Trigger warning: This story contains graphic details of domestic violence and sexual assault.
I was at my girlfriend’s house, desperately searching for my phone and car keys. The only items that could provide me with the ability to flee. Two objects she had deliberately deprived me of, knowing that I would be trapped, her prisoner, without them. In my frantic quest, I was hurling and smashing everything in her rental property. Her possessions, her home, her physical and emotional state, everything that she was and owned were no longer of consequence to me. I was livid with her actions, her blatant disregard for my very being. She had hurt me, used me and stolen from me and I wanted her to feel my pain.
She was furious. With both hands, she pushed me in the ribs and I fell to the ground. As I lay on my back she locked eyes with me—I was her prey. Scrambling backward, I managed to find my footing and proceeded to stand. She slapped me across my face, hitting my right eye. I retaliated and shoved her in the ribs. Whilst she was momentarily stunned I attempted, in vain, to leave her vicious and looming form. Yet, every door in her house was locked and every key was missing. She had trapped me like a stolen animal inside her remote residence. I had no means of escape and no way to call for help in my hour of need.
Unexpectedly, two Northern Territory police officers she had surreptitiously contacted appeared at her locked screen door. She thrust past me and unlocked the door for them with a key from her pocket, desperate to speak to them first to disempower me further. The officers wanted to arrest me for assaulting her and committing property damage. However, she insisted that I not be charged despite her vehement claims of victimhood. She described me as being “violent and suicidal.” She insisted that I was “mentally ill” and should be taken to the Cowdy Ward, the psychiatric abuse facility at the Royal Darwin Hospital. I do not know why they complied with her demands. Perhaps it was because it would be less paperwork for them to do when they returned to their air-conditioned offices.
I was terrified. I had just been physically abused, deprived of my liberty and had my property stolen. Yet, I was the one who was being arrested under the Northern Territory Mental Health Act because my diabolical girlfriend falsely advised the police that I was the perpetrator.
I sat in the back seat of the police wagon foolishly attempting to convince the ignorant officers that I was a ‘stable’ individual. I informed them that I was a mother, a school teacher, had a Master’s degree, and was an exhibiting artist. I wanted them to know that they were wrong and had made a terrible mistake. They never once asked me why I damaged her property, nor did they mention the pulsating wound on my face or the blood seeping through my clothing. At that moment, I saw no purpose in telling them the truth. As they chose to believe that I was a ‘mentally ill criminal’, it was safest to say and do nothing. Three individuals had condemned me without evidence. I was outnumbered and began to doubt my own memories and reality.
She stalked the police car to the hospital. When we arrived, I was placed in a goldfish bowl prison and monitored for twenty-four hours by a series of morbidly obese security guards. The entire time she remained with me. She scrutinised and regulated my every move: what I drank, what I ate, whom I spoke to, and when I could use the bathroom. She conversed with the doctors and nurses on my behalf as if I were non-verbal and cognitively impaired. She advised the hospital that my ex-husband, children, friends, and family should refrain from contacting me. She was also still in possession of my phone and refused my anguished pleas to access it.
After a day of being a tragic zoo exhibit, the staff recommended that I be released because my conduct had given them no justification to consider that I was suicidal or a danger to myself or the public. I wanted to leave. I desperately wanted both her and the hospital to release me so that I could run away to my home, lock all my doors and windows and never have to see or speak to another horrible person again. Yet, she insisted that I was severely unwell. She demanded that I be psychiatrically committed. For some perverse reason the ‘professionals’ acquiesced. Why didn’t anybody realise that she was my captor? Like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, she had everyone under her spell. I was simply her frightened and mute victim conveniently painted to be ‘mentally ill’ with her abusive con artistry paintbrush.
I was incarcerated for four days at the Cowdy Ward. Every afternoon she ‘visited’ to interrogate me and ensure that I was aware that I was her property and my fate was in her hands. She regularly conversed with the staff to provide them with inaccurate information regarding my emotional state and behaviour. She reminded them that I was very ill and untrustworthy.
