do to stop it and act! You could save a life!


Remove the R rating from the movie "Bully" Petition | GoPetition



Related posts
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2011/07/diffuse-mean-girl-syndrome-encourage.html 
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2012/02/pink-shirt-day-stop-bullying.html 
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2011/07/mean-girls-syndrome-alive-and-thriving.html 
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2011/11/kindness-concert-kindness-flag-project.html 
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2011/02/arresting-mentally-ill-8-years-olds.html 

Stop Bullying- The crumpled paper project 
(this was shared on Facebook-not sure who started it) 
A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty is was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bully’s another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home. Pass it on or better yet, if you're a parent or a teacher, do it with your child/children.

 

Monday, June 20, 2011

N.S told to Pay for her Weed


Blog post by Tina Winterlik © 2011

http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.com

My friend Sean just shared this with me. He send me an email titled "hmmm"  with a link

and I wrote back this:

Totally cool, but now why can't we just be growing it in our gardens like other herbs, over the summer, we gather our supply, save it for the winter, it could be sold a farmers markets, ...that's the way it should be.

We are getting there, slowing, backwardly. Thanks so much for the lead.

I have been saying for such a long time that marijuana needs to be legalized and treated as a medicine. A true medicine, from the earth, not some weird chemical the pharmacueticals invent to make themselves rich and prey upon the uniformed, pain ridden souls who have no other resources. 

I'm not going to go into all my reasons why we need to legalize it, but I'll just add these links here and ask you all to seriously think about it.  


Change Your Words- "End the War on Drugs"


Need for a Human Rights based approach to Drugs Policy

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/06/20/ns-medical-marijuana-growing.html
The Nova Scotia government has been ordered to sponsor the medical marijuana growing operation of a woman who says she's too poor to pay for the equipment herself.

The Department of Community Services must pay a one-time setup cost of $2,500 and $100 every three months for supplies, an appeal board ruled.

The Income Assistance Appeals Board concluded that the Amherst woman's need for marijuana was real, and since she has no other means, the department should assist her rather than pay for her pot.

The board stated that her request seems quite reasonable in comparison to what the department pays for other medications.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/06/20/ns-medical-marijuana-growing.html

Nova Scotia told to pay for grower's medical pot