She was hospitalized at the age of eight, and again when she was 16. He also has a daughter, Nikki, who has struggled with anorexia since childhood that he also wants to help. “I was very aware of what mental illness can do,” he said in his very first on-air interview about the subject and his personal struggles with it.īut it is not just about him. The founder of several start-ups, including, Singhal spoke to CTV National News about his struggles with mental health even as he built several successful businesses. Starting with a $5 million donation made through the Nikean Foundation that he founded, Singhal hopes researchers at the centre can unlock the potential of psychedelic medicine and find answers on how psilocybin and a so-called “God molecule” can help transform mental health care. He is the philanthropist behind Canada’s first psychedelic psychotherapy research centre for mental health at Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN). Today, Singhal is 56 and on a mission to transform mental health care. “Up until age 38, my life was a roller coaster.”

“When I went manic, I would make bad decisions. It had been a lifelong struggle - one moment feeling great, then suddenly mentally paralyzed and unable to get out of bed for three straight days. Canadian tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Sanjay Singhal was in his early 30s when he was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Mental hospital 5