The days were simultaneously monotonous and frightening. I wondered whether I would be raped in my bed at night, assaulted, drugged to oblivion, given electro-convulsive ‘therapy’, or ever see and hold my children and pets and be free again. Despite withdrawing from an alcohol and Prozac addiction, no one seemed to believe that this was a cause for concern because it was obvious to them, from either pure observation or their Superman x-ray vision, that I had a ‘chemical imbalance’ in my brain and deserved to be detained.
I was finally discharged because a cluster of psychiatrists with clipboards and peculiar, irrelevant questions determined that I had ‘recovered’ from a “situational crisses” (sic). More plausibly, it was because my prison bed was required for another unfortunate individual. The hospital staff released me back into the arms of my abuser. She was now my ‘carer’ and had legal authority over me. She had the keys to my home and my car, had taken my pets whilst I was detained, and had the power to psychiatrically re-commit me anytime she chose.
She forced me to attend a drug and alcohol withdrawal and rehabilitation facility, and then attend AA meetings numerous times each week whilst she continued to drink Jack Daniels excessively and abuse her Adderall and Valium prescriptions. I had to do everything she wanted and also prove to the ‘authorities’ that I was ‘recovering’. I realised that I had to somehow manage to submit to her every whim whilst slowly removing myself from her domination without arousing her suspicion. A seemingly insurmountable task.
When my ex-husband requested that I move to South Australia with him, I readily accepted. Finally, I could physically and geographically escape her drowning oppression and abuse. She attempted to persuade me that it was the wrong choice and that I wasn’t “thinking properly.” She demanded that I remain with her because I was permanently ‘mentally ill’ and would never be capable of managing my needs again. She advised me that I was unlovable and that she was the only one who could or would ever care for me. However, despite my eroded self-esteem, maintaining my relationship with my children was my priority. Besides, I was now finally sober and considered ‘recovered’ enough to leave the Northern Territory. I did not legally require her or anyone else’s approval.
It took me seven years to finally report to the South Australian police that on that fateful night in August 2017, my former girlfriend physically and sexually assaulted me, stole my property, held me captive in her residence, and gave a false statement to the Northern Territory police alleging that I was “suicidal and mentally ill.” I wept as I informed the two male officers (despite requesting that I communicate exclusively with female officers) that she purchased alcohol and then encouraged me to drink half a carton of Pure Blonde beer with prescription drugs during my early attempt at sobriety. I explained to them how once intoxicated, she took me to her room, undressed me, and cut me five times with a razor blade: twice on my inner left thigh, once on my abdomen and twice on my ribcage, and then proceeded to drink the blood from my seeping wounds. I continued to describe to them that she digitally penetrated and then raped me with a black sexual apparatus, and then forced me to penetrate her with the same device as I was too overpowered and frightened to resist her.
The police officers almost exhibited empathy towards me when I disclosed that, after the abominable act, I was tearing her home apart in a desperate attempt to locate the phone and car keys that she had stolen from my handbag to prevent me from fleeing or contacting somebody for assistance. I continued to cry as I clarified to them that I pushed her in self-defence because she had imprisoned me inside her home, and physically and sexually assaulted me. When I notified them that the Northern Territory police officers failed to question me as to why I had destroyed her property or how I came to be wounded and bleeding, they looked at me in disbelief. At no point during my interview did they comment upon why the police took me, a rape and domestic violence victim, to the hospital under the Mental Health Act, nor why they permitted me to be incarcerated in a psychiatric facility for days.
My ex-girlfriend will never be held accountable for her actions. There is no evidence, no eyewitnesses, nothing but my scars, traumatic recollections and written testimony to prove the horrific abuse she subjected me to over two years of her coercive control. The police officers, psychiatrists, doctors, nurses, and others who failed to assist me will never be interviewed or reprimanded. ‘Friends’ and family have distanced themselves from me. They choose to believe that I am ‘mentally ill’ rather than suffering from the aftereffects of innumerable brutal crimes that commenced in early childhood. No one comprehends that because I have been repeatedly traumatised I should be treated with gentleness and compassion, not ostracised. Their distance reinforces my insecurities, making me feel worthless and annihilated. Consequently, I prefer to stay at home in my self-made penitentiary, avoiding humans because I refuse to ever again be a victim re-victimised.
