Caroline’s Corner
Mood Disorders | Advocacy | Recovery | Empowerment | Mental Health
Caroline’s Video Episodes discuss the symptoms of Mood Disorders and their triggers as well as the recovery movement as a whole.
About Caroline Fei-Yeng Kwok
Born in British Hong Kong, Caroline was formally diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She has a BA from the University of Minnesota and a M.Ed from the University of Toronto. She has taught English as a Second Language at the Toronto School Board and at an immigrant mental health centre. In her free time, she has attended creative writing courses at Yale University and at the New York State Summer Writers’ Institute.
Ms. Kwok has published two books: Free to Fly: A Story of Manic Depression (about her own journey of recovery) and Journeys of Renewed Hope (seven short stories about mental illness and recovery). Several of her articles have appeared in academic psychiatric journals.
She has also given presentations/workshops at various national/international conferences, at universities, at hospitals, at churches and at NGOs in North America and Asia. She has done both television and radio interviews.
Ms Kwok is the recipient of the 2001 Courage to Come Back Award, the 2017 Difference Makers Award by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Canada and was selected by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health to be a “face of mental illness” in 2020.
Caroline’s Two Books
Free to Fly: A Story of Manic Depression
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Selected Comments
“Her story of self-determination will empower others and bring comfort. She has suffered, as this book makes clear, but has transformed her suffering into hope”
Dr. Mary Seeman, O.C., Professor Emerita, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
“Caroline is a fine writer who is able to render her personal difficulties in the most compelling language. This is a book that should be read by everyone who is suffering from mental disorder, as well as by medical and nursing personnel. It is not only inspirational, it is therapeutic. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”
Dr. Richard Selzer, Surgeon and Author, Yale University, USA.
“Free to Fly: is a harrowing yet ultimately uplifting account of one Chinese-Canadian woman’s odyssey from despair to hope… her moving and inspiring narrative will appeal to fellow sufferers and health-care professionals as well as to general readers, many of whom have little idea pf what life looks like from the inside of a mental hospital.”
Greig Henderson, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Toronto, Canada.
Journeys of Renewed Hope
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Selected Comments
“This book offers messages of recovery that have never been more needed or more welcome. Caroline’s generosity of spirit in crafting and offering these hope-filled stories is much appreciated during this difficult time.”
Professor Larry Davidson, Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Program for Recovery and Community Health, School of Medicine, Yale University, USA.
“This book believes in resilience and it also emphasizes faith in God, spirituality, nature, art, and music, elements that all contribute to the recovery.”
Dr. Mary Seeman, Professor Emerita, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada.
“This collection of stories has the capacity to do what all good narrative can. It creates pictures and stimulates reflection. The pictures describe a full spectrum of human experience, centred around the theme of the experience of mental illness. They describe how that can also be an experience of recovery and self-discovery…”
Dr. John Klukach, M.D., FRCP Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada.
“…Her moving stories touch the hearts of those with mental illness, their caregivers, as well we the general public. These stories encourage previously voiceless sufferers to disclose their inner agony and frustrations, to finally believe that recovery is possible…”
Reverend Jonathan Chan, Senior pastor, Toronto Christian Community Church, Canada.
Selected Publications
Question and Answer: An immigrant’s recovery – paving the path to mental health with Caroline Fei-Yeng Kwok
Published: camh – September, 2023
In this question and answer article, Ms. Caroline Fei-Yeng Kwok discusses her experience with resettlement, her path to recovery from mental illness, recommendations for service providers and her two books with IRMHP’s newsletter producer.
The long emotional recovery from the pandemic
Published: Toronto Star – Jul. 12, 2021
The economy may be opening up, but emotional recovery, may be difficult to achieve during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grief, gloom, fear, anger, and depression will remain for a long while.
No health without mental health: Stay awake
Published: YWGSAA – March 2021
Major mental disorders include mood disorders (major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder), anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, dementia, and developmental disorders.
Beyond the clinical model of recovery: recovery of a Chinese immigrant woman with bipolar disorder
Published: National Library of Medicine – 24 Sep 2014
Recovery from serious mental illness can be conceptualized in a number of ways, some more helpful to clients than others.
Caroline Fei-Yeng Kwok: Bell Let’s Talk, Bell Canada
Published: Bell Let’s Talk – Sept 2020
With the stress of being a new immigrant and the breakup of a marriage, Caroline was diagnosed with bipolar disorder shortly after arriving in Canada.
My journey to wellness in psychiatric rehabilitation journal
Published: American Psychological Association – 2009
This article provides a first-person account of mental illness recovery. It is written by a Chinese woman diagnosed with bipolar illness.
A fragile China doll in psychiatric services
Published: Psychiatry Online – 1 Feb 2004
I am a 51-year-old Chinese woman, born in Hong Kong, who was given a formal diagnosis of bipolar disorder at the age of 27.
Selected Conferences
2007 World Mental Health Conference in Hong Kong
2018 Conference at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada
Selected Interviews
Bipolar Disorder Recovery: Mental health advocate Caroline Fei Yeng Kwok shares her healing journey.
Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes changes in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. People with bipolar disorder experience intense emotional states that typically occur during distinct periods of days to weeks, called mood episodes. These mood episodes are categorized as manic/hypomanic (abnormally happy or irritable mood) or depressive (sad mood). People with bipolar disorder generally have periods of neutral mood as well. When treated, people with bipolar disorder can lead full and productive lives. In this seminar, Caroline Kwok shares her story about overcoming her mental health challenges. She is living proof that mental illnesses like Bipolar Disorder are treatable and patients are able to return to normal lives with ongoing treatment and support.
Caroline, a face of mental Illness 2020, Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health.
With the stress of being a new immigrant and the breakup of a marriage, Caroline was diagnosed with bipolar disorder shortly after arriving in Canada. Multiple early hospitalizations resulted in social exclusion from her local community whose members considered her an invalid for life. Through the encouragement of understanding mental health professionals and her own research into the concept of recovery, she was able to write two books, Free to Fly: A Story of Manic Depression, and Journeys of Renewed Hope, both of which advocate for mental health awareness. Caroline is a program provider to immigrants of colour survivors at a centre in Toronto and continues to give presentations at hospitals and at national and international conferences on mental health and recovery.
Fireside chat with Madame Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister, Canada, on recovery.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left many Canadians feeling isolated, and increased anxiety. It’s important that during this time where we are apart, we have conversations around mental health and mental illness to show Canadians that they are not alone. Every year CAMIMH highlights five Canadians with lived experience of mental illness to show that recovery is possible and comes in many different forms. Mental health is a journey and while each journey varies, we can learn from one another and offer hope to individuals who are struggling.
The Rainbow Beyond: Interview with Ms Caroline Kwok – Part 1
By Ying Wa Girls’ School Headmaster
Continue to watch – Part 2
Video Episodes
Episode 1 – Coming soon!
Recovery on Mood Disorders
The purpose of the series on Mood Disorders is to demonstrate that Mood Disorders can affect people from all walks of life, regardless of age, race, gender, or cultural background. It is very common, it is treatable, and recovery is highly probable.
The series discusses the symptoms of Mood Disorders and their triggers as well as the recovery movement as a whole, especially the empowerment model of recovery. It also talks about overcoming social stigma, the importance of family caregivers and coping strategies that work.
The series is based on years of research and personal experience.
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