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Seeