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mental-health-system

Everything good turns to shit

Since returning to the city I have been full of rage as scorching as wildfire. I struggle to recall the past week and cannot put it into a coherent narrative, so all I’m going to do is go over some of the texts, emails and things I’ve written which I have copies of. Continue reading “Everything good turns to shit”

Negligent hospitals, mute, trauma, autistic burn out and the fight for freedom

“You build me up, you break me down. My heart it pounds, yeah you got me. With my hands up, you got me now, you got that sound, yeah you got me.” Ke$ha – TiK ToK

It is the first time I’ve been able to blog since my last post a week or so ago. It’s felt like the longest week of my life. I feel like I could write a whole book on this week alone. The disturbing saga continues, without resolution, like a piano with endless keys which just get lower and lower.

The psych ward only gave me two nights, even though I asked for longer. They wanted to dump me in a facility called PARC, a non-clinical mental health facility, which people stay in for a week as a “step down” from hospital, or a “step up” from home to prevent a hospital admission. But there were questions about my medical stability. I was barely eating and the hospital wanted to do a blood sugar level test which involves pricking your finger but I was scared of the test so refused it. The nurses said they’d come back in half an hour. I then got in the shower when they came to the door to avoid getting the test done. I was so traumatised in general- by life, by the way they just wanted me out when I was acutely unwell- that I became mute. I am still speculating on what is causing my muteness, which I will discuss later, but whatever it was, I just couldn’t will myself to speak. The day of my discharge one of the doctors came in and told me PARC wouldn’t take me if I wouldn’t speak. I felt like she thought I was being manipulative and could blackmail me into talking. I brought up The Shutdown Dissociation Scale research paper on my phone and showed it to her. One of the symptoms is muteness. There is some more great information about the different responses to trauma on this page.

“We don’t follow that here,” the doctor said.

She said if I didn’t go to PARC they’d just be sending me home. I couldn’t believe it.

“So you’re just going to send me home in this state?” I wrote to her, with gestures of disbelief. “This is discrimination against people with disabilities.”

Becoming non-verbal is common in autism when we become overwhelmed, as is shown in the series Heartbreak High, with one of the autistic characters, Quinni, becoming mute for a while after her horrible girlfriend put her through hell.

“I’ll get your discharge papers ready,” the doctor told me. “Have a good day!” Continue reading “Negligent hospitals, mute, trauma, autistic burn out and the fight for freedom”

Not ok

It is my last day on holiday before I have to go back to my dad’s. I feel like I’m being sent back to hell.

Continue reading “Not ok”

Disorganised attachment with the mental health system

The mental health system has become like an abusive parent. I have formed what we call in psychology a disorganised attachment style with them. A disorganised attachment style develops when a child’s caregivers- their only source of safety- become a source of fear. The child no longer trusts the caregiver, realising that they cannot rely on caregivers to meet their needs. The child seeks closeness, but at the same time, rejects the caregiver’s proximity and distances themselves due to fear. That is how I now relate to the mental health system. I called Lifeline this evening as I sat by the train tracks wanting to throw myself in front of a train. I knew what was going to happen. I knew I’d be taken back to the hospital. I wanted help, but I also know there is no help there. When the police came I told them there is nothing hospital can do for me and I tried to run away. A male officer grabbed me by my coat and made me get in the ambulance. The two paramedics were lovely, but even when they assured me that they would try to get the hospital to actually help me this time, I had lost faith in these places. I paced around the hospital corridor and almost picked up the bin and threw it. I was given two yellow olanzapine wafers, which I spat out. I was finally given a proper bed in the resus room which was quiet and had a door I could close. Maybe I should have stayed there, but shortly after the nurse left I got up and walked out through the ambulance bay. I passed a paramedic sitting by the door and gave her a look which said “if you tell anyone I’ll strangle you”. Something told me to run. And I kept on running, until I felt sick with a metallic taste in my mouth and was about to collapse. I caught a taxi home at midnight.

I don’t know what to do anymore. I have all these people in my head arguing. I have voices in my head telling me to kill myself, starve myself, do it all by myself, turn to authorities for help, run, flee, be chased.

I find comfort in Missy Higgins “Where I Stood”. Even though it is about a lover, it speaks to my feelings around the mental health system.

“I don’t know what I’ve done
Or if I like what I’ve begun
But something told me to run
And honey, you know me, it’s all or none

There were sounds in my head
Little voices whispering
That I should go and this should end
Oh, and I found myself listening

‘Cause I don’t know who I am, who I am without you
All I know is that I should”

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