Tiggy
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.
‘This really horrible case of wrongdoing that the system just won’t acknowledge has been done, and I’m having to live with the consequences.’
Tiggy was diagnosed with mental illness about 15 years ago.
‘My disability is the result of the drugs I’ve been given,’ she told the Royal Commission. ‘I am an innocent person who got stuck in the system and has not been assisted to get out of it, not been listened to the whole time that I’ve been in there, have been lied to the whole time.’
Back then, Tiggy said, she was ‘functioning normally, working full-time’. Then an assault triggered trauma from ‘a childhood sexual abuse history’.
‘I went to my GP … She didn’t believe me, gave me a pack of pills and sent me home. Didn’t explain what they were.’
Tiggy’s family took her to a psychiatric clinic after realising the medication was an antipsychotic.
‘The doctor diagnosed me wrongly with anxiety with psychotic features. Said to me, “You’re going to have a have a pill for rest of your life.” I didn’t have options. And I wasn’t assessed properly or anything there. I wasn’t allowed to speak.’
Tiggy had ‘a nominated person’ at the meeting to advocate for her.
‘[The doctor] wasn’t listening to her … Kicked her out of the hospital. His training and personal skills were atrocious.’
The following year, Tiggy spoke to the psychiatrist about the sexual abuse, believing that she had post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘He laughed at me … Said that the treatment was the same anyway. Kept his original diagnosis. And my life fell apart. He wanted me to stop working at that point. Didn’t explain that I could apply for DSP [Disability Support Pension], or anything like that.’
Tiggy continued to work as her health declined.
‘My whole physical self was destroyed. Like, I doubled my weight and had full-blown insomnia after being medicalised.’
In their ‘10-minute consultations’, her psychiatrist continued to deny her health issues had ‘any association’ with the drugs he was giving her.
‘My situation has been kind of severe … I was on benzos for 10 years, withdrew from them. I had a clonazepam overdose.’
About three years ago, she complained to the medical board who ‘failed to find that the original assessment was incorrectly done’.
‘They said there wasn’t enough evidence, so therefore he was doing everything right, which is bullshit … Four out of five of the standards and guidelines were breached in the examples that I gave. He’s supposed to provide psychological intervention first, before medicating.’
Tiggy ended up under a mental health order for more than a decade.
‘I haven’t been able to have children, haven’t been able to have meaningful relationships … Not being able to work, to engage as I normally would. Like, I’m now living on DSP with no income.’
Tiggy says her current psychiatrist doesn’t listen to her either.
‘He has a skewed view of me.’
Recently she went to a mental health tribunal ‘to review whether [she has] to continue on medications or not’.
‘[The psychiatrist] is twisting everything I say. Like, he’s not documenting things accurately … And saying I’m deluded when I’m not, and all of these, you know, horrible things.’
He also wants Tiggy to become an NDIS participant.
‘I’m not willing to do so at the moment … I don’t think it’s what I need. It’s like you’re signing off that you’re going to have a disability for the rest of your life … It’s medication that causes what I’m now experiencing.’
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.