Raiden
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
‘How do you speak up for yourself when you’re on antipsychotics?’
Raiden is in his late 50s. He told the Royal Commission he was misdiagnosed with mental illness and ‘drugged out’ with antipsychotics for more than two decades.
‘In the past, I couldn’t get people to listen to me properly because I didn’t know I was dyslexic and had a processing disorder.’
Raiden was raised in an institution, ‘from eight to 18’.
‘And I went to an opportunity school, but I didn’t realise it was a disability school.’
He spent many years ‘feeling different, being treated different’.
‘And I didn’t understand that people didn’t understand me.’
Around the mid-1980s, he split up with his wife and ‘had a breakdown’.
‘I didn’t know where to go. I couldn’t go to family or talk to anybody, and I went to mental health. And then I found myself 22 years in mental health, and they didn’t address any of the problems … I believed them for the first 10 years that I was ill.’
Raiden knew the root cause was something else, but the psychiatrists just said, ‘It’s all in your head,’ or “Change medication.”’
‘And it was always antipsychotics … and their tablets actually made me psychotic.’
Raiden believes mental health professionals were grossly negligent for misdiagnosing him for so long.
‘They should have realised that there’s more … not give me a labelled name … This should never have happened. And I’m not talking about myself – I’m talking about everybody.’
Raiden said that in his years in mental health wards, he witnessed a lot of abuse.
‘I should have got myself out of the system, and I've seen a lot of people in the system that shouldn’t be there … I’ve seen people that are very sick be treated badly.’
Raiden is angry about the years he lost in institutions.
‘I’m really pissed at mental health. I really want to take them to court, but I can’t … They didn’t diagnose me with dyslexia. They didn’t tell me I had a processing disorder … Even children services didn’t pick up on it … I only found out in the last two years with NDIS help.’
The NDIS paid for Raiden to have an assessment with a neuropsychologist, who found he’d had a learning disability and auditory processing disorder all his life. He says he is ‘a lot better’ knowing his diagnosis.
‘My life is changing very slowly to what you would call normal … It is not something that I have ever done.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.