Wow. I’m sorry! Amazing, the power of bald accusations and those who act like each one must be true.
In Colorado, a young black man—Elijah McClain—was walking down the street carrying a plastic bag containing bottles of iced tea or something like that. He was wearing a hoody and a mask.
Apparently his appearance was threatening to a neighbor. The threatened party called police. First responders responded like yours did. They assumed the validity of the complaint and apprehended Elijah like he was a criminal.
They ended up injecting him with a lethal dose of Ketamine because he dared to resist authorities apprehending him for walking down the street, minding his own business, causing no harm.
God DAMN it.
Of course, they conducted investigations and held trials and doled out “justice.” Oddly enough, with all of the finger-pointing and accusations of guilt and cause, the person who instigated the whole incident—the person who alerted the authorities to a threat, to which they responded as a threat—was never considered culpable.
I’m hopeful that the threatened party learned something, despite not being part of the response team that faced “justice” for what happened. Sounds like your oppressor escaped culpability, too.
Report comment
Dear Dan,
The events surrounding Elijah’s fate are heartbreaking and senseless. It feels as though we are trapped in an endless cycle of tragedy, where individuals suffer, yet no one is held accountable for their actions.
You are correct. My perpetrator is still free to continue the cycle of abuse.
I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to engage with my story.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
This was kinda like my story with my mother. She had my brother and I diagnosed, drugged, monitored, etc., while she took OD quantities of prescription drugs she brought back from trips to Columbia,
Prescription shopped, went into violent rages, crashed cars, etc.. last conversation I had with mom and dad they were trying like your gf to get me to see that because I was chemically imbalanced and had an off and on marijuana habit I had to live close by and give let them talk to my doctors and friends so they could monitor me and coercively subject me to forced treatment as they deemed necessary. But I had played along long enough for them to slip and not prevent me from becoming financially independent. Oh well, now I live an ocean away from them and will never speak to them again, good fucking riddance. Mental illness, whatever that is, seems to always be a diffuse phenomenon that exists between people and not within them, and there seems to always be an identified patient in situations like this. Luckily I’ve had some empowering practitioners who helped me see I was being abused and get out. Turns out you don’t have to be a perfect joyful flower for it not to be okay to abuse and manipulate you. Like you I’m still very confused about the whole thing. Try my best not to get involved in any of it mentally bc it’s too confusing.
Report comment
Dear Ryan,
I am saddened to hear your story. You are correct in stating that “mental illness, whatever that is, seems to always be a diffuse phenomenon that exists between people and not within them, and there is usually an identified patient.” The ‘patient’ invariably becomes a victim, forced into a subordinate position by professionals, family, and ‘friends’, creating a vicious cycle of trauma.
I am glad that you have managed to escape from your oppressors. Were they ever held accountable?
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
Hi cat,
Thanks for your supportive response. Nobody has ever been held accountable. My mother is an extremely powerful lawyer, and was also very careful to hide her abuse when I was younger. My father is, well, a coward I’d say. He’s simply committed to protecting her and subscribing to her extremely distorted worldview. Worst is my prescribing doctor. The last time I saw him he had me on four different meds and I got into a car accident that nearly killed me because my reaction time was so slow. He had ‘accidentally’ put me on two antipsychotics that caused dystonia, and I had become catatonic. He apologized in a private conversation with my mother, but never to me. Why would he need to apologize to me anyway? His job was to produce a behaviorally compliant child, he basically worked for her. When I confronted him he said he was sorry my memories of him were so negative. I assume nobody in my family will ever be held accountable, and my psychiatrist will retire rich. He once told me that his parent clients loved him but all his adult clients that used to be kids hate him. That’s the way things go in this system I suppose, the patients are squashed and their abusers empowered. I had also asked to be treated for trauma specifically since my brother brutally physically and emotionally and arguably sexually abused me starting in pre k, but he and my parents all denied vehemently that trauma could be involved in any way. I see a trauma therapist now which helps a lot, but she works far outside the system.
Report comment
Dear Ryan,
Your doctor was medically negligent in prescribing you numerous neurotoxins. You were very fortunate to have survived your car accident whilst under their brain-disabling mechanisms. The doctor should have apologised to you, not your mother. His/her apology is an admission of guilt. Yet, the ‘professionals’ are immune to repercussions.
