Bonnie Dust appeared on the surface to have a normal childhood, growing up on a farm near Osoyoos, British Columbia on the Canada-U.S. border in the 1950s and 1960s. She rode horses and excelled in school and Girl Guides.
But for years she kept a secret about her encounters as a young child with an older man who lived nearby – encounters that left her traumatized.
As a young adult, her behaviour led to a series of misdiagnoses – hyperthyroidism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Heavily medicated and treated with electric shocks, she was in and out of psychiatric wards, which only seemed to make her condition worse.
It was not until she was in her mid-30s that she began to understand the connection between childhood trauma and what she was experiencing as an adult. In the years that followed, she learned to become her own advocate, to gather information and to take charge of her own treatment.
It’s a Long and Winding Road is her story of the trauma, psychiatric hell and ultimately self-discovery and peace with herself.
