talkwomenshealth

It was about 3am on a school night and I had woken from a nightmare. Like most 12 year old’s, I ran to the comfort of my mother. She took me over to the window and looked outside; I assumed this was to reassure me – like when parents search the contents of a wardrobe in order to show there are not any monsters inside. My mother simply said, ‘MI5 are after us’.

At first I was not sure if my mum was being serious or not – she could be quite silly at times, so I humoured her and let the James Bond themed game play out. Sometimes it comes to a point in games, as I am sure many of you are aware, when someone goes just beyond the boundaries of ‘fun’, which makes you feel uneasy and scared. That point was when mum took me downstairs and held the house phone to my ear. She asked if I could hear the buzzing, telling me that it was bugged. It was not so much what she said, as they way she looked when she said it. Her eyes wider and darker than usual and there was no hint of a smirk coming across her anxious face, that might highlight a break in character.

This erratic behaviour continued for several days – she could not sleep and sat up all night, listening for secret codes and messages that were being transmitted via the television and radio. On the day she was sectioned, my mum would not come out from under her bed, convinced that people were after her. At around 5pm that day, my step-dad called the doctor and explained her behaviour. The doctor stated that a sectioning can be a long process, as two doctors and a health worker all have to be present. My mum then became suspicious of all the phone calls that my step-dad was making. She began hiding knives around the house and in-between the sofa, in order to ‘protect’ herself, realising that something was being arranged without her knowledge. The doctors then refused to enter the house without a police presence, considering her to be too dangerous. Continue reading Tina's story here

 

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