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Need to vent

TopDeckSenior Contributor14 Aug 2020, 2:46 pm AEST

Need to vent

I've now realized that it wasn't the illness itself that destroyed my life, it was the hospitals and the stigma.

People who suffer from hallucinations, delusions, suicidal ideation and mania are thrown into hospitals against their will. Failure to comply results in a team of security guards either choking you, throwing you to the ground and you're guaranteed to be violated and have an injection in your butt.

This is wrong. If we're sick, we don't deserve this kind of treatment.

The whole destigmatize mental health centres around mild anxiety and depression. There's actually no interest for helping people with schizophrenia, bipolar or suicidal ideation. People who have literally been locked up in the most horrific hospitals are cast aside in favour for more manageable illnesses.

Why should a suicidal person be threatened with police intervention and forced incarceration in hospital? They're not criminals. They need help and support and psych wards are a warped, twisted view of that.

I have heard from an actual psychologist in a psych ward that most of the stigma comes from the health professionals and their perception on it. This treatment and the illness has not only destroyed my life, it's silenced me and made average things a normal person would take for granted a lot harder to accomplish.

Mental health is a disgrace. The system is so flawed. We're told it's "for our betterment" but it's not. Choking someone in a psych ward is not betterment, it's abuse.

2 replies

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In response to: Need to vent

bleepbloophelloContributor14 Aug 2020, 5:01 pm AEST

Re: Need to vent

Hi @TopDeck

What a powerful post, the first sentence alone stopped me in my tracks. As someone who has also been involuntarily hospitalised I can relate to how traumatic that experience can be. And to how incredibly shitty psych wards are just generally. I mean, even when the staff are trying their best the environment itself is just so bland/sad. There is so, so much room (and dire need) for change.

I have experienced mania and delusions and I agree, these areas of mental health are not very well understood by the general public. Potentially even by health professionals, as you say. I guess people know what it's like to be sad and can extrapolate to imagine depression. And people know what it's like to be afraid and can extrapolate to imagine anxiety.. but educating people around what it's like to feel absolutely invincible, or to believe that their cat is a robot that's spying on them (example from my own experience).. maybe it's more complex? Or at least, it's not a leap many have been bothered to take. I hope this will change over time.

Anyway, I think this is something that needs more airtime. So I'm glad you brought it up. Media portrayal of these illnesses can help somewhat - e.g. I recently watched an episode of a new series called Modern Love where Anne Hathaway plays a woman with Bipolar. It was not 100% my experience of Bipolar but it was close in some ways and it felt good to see someone representing it on screen in an unstigmatised way. Maybe I'll start a thread about representation where we can share examples of positive ones for these sorts of disorders. But I hope I haven't derailed this too much. I think what you've posted is important and I'm glad you're speaking up.

In response to: Need to vent

MaggieSenior Contributor14 Aug 2020, 6:18 pm AEST

Re: Need to vent

@TopDeck I can certainly relate to a lot of what you have written. Having been an involuntary patient many times, and yes, the butt injections.

I was retraumatised during admissions, and eventually labeled,a hopeless case. Possibly a label I might never be able to not believe.

I’m sorry this has happened to you, me and many others. Unfortunately, most of us are admitted, because abuse has been our background. I guess, all we can do is what you are doing here, speak up when we can, where we will be heard. And hope to change things in the future.

So well done. Not an easy post to write, but you did it.

Welcome.

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