My title is Andrew Seefeldt and I’ve been a sufferer of horrific abuse by the psychological well being system of Australia for over a decade.
I acquired a misdiagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia attributable to psychiatrists repeatedly mistaking my behaviours and actions that really resulted from extreme abuse and neglect (each as a baby and grownup) for “signs” of “paranoid schizophrenia.” Additionally they mistook my claims of more moderen sexual assault as “paranoid delusions” and “psychosis,” when in actual fact they have been true. In consequence I used to be, and to today nonetheless am, being injected towards my will with antipsychotic depots.
I’m nonetheless attempting to flee the psychiatric imprisonment I’ve suffered enormously from, involving compelled drugging, repeated abductions (by police, paramedics and psychological well being employees) and the various involuntary hospital admissions I’ve endured. I’ve been injected towards my will with the antipsychotic depots paliperidone and olanzapine for a complete of over 10 years, underneath the thumb of Neighborhood Remedy Orders (CTOs). This resulted in horrific unwanted effects that quantity to bodily and psychological torture.
Listed below are some examples of the occasions I’ve been kidnapped from my house by psychological well being professionals:
On the sixteenth of January 2024, I attempted to get assist from police for my historic sexual assault, and I suppose the police didn’t consider me due to my psychological well being historical past and thought I used to be struggling a “psychotic” episode, as a result of they’d an ambulance arrive as a substitute of the detective I requested. The paramedics lured me into the ambulance by telling me I used to be going for a voluntary “evaluation,” which might solely be “in a single day,” however they tricked me. As soon as I used to be within the ambulance they revealed that I used to be being detained involuntarily underneath the Psychological Well being Act and I used to be imprisoned within the psychological hospital towards my will for 3 weeks.
One other time once I refused to obtain my antipsychotic injection underneath the situations of my compelled therapy order, the psychological well being crew known as armed police who broke down my door with a battering ram and arrested me with weapons drawn. Regardless of having dedicated no crime, I used to be frog-marched into an ambulance and brought to a psychological hospital, held towards a wall by cops and injected in my buttocks with an antipsychotic depot then imprisoned with out depart for six weeks.
A 3rd time I used to be kidnapped was attributable to me dropping pounds as a result of I intentionally went on a food plan, and police opened my door and walked into my house while not having a warrant just because the psychological well being crew thought I used to be too mentally incompetent to correctly feed myself ample meals, and I used to be imprisoned for every week of “commentary” after being positioned in an ambulance and strapped down with restraints.
Due to the surprising involuntary commitments which caught me off guard and disrupted my life, they revoked my welfare funds as a result of I didn’t fulfill my biweekly reporting habits (by purpose of being imprisoned in a psychological hospital), and I’ve been unable to get them again. I’m residing off of my meagre financial savings now and when my cash runs out I will likely be destitute and unable to pay my hire. Additionally they refused my repeated requests to entry my very own medical information and to obtain a full-panel hepatitis take a look at (I grew to become contaminated with hepatitis D following childhood sexual abuse and have been unable to obtain any therapy or follow-up since being identified in 2012).
Whereas in hospital on a number of events once I refused the antipsychotic injections, I used to be picked up and carried by nurses down the hallway in entrance of the opposite sufferers and brought to a room within the high-dependency unit of Canberra psychological hospital. There I used to be violently pinned down on a mattress on the ground and injected in my buttocks with antipsychotic depots and sedatives whereas I used to be screaming desperately for my companion (they didn’t bat an eyelid).
One other time I used to be pinned down on the ground by safety guards whereas a nurse pulled down my trousers and injected me within the buttocks with antipsychotics whereas I used to be screaming “You’re RAPING ME, you’re f***ing RAPING ME!” Clearly, as a sufferer of sexual assault, having my trousers pulled down to show my buttocks and being injected in my bottom with a needle brought about me to really feel extraordinarily violated, therefore my very comprehensible response.
Along with the violent compelled injections, different occasions I used to be merely not given any choice, resembling when a number of nurses ominously surrounded me and stated the “physician” was ready to talk to me in what I knew was the injecting room, in an try to trick me and lure me to my doom. I knew I had no alternative however to get injected or face one other violently compelled injection, so I resigned and accepted my destiny.
Once I was allowed again into the group as a voluntary affected person, I used to be nonetheless a prisoner of the system. The psychological well being crew repeatedly got here into my yard with out my permission and once I refused to point out up for an antipsychotic injection, they threatened me with an “Evaluation Order” (kidnapping and imprisonment in hospital for “evaluation”) if I didn’t obtain the injection. I used to be formally a “voluntary” affected person for numerous years and compliant with the injections as a result of I had no alternative. Regardless of this, once I made any trace that I didn’t need to take the olanzapine they threatened to place me again on a compelled therapy order if I didn’t comply. If I didn’t associate with the therapy they might say I’ve “poor perception” into my “schizophrenia” and subsequently can’t be trusted to voluntarily settle for the injections, and didn’t have the psychological capability to consent to voluntary “therapy.”
Additionally they said that I used to be “treatment-resistant” just because I voiced my objection that I used to be not a schizophrenic, which they stated was an indication that my “schizophrenia” wasn’t responding to therapy as a result of I didn’t have the “perception” to grasp that I used to be schizophrenic. Sure, that’s critically the reasoning they use.
