My husband and I both believed I was not that unwell to warrant an MHA. We believed the Crisis Team were panicking and acting on their anxiety. Rather than working towards caring for me in the community, they no longer wanted to hold the risk I imposed. I was reacting badly to the change in medication of Olanzapine to Aripiprazole ( I had requested a change as I had enough of the weight gain) and they felt I was paranoid and actively suicidal.
I had lunch with a father and his daughter from my NCT group before I dropped my baby boy to my mums and made my way to the CMHT building. I remember feeling self assured I would be going back home after the meeting and they had no grounds to detain me. Little did I know that they had already made up their minds, although they would argue they hadn’t, and I was going to be sectioned.
The Crisis Team Psychiatrist introduced himself and I asked where the other psychiatrist was (the one I had seen previously and thought was fairly reasonable). Unfortunately he did not work on Fridays. I repeatedly asked if this was an assessment and he denied it was. As the meeting progressed I argued my side and pleaded with my care coordinator who was also present to help take my side. She did not. As the meeting started winding up, the psychiatrist asked my care coordinator whether he should escalate things. She said yes. I pleaded with the psychiatrist that I would do whatever he wanted and take whatever medication he wanted. He stopped listening to me and left the room.
I started to panic. I was losing control over the situation, decisions were being made not by me and I wasn’t being listened to. Things then took a turn for the worst.
Instead of letting me go home and the AMHP and Psychiatrist attending there to do their assessment, they kept me at the CMHT building. As the AMHP entered the room, I got up in anger as I recognised the AMHP to be a former colleague I used to work with at the CMHT from another locality. This was not right and said he couldn’t do it. They ignored me and said they could. In the end I gave in because it became obvious that they would be doing the assessment whether I liked it or not.
I tried to reason with the AMHP who I knew but it became clear that he had also made up his mind on the outcome of the assessment. He asked if I would go into hospital. I outright refused. They left the room to have their discussions to decide what would happen. I would be waiting for over half an hour before the AMHP returned and told me I was being sectioned. My husband arrived not long after. I was being transferred to a hospital out of area. I told him not to follow and to go back to our baby boy. Come tomorrow I said. It was afternoon when I had entered that building, it would be late evening when I left it.
Two 6 foot plus men arrived to escort me to the ambulance and drive me over an hour away to the hospital. I was numb and had emotionally shut down. I made pleasant chit chat with the man sat with me at the back and he said I would probably be out in a week. Everyone is an expert nowadays.
Psychologist and Patient 