I am really sorry that you were born into a family of depravity where you were drugged, falsely diagnosed, physically, verbally and sexually abused and manipulated by cruel individuals. Sibling sexual abuse tends to occur in families similar to yours and mine.
Accountability and justice are rare, especially if you do not have the financial resources for uncharitable lawyers. Given that your mother is a lawyer, you would have had even greater difficulty.
Like you, my brothers sexually abused me. It has been impossible to attain justice because the perpetrators and my ‘family’ deny that it occurred. Perhaps, there is a Victims of Crime program where you live. Based on my experience, you could be minimally compensated for the horrific crimes following years of privacy invasion and a lengthy interrogation process by a sceptical lawyer. At the very least it could force your perpetrators to be financially inconvenienced for their offences.
It is great that you have found an empathetic human who is not associated with the psychiatric propaganda machine.
I genuinely hope that you are able to rebuild and experience a decent life despite your tragedies.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
Stories like these are stories that reveal how psychiatric treatments further deteriorate (worsen) people’s mental health. Psychiatric treatments consist of ‘psychiatric side treatment applications such as psychiatric drugs, ECT etc.’ (We call all of them ‘Psychiatric Treatments’.) And ‘police, courts, psychiatrists, nurses and other mental health professionals’ are also involved in this (psychiatric treatments). (We call these so-called ‘mental health practitioners’.)
Psychiatric treatments damage people’s healthy brains (brain damage) and make their mental health worse. And the ‘practitioners’ involved in this practice are forcing people into ‘treatment’ under the name of ‘mental health treatment’. Thus, they knowingly and/or unknowingly damage people’s healthy brains. (In other words.. Chemical-induced brain damage..) And usually over a long period of time (months and/or years)… They probably cause permanent mental illness due to this chemical-induced brain damage. That is.. The permanence of natural psychological problems.
——–
Psychiatric treatments do not fix people’s ‘mental illness’; (they can’t cure it). On the contrary, they create mental illness (chemical imbalance in the brain). (Usually in the long term)
Natural psychological problems are not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. They are caused by environmental conditions (pathways); (Such as experiencing SHOCK or trauma resulting from the realities we experience, the negative visuals and auditory realities we see and witness, etc.) These (i.e. natural psychological problems caused by environmental factors) can be corrected with ‘alternative drug-free behavioral therapy treatment methods’. Methods such as the Norwegian examples and the Storia Houses are the best examples of methods. (Robert Whitaker had provided information about these)
I read the Norwegian example. Patients return home after a few weeks/months. However, when the society’s own ‘natural environment psychology’ becomes dominant, they return to homes where the Norwegian drug-free method is applied. Of their own volition… If they had been given ‘medication treatment’, they probably wouldn’t have returned. Drug-free treatment methods and staff behavior ensure that patients return. Because the environment is very good… So are the drug-free treatment methods…
————-
Natural psychological problems are not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. But if you try to treat these natural psychological problems with psychiatric drugs… You cause natural psychological problems to become permanent. This gives rise to the phenomenon called ‘mental illness’. Namely…
Mental illnesses are not initially caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. But when natural psychological problems begin to be treated with psychiatric drugs, the phenomenon of ‘mental illness’ emerges. This gives rise to the assumption (theory/phenomenon) that mental illnesses are caused by ‘chemical imbalance’.
This benefits the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries (and psychiatrists). It makes it easier for them to prescribe psychiatric drug (to people). The more psychiatric drugs prescribed, the more ‘chemical imbalances’ occur (in people). This allows the number of both ‘mental patients’ and ‘mental illnesses’ to increase. (This is why the DSM criteria have increased so much.) The so-called psychiatrists who prepared the DSM criteria add newly emerging mental illnesses caused by psychiatric drugs to the DSM as ‘new mental illness criteria’. This results in an increase in the number of people prescribed psychiatric drug and, in turn, mental illness (the number of new mental illnesses). This is how the revolving door capital of the psychiatry and pharmaceutical industries (and psychiatrists) works. (This is how the ‘financial interests’ of the mental health industry work.)
