Who is Richard Mitchell…?

What is his story you ask…?

Richard was born in January 1983 to a stay-at-home mother of 4 (he is 3rd of all boys) & a Father who was at that time a 10-year veteran Cst. of the Peterborough Police Service who had left policing in or around, (but not related too) Richards birth, and shortly returned to policing thereafter as the youngest Police Chief in Ontario’s history with the Mitchell Police Service (now O.P.P.). Richard had a, what was on the surface, very loving, caring, and supportive upbringing within his upper-middle-class family. It wasn’t until Feb/Mar of 1993 while living in Paris after his father had accepted the position of Chief of Police there 4 years earlier, that his parents decided to separate and that his real struggles then began; in the end, he was just a young boy trying to become the man he thought he needed to be. This is when things started to become really interesting for him…

Interesting “how” you wonder…?

As mentioned earlier, Richard is the 3rd of 4 boys all of which grew up with extremely different upbringings throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and in Richard’s case the early ’90s; mainly due to the polarizing differences in his parent’s personalities, parenting abilities and just overall parenting styles. Now just imagine for a moment, being a kid in the ’90s, growing up in the small town of Paris with THE Chief of Police as your Father & living in your very own house; this alone caused Richard great anxiety, stress, and issues amongst his peers and his siblings to say the least.

Common signs of mental health concerns you may be able to spot:

Richards’s older brothers Corey and Warren are 6 and 11 years older than him respectively and treated him like any other old brothers did; they bullied the crap out of him, but in a loving way! It wasn’t until when Richards’s parents separated he was subsequently and forcibly by his Mother (under false pretenses) then divided from his older brothers; despite not liking where he was, he was however with his younger brother Christopher, born boxing-day 1989, so being happy with that he now felt it was his duty to protect his younger brother from whatever life was about to throw their way…

What came their way you ask…?

Richard was now thrust into the older brother position, for what was in his mind, the foreseeable future, and if that wasn’t hard enough to deal with or wrap his head around he then quickly learned he was now dealing with and/or responsible for an alcoholic, promiscuous, and an overall irresponsible Mother as a young 9/10-year-old kid.

Richard spent the better part of the next three years taking care of his then-toddler brother, seemingly equally useless alcoholic Mother, and their three-bedroom townhouse. Over these three years, Richard not only witnessed things no child should, for example, many men coming in and out of the house, but he also experienced things first-hand no child should ever think of let alone see like inappropriate physical conduct by his Mother. It wasn’t until the age of 12 he was able to move to Branchton with his Father and girlfriend at that time that Richard was able to start the healing process and truly started to become the young man he is today…! After his first year of high school, Richard suffered a severe head injury while playing competitive baseball for the Cambridge Cubs Baseball Club; despite catching the ball it’s not worth the trade-off of suffering the residuals he does daily…

Young adulthood wasn’t that nice either…

While attending Galt Collegiate Institute Richard met his high-school sweetheart in 2000 and married in 2006 with their firstborn coming 1 year and 1 day later; Feb 11, 2007. After a short break in 2008, Richard and his “wife” reconciled their differences and it wasn’t until 2016 when Richard caught his spouse in a relationship with another man that he left the matrimonial home under duress #mentoo. Despite the length of time together Richard acknowledges the fact that (in hindsight of course) it was an equally toxic relationship and probably should have never gone on as long as it did; however, he has the best gift ever, three beautiful children. He has only improved as a Father as a result of all of this and of course due to his recently failed marriage and remains optimistic for the future of his father’s rights in Canada. He continues to be a constant for his children all while struggling himself with PTSD, BPD, being on O.D.S.P., and various other mental health-related concerns because failure to him is simply not an option…

What is next you wonder…?

As Richard has recently obtained his diploma in Public Relations at Conestoga College and is writing his autobiography – tentatively published in 2025, director and video editor of Don’t Talk TV, and is continuously improving upon himself in any way he can; thank you for the read and hope you’re looking forward to more to come…!