Unfortunately, my story is one where I was traumatised because I was
taken to a major Sydney hospital and when I discovered I’d been
“sectioned” (god I hate their shorthand) I asked repeatedly why and I
got placed into the seclusion room for 5.5 hour...
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Unfortunately, my story is one where I was traumatised because I was
taken to a major Sydney hospital and when I discovered I’d been
“sectioned” (god I hate their shorthand) I asked repeatedly why and I
got placed into the seclusion room for 5.5 hours. In that time I had no
assessments, didn’t get to go to the toilet and was humiliated in front
of the full hospital who were watching me. to make things worse, the
hospital’s GM repeatedly lied about the situation and claimed I was not
in seclusion but was in a “dual purpose facility”. There’s a lot more,
but the upshot is that I fought hard ask st the system and they have now
admitted I was abused, and both the HCCC and the Local Health District
has apologised to me. The issue I now have is I have a complete lack of
trust in virtually all health professionals. I am incredibly angry with
the way I’ve been treated, and I feel isolated from family and friends.
I used to regularly attend church, but I can’t any more. I can’t go
round to family events, I don’t go to social events except with very
close friends, I do t like leaving the house on weekends and I don’t
spend enough time with my beautiful children or my wife. I basically
feel ashamed of how I have reacted, feel stigmatised by the health
system, disrespected and feared even though I’m actually a very gentle
person. At the same time my sense of indignity and the fact that I was
blamed and ignored for three years has made me pursue this - probably to
my detriment. Because there were three years where I was largely ignored
and disbelieved, I have sent heaps of letters and emails to a variety of
people. I haven’t had much of a choice really as until recently I was
utterly ignored by the hospital (well, not just ignored but actively
lied to - I writing actually), the HCCC, a private medical facility
where they did very little to help me, and was told by my psychiatrist
to just accept injustice. I’m not sleeping well, my mind is constantly
ruminating on what happened to me, I feel equal measures fear but oddly
I also feel angry and fearlessly confrontational. I have read of PTSD
symptoms and I honestly think my “off switch” is broken and my anxiety
has been set to 11. I woukd like like to go back to feeling like my old
self, regain my dignity and be able to put the whole thing behind me but
I am incapable of doing this. I thought I might post here to share my
experience and try to see what responses I get from forum members.
PTSD for Medical and First Responders
