I’m furious & heartbroken.

Just saw an ‘antistigma’ ad on schizophrenia from @MHReformVic & @VicGovDH.

This is NOT reform.

It’s more of the same dishonest medicalisation theories & false claims that hospitals are great.

I’m in tears.
1/

#ReformFail
@JamesMerlinoMP Drawing of person doing a face palm. Text says REFORM FAIL
In the ad I saw, a person literally says these experiences are ‘biochemical reactions in my brain’.

What?! That’s just not true. The brain chemistry theory is well & truly busted as myth.

How do we have govt ads making these claims? Is anyone doing basic fact checks?

/2 Drawing of person doing a face palm. Text says REFORM FAIL
Then we hear how meds really helped this guy. Hospital was great!

I guess this reform is going to ignore the police violence, rape, solitary confinement, detention, force & trauma reported to the royal commission?

For all of us abused in the psych system, this is cruel.

/3 Drawing of person doing a face palm. Text says REFORM FAIL
Is this reform going to ignore the fact that psych meds are useless &/or harmful for many of us? That the system is not safe?

Seems like it.

This is not being believed
This is gaslighting
This is psychiatry propaganda
This is going to grow stigma
This will cost lives
/4 Drawing of person doing a face palm. Text says REFORM FAIL
On a personal level, I feel shattered.

Why did I bother testifying to the @RCMentalHealth?

Why did I dedicate months to painful, traumatising & unrelenting advisory work?

Why did I let myself feel hope that real change might come this time?
/5


@MHReformVic
@JamesMerlinoMP Drawing of person doing a face palm. Text says REFORM FAIL

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More from @IndigoDaya

15 May
When I was a kid my abuser abducted me, fed me whiskey to make me compliant, then raped me.

My mum kept it quiet. Society told me the abuse was my fault.

I didn’t say no.
Girls ask for it.
Shut the hell up.

1/4
When pain sent me mad, cops dragged me to hospital.

Psychiatry locked me in. Drugged me into compliance. They stripped me, said my brain was broken. Locked me in solitary.

It felt like that abuse so I escaped. My govt said this is good healthcare.

2/4
When I became an activist against this injustice, govt pretended to listen & care.

They had inquiries & plans & royal commissions.

They put all the words of all the survivors on paper, then put them away. They kept doing what they’ve always done, but called it reform.

3/4
Read 4 tweets
31 Mar
A long thread:

Reflecting on my hospital day procedure, through a #traumainformed lens.

Yesterday I had a #gastroscopy with full sedation.

I’m also a survivor of child abuse & years of coercive psychiatric treatment, so it was a scary prospect.

Here’s my experience.

1/22
Leading up to the procedure, I was scared that somehow I’d end up with an unwanted psych consult. What if I cry too much or they just make assumptions based on my history?

This was a big fear. I almost cancelled. Thankfully, it didn’t happen.
2/
One thing I forgot to consider was that the last time I’d been in hospital was when my Dad died, about 8w ago in January.

The second I walked into the hospital I realised, and the tears started flooding.

I didn’t plan for grief or thinking about death, but I should have.

3/
Read 22 tweets
20 Mar
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be an ally to consumers & survivors in #MentalHealth.

Learning from my own lived experience, other survivors & consumers, and other marginalised groups.

Some thoughts...

(thread)
1. You don’t get to decide if you’re an ally. We do.
2. Good intentions are lovely, but that doesn’t make you ally. Neither does saying the right things.

Your actions are what matter.
Read 18 tweets
16 Mar
I’m not a fan of risk assessments.

But I am a fan of being able to talk frankly about #suicide followed by empathetic, rights-based support.

This thread does some good myth busting on that. And yes self-injury is different.

Here’s a few bits I’d add from lived experience...
2/ If we say we’re thinking about suicide, don’t panic.

It may or may not be a crisis. It may feel odd to you—but some of us have thought about suicide for decades, regularly.

I consider myself largely healed but I still have regular suicide thoughts.

(Don’t panic, I’m OK)
3/ It’s helpful to understand the different nuances of how we are thinking about suicide...

Are thoughts abstract or occasional... or a lot, or increasing? For how long?
&
Is it a thought (‘I could’) or a desire (‘I want’) or an urge (‘I need to’) or a plan (‘I’m ready’).
Read 14 tweets
13 Mar
CW: Rape

If you’re not from Australia,, you might be wondering what the hell is going on right now.

It’s pretty awful.

Rape allegations were made by an ex-govt policy staffer, Brittany, against a colleague. A senior minister called her a ‘lying cow’ then went on sick leave.
/1
It took a conversation with his wife, and being reminded about his daughters, for our Prime Minister to acknowledge that he should take action so women were safe at Parliament House.
2/
Now rape allegations (from the 80s) have emerged against our Attorney General, by a woman called Kate. She was diagnosed with mental illness & died from suicide.

The AG denied it & went on sick leave.

The police stuffed up or covered up. Case dropped.
/3
Read 7 tweets
27 May 20
1/8
IT’S PUBLIC!

My witness statement to Victoria’s Royal Commission into Mental Health is now available online:
s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/hdp.au.prod.ap…
@RCMentalHealth

More info in thread👇
2/8
Thank you to @abcnews & @Zalika_R for covering the story & giving profile to people & issues that are too often ignored. (Angus, my cheeky cat, steals the show).

Online story: abc.net.au/news/2020-05-2…

Tune in to tonight’s 7pm ABC news for more coverage.
3/8
I was asked to testify on many topics, including #trauma , #recovery & the lived experience workforce.

I also testified to my own, appalling, lived experience of the #MentalHealth system.
Read 8 tweets

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