———
As a final word.. The human body (and brain) is a BIOLOGICAL ROBOT made up of flesh and bone. The brain is a hollow piece of meat. The only thing that operates, controls and energizes the brain is the person’s own soul.
Governments, mental health sectors, psychiatry and psychiatrists… Unless they accept the concept of the soul (and apply special non-drug treatment methods accordingly), it is not possible to ‘cure mental illnesses’.
All harmful psychiatric treatments, such as psychiatric medications, psychiatric ancillary treatments such as ECT, etc., clearly harm people. It causes brain damage and related permanent mental illnesses. It also causes many different diseases in the human body. (It causes physical and mental disabilities (iatrogenic damage).)
Sincerely.. Y.E. (Researcher blog writer (blogger))
Report comment
Dear Yildirim,
While I agree that the entire ‘mental health’ industry is primarily focused on financial gain, I do not believe that “natural psychological problems caused by environmental factors can be corrected with alternative drug-free behavioral therapy methods.” This perspective not only places blame on the individual but also overlooks the distress caused by various social factors. Extensive research highlights the inherent limitations of ‘therapy’ in effectively managing such complex emotional and social issues (Smail, D., 1987). It is inequality that needs to be addressed, not people.
Thank you for reading my story.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
Dear Cat.. Absolutely.. Inequality means people with different opinions are labeled as ‘mentally ill’. Unfortunately, differences are labeled as ‘mental illness’. Society excludes people who have different thoughts and behaviors. This suits the psychiatry and pharmaceutical industries. They start to medicate people with different thoughts with toxic psychiatric drugs. The concept of ‘inequality and injustice’ begins here.
—————
But.. What I’m saying is… Natural psychological problems can be treated with a number of non-drug treatments. The reason I say this is to save people from toxic psychiatric drugs. Otherwise, the concept of inequality (and injustice) that you mentioned is something very different. For this, societies (and states) need to be educated.
That’s actually what you’re saying… Every person has different thoughts. Not everyone has to have ‘the same thoughts’. However.. Society says, ‘If you are not in my opinion (/our opinion), you are mentally ill.. This is wrong.. (Societies and states need to be educated.) Differences are labeled as ‘mental illness’. People can have different opinions. That’s the important thing.
—————
The aim of seeking to correct natural psychological problems with drug-free treatment methods is to save people from toxic psychiatric drugs and ECT vs harmful psychiatric treatments. These should definitely be done.
Estimated.. Probably, worldwide… Psychiatric medications and harmful psychiatric treatments such as ECT appear to be causing chemically induced brain damage and possibly related permanent mental illness in thousands (perhaps millions) of people each year. (These are estimates. But they have not been investigated honestly. Injuries and deaths are attributed to different causes and therefore cannot be accurately determined.)
Also, along with that.. It also causes a lot of damage to the human body. It causes people to catch various diseases. And if we consider that the vast majority of these people are dead… Billions of people may have died over the decades… If we count the people who died, we can easily estimate that billions of people have been harmed by psychiatric drugs and psychiatric treatment practices such as ECT… People go to ‘who shot?’ (like ‘who shot him?’) And the governments are not doing anything about this. Something needs to be done. Harmful psychiatric side-treatment practices such as psychiatric drugs and ECT SHOULD BE BANNED.
Best regards.. E.Y.
Report comment
Dear Yildirim,
You are right in asserting that all psychiatric ‘treatments’ are harmful. Each drug and ‘therapy’ has been intentionally selected for its mechanism to impair brain and central nervous system function in individuals (Breggin, P.). Psychiatry, psychiatric drugs, electro-convulsive ‘therapy’, and psychiatric incarceration and torture must be outlawed.
Given that there are no known biological causes for any person’s cognition with the exception of nutritional deficiencies, dementia and rare chromosomal conditions (cepuk.org), I’m curious to know what you mean by “natural psychological problems.”
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
“At that moment, I saw no purpose in telling them the truth. As they chose to believe that I was a ‘mentally ill criminal’, it was safest to say and do nothing. Three individuals had condemned me without evidence. I was outnumbered and began to doubt my own memories and reality.”