The one method to get the docs off my again was to adjust to the compelled injections and lie by my tooth that the injections (“meds”) have been “serving to.” I couldn’t even inform them the complete extent of the unwanted effects as a result of they might, consider it or not, enhance the dosage (attributable to me being “treatment-resistant”), put me on different antipsychotics with even worse aspect impact profiles, or put me on much more medication to counteract the unwanted effects — medication which themselves trigger much more unwanted effects.
I’ve suffered in silent torment from horrific unwanted effects instantly brought on by involuntary administrations of antipsychotic medication which got towards my will by way of a Neighborhood Remedy Order, and as I discussed, a number of of the injections have been compelled upon me in hospital utilizing violence. The unwanted effects I’ve suffered embrace akathisia, a rash that completely scarred my face and chest, tardive dyskinesia, and chemical castration, together with lack of libido and little to no orgasm with solely a small quantity of clear semen. The worst of the struggling was the pronounced, insufferable akathisia brought on by olanzapine, which amounted to chemical torture and for which there was no treatment.
The antipsychotic depots additionally brought about me to sleep for as much as 20 hours every day, and through the years I’ve been on them I’ve misplaced a number of thousand hours of my life attributable to extreme sleep — hours that I’ll by no means get again. Following the injections I might drink a dozen spoonfuls of prompt espresso powder and nonetheless cross out because of the overwhelming lethargy brought on by the olanzapine. After the injections I might go to sleep for 3 days straight, awakening just for just a few hours every day in a torpid daze. Clearly this made it troublesome to drive a automotive or maintain a 9-to-5 job.
Whereas on the olanzapine depots they take a look at my blood for monitoring functions because of the deleterious results of the injections, and the psychiatrist stated I’m “beginning to go down the trail of growing diabetes.” I learn on-line that antipsychotics trigger beforehand wholesome individuals to develop diabetes and I’m completely terrified by this. I’m nonetheless being injected with antipsychotics (olanzapine at what I consider is close to the utmost allowable dose) towards my will on the time of writing and there’s no finish in sight, save for residing in a tent within the forest (which I’ve performed beforehand to flee for a quick second) to cover from the psychological well being professionals who’ve made my life a residing hell. The worst consequence of the compelled injections is struggling akathisia out the ass. Akathisia is a hellish situation that appears like literal torture.
My akathisia manifested as a nightmarish discomfort throughout my physique, particularly my legs, which made it insufferable to lie down. It feels much like how I think about being trapped underground in a confined area, resembling a coffin, would really feel like. Usually within the days following the olanzapine injections I might get up repeatedly all through the evening in sheer agony, and the one reduction I might discover can be to bolt up off the bed, run outdoors and tempo round moaning and swearing in ache.
Finally it obtained so unhealthy that I couldn’t sleep in any respect for about 40 hours following the olanzapine injections, and each time I fell asleep I might instantly jolt awake, like a shock to my system, with excessive akathisia throughout my physique. On the worst of it, the akathisia brought about me to lash out violently because of the insufferable feeling of torture throughout my physique, and I beat my arm with a drum stick till it was swollen and bruised. If the docs came upon I did this, they might have misinterpreted my self-harm as an extra symptom of my “psychological sickness” and elevated the dosage of the antipsychotics, leading to much more akathisia. This quantities to nothing lower than chemical torture and a human rights abuse.
Throughout these worst durations of akathisia I grew to become hooked on tobacco attributable to smoking compulsively in a useless try to mitigate the consequences of the olanzapine (I had learn medical journals which discovered that smoking tobacco reduces blood-plasma ranges of olanzapine by 50%, but it surely turned out to be ineffective in my case). I additionally tried self-medicating with leisure medication as a result of the propranolol and benzodiazepines the psychiatrists supplied did nothing to alleviate my struggling. They repeatedly refused to take essentially the most manifestly apparent plan of action, which might be to STOP INJECTING ME WITH POISON (antipsychotics).
I suffered akathisia out the ass whereas locked up involuntarily within the high-dependency psychological unit of Canberra hospital and positioned again on the olanzapine injections after my temporary escape (as I discussed, I escaped the psychiatrists by hiding in a tent within the forest). All I might do was stroll round in circles for 12 hours a day throughout my six-week imprisonment.
The police suppose my non-existent “schizophrenia” makes me a hazard to the group, and the psychological well being system shares my confidential medical information with police right here in Australia. If I don’t present up for my injections I’m topic to police arrest and kidnapping from my house, which has occurred on a number of events. At the same time as a voluntary outpatient I used to be nonetheless compelled to just accept the olanzapine injections, as I might have been put again on the compelled therapy order if I didn’t associate with it. I used to be trapped like this for a number of years, even when not on the CTO, in order you may see there’s nothing “voluntary” about being a voluntary psychological affected person.
My mistreatment by ACT Psychological Well being has been nothing wanting a human rights abuse, and lately they prolonged my compelled therapy order for yet one more six months. In complete I’ve been injected towards my will on over 120 events and for me there isn’t any finish in sight.
I managed to seize one among my compelled antipsychotic injections on digital camera, which you’ll be able to view right here:
Solely God may help me now.
