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My parents were dead right; it was a physical
ailment. There is no mention of the dothiepin (antidepressant, basically
half of Limbitrol) I had for one week which nearly
killed me in Wanstead Hospital, February 1975. He got it back to front about my faith and my girlfriend. I
was in a wheelchair all day the first day of admission and could not
walk, terrified having realised I was in the wrong type of hospital. I do not recall speaking at all on the first day. Stelazine's
severe akathesia
(restlessness) made me walk earlier than I should have done. I felt as if
I were split in half -
actually sawn in half - after over a week on Limbitrol way before that time
he refers to. I never had florid hallucinations except dothiepin once
made my mum's arm appear horribly disfigured momentarily. The "voices"
telling me to do bad things were actually uncontrolled thoughts owing to
the brain injury
instead which the staff nurse I reported them to misidentified as voices (I
have blocked the relevant sentences out where the doctor describes them). I was not experiencing visual hallucinations either,
so I do not know where he got the visions from of people doing the
washing up. Perhaps I could see them faintly but I do not remember it
now. I
never felt that R.D. Laing's Book on Schizophrenia was written
specifically for me if that is what the doctor meant. I do not identify with saying
I was experiencing the
glass bit when on the ward, and had to be with people otherwise I would
have disintegrated. I
actually felt like a piece of glass once during the exhaustion breakdown
of December 1974, and perhaps he misconstrued getting mixed up
with the times as I had a job to speak and was not thinking correctly
owing to the Stelazine's effect upon the damaged mind's nerves, mental
illness still to a degree, and brain damage. My mother was one of
Jehovah's Witnesses and not my father. I think
he must have misunderstood me when he says I was very interested in sex
from age eleven. I had a very small sex drive but which peaked in 1968
before I repressed it for six years in October of that year and not for
three years. Why he thought it was strong I do not know. I left the group
studies
owing to my ears hurting from listening to speak for too long. It was not the noise
because I only became sensitive to loud sound later on in the illness. I
had no difficulties with mum and dad. They were good parents although one
criticism is that it seems letting me live like a Lord had a detrimental effect.
All I did was go to school, play, and then attend work and do a lot of
voluntary work. I hardly did any
chores around the home growing up. Mum did them all with dad's help. Stelazine
immediately made me forget I should not
be in a mental hospital when suffering from an organic illness. It only looked as if I could walk and talk normally
as there was hardly any fuel in my mind remaining to do those two
things for long. My weekends
at home were not detrimental to my mental state. I liked home. It had a
peaceful, loving atmosphere. I do not recall getting any benefit
from the groups. Dr. Shoenberg walked
backwards out of the office silently when I told her in the Summer of
1975 that I had been injured by Limbitrol. She happened to come into the
room when I was there to see another doctor in outpatients. If she had
instead asked me to explain she would have got the whole story. Most doctors
have psychologically dismissed the cause of my condition when I have
explained it to them. I should think if I became diagnosed they would
become most upset with themselves. Sad, but such is life. |