That is the goal of gaslighters. I’ve lived it, and learned to avoid it, too. Gaslighting, force, and other lies, seem to be the MO of today’s scientific fraud based “mental health” industries. Despite the fact that it is well known that gaslighting is “mental abuse,” not “mental health care.”
The “mental health” system needs systemic change. Thank you for sharing your story, Cat. God bless and empower you, I pray.
Report comment
Dear Someone Else,
You are correct. Gaslighting is an inherent component of ‘mental health’ systems and, indeed, all dysfunctional relationships.
I appreciate you reading and commenting on my story.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
I knew woman in the early 80’s who left, with the help of her friends, a very violent man, taking her two young children with her. She had a breakdown while staying at her friend’s house. Her friends called psychiatric services who took her away, drugged her and gave the children back to the violent father. The services waited till she calmed down and returned her to her violent partner.
Her friends helped her escape again, this time better prepared they had Women’s Aid waiting and the woman and her children found refuge.
I suspect this is a common story. Many will not be as lucky as the woman I knew who had a well organised bunch of friends to help her escape.
Report comment
Dear John,
Tragically, this narrative is far too common. Usually, the victim has no one to help them escape or is accused of being the perpetrator or ‘mentally ill’. Just another avenue for psychiatry to destroy and re-victimise those experiencing social inequality.
I appreciate you taking the time to engage with my story.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
Narcissists will leave you dead if they could in an instant. Or the worst you could possibly imagine. Mine are parent and sibling. They make the mafia look like kindergartners. Bless all who have these demons in their lives.
Report comment
Dear Anonymous for my safety,
Some people seem to thrive on being cruel to others. I’m sorry to hear that your family is worse than the “mafia.” I can relate, as I have parents and siblings who have ruined my childhood and denied their actions.
I appreciate you taking the time to read and engage with my story.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
What a horrifying story. You’ve experienced terrible injustices. It’s maddening how authorities will tend to side with abusers over their victims. Abusers have a cunning way of charming people and tricking them. It’s also very tragic how so-called normal people will distance themselves from abuse survivors as well. I’m an abuse survivor as well. And I’ve experienced a lot of similar type of things. People putting the blame on me and pulling away from me and just assuming that I’m mentally ill instead of traumatized.
Report comment
Dear JR,
I am so sorry that you have also experienced horrific abuse and ostracism.
You are correct, the authorities tend to side with perpetrators leaving the victim abandoned by everyone.
Thank you for your empathy.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment
Cat….I’m proud of you for the having the strength to speak up and inform the world of your struggles it takes courage….I know as a battered woman society is blind to the crimes women perpetrate against women having five sisters myself who in a lifetime have tortured me and forced treatment on me for more than 30 years beginning with an abusive relationship and torture by courts and left impoverished on street so they said I a danger to self and gave me a phony label made it stick by my continued victimization impoverishment no money for good lawyer and no necessities of life as to the crippling of me….read Phyllis Chester’s book woman’s inhumanity to women society does not speak of this nor are they aware of it the violence perpetrated and how abusers continue their abuse by pathologizing libeling slandering their victims twisting everything around sounds like you to had experience with a psychopath and now will attract them especially me too in childhood abuse neglect predators find out and treat you like 2nd garbage thank God you have your masters and credibility retained from that incident many of us never get emancipated all the best to you
Report comment
Too much power they have and liei misinformation in canada this natural law act of mental health they need no burden of proof no due process of law and it is tyranny fascism despots violent abusers calling themselves healers and all together gaslight the system in the serious toxicity in the mass crippling mass murder of the weak and the impoverished and the victims
Report comment
Dear Rebecca,
I am deeply saddened to hear about the toxic relationships and decades of trauma caused by your family. Unfortunately, both violent men and women target individuals who have already been traumatised, leading to further victimisation. It is concerning that society rarely discusses the abuse of women by other women. I will definitely read Chester’s book on this topic.
I share your belief that the Mental Health Act is used as a tool to further harm victims. The psy-disciplines should be held accountable for their ineptitude and acts of violence.
Thank you for sharing your difficult experiences and for taking the time to read my story.
Kind regards,
Cat
Report comment