Life with Cerebral Palsy: One woman’s story

Mackenzie Caradonna is a 23 years-old college student at St. Clair with cerebral palsy. 

Around 2019, when Caradonna was 18 and near to finishing high school. Just like any other teenager she was focusing on her schoolwork. 

 But slowing Mackenzie started to have a sleepless night without feeling tired. 

 One day led to three days and then a week, and one day without any sign Mackenzie remembered suddenly waking up in the hospital. 

“It was pretty severe at the time, and shocking,” said Mackenzie’s mother, Lauire Caradonna. 

Laurie used to work as a social worker during that time and even she felt quite out of her league. As a worker, she knew how to deal with this kind of situation. 

 But now this being her own child changed Laurie’s whole perspective towards other parents dealing with mental breakdown.  

“This was devastating and was even harder than the physical disability,” said Laurie. 

Laurie was not even expecting this kind of situation at all and because of that this mental breakdown become more harder to deal with. 

On the other hand, Jason was incredibly sad and devastated to see Mackenzie struggling with mental health challenges and how the mental was affecting her. 

“She wasn’t herself and was talking crazy,” said Jason. 

Things that Mackenzie did became difficult for Jason to understand as to why she was behaving the way she was. 

According to the Cerebral Palsy Research Network claims that a person with cerebral palsy often have mental health conditions than in the general population. 

The study shows that 46% of children with cerebral palsy self-reported anxiety.  

In 2020, Cerebral Palsy Research Network found that adults with cerebral palsy showed increased levels of anxiety and depression. 

Along with that, their research paper suggests, there are not enough research and acknowledgement, or concerns related to an individual with cerebral palsy with mental illness.  

On top of that, it is partially the reason, people with Cerebral Palsy do not always receive the mental health treatment or support they need was mentioned in the Cerebral Palsy Research Networks article. 

Mackenzie did not know if she should feel blessed or sad about not remembering anything during her mental breakdown period. 

But Mackenzie knew how she felt while she is going through the series of mental breakdowns.  

“It was confusing, scary and unpredictable,” said Mackenzie.

Mackenzie did a lot of things during mental illness, which she would not have done if was conscious. 

Unfortunately, Mackenzie was given several diagnoses and none of them turned out to be correct.  One of them being schizo affective disorder which is a type of schizophrenia and later was the bipolar disorder. 

To this day Mackenzie still does not have any definitive diagnosis. This is very frustrating for her because she wished that her family did not have to go through it.  

Mackenzie said she felt very alone during these phases of mental illness. On top of that she did not have any control over anything and was given a lot of medication that just made things worse. 

At the thought of finishing the high school, Mackenzie feared this mysterious mental illness might coming back and she did not want to start something which she cannot finish. 

“That’s not who I am. I do not start things and then say, oh, well, I will just finish it later,” said Mackenzie. 

So, after some time, Mackenzie family encouraged her to go back to school.  

Mackenzie was not showing any symptoms and she was behaving normally. She felt nervous but was overjoyed  to be able to go back to high school at the age of 21. 

 Mackenzie was too old to go back to her earlier high school, so she went to St. Michael’s adult secondary school in Windsor and studied online in case she had another mental breakdown.

“I want to take the time to make something of myself and prove to the world that mental illness and physical disability doesn’t define me,” said Mackenzie. 

Laurie always felt Mackenzie was a fighter that constantly proves everyone wrong. She said she believes people look up to Mackenize because she has so much to teach just getting through the simplest things in life. 

“I always knew that she could do it but watching her do it was very special.” Laurie said.

Jason also felt great to see Mackenzie completing her grade 12 and now studying in college. 

This year, Mackenzie started her two-year diploma program in Community Integration through Cooperative education at St. College. She aspires to be a social worker by supporting and guiding children with Cerebral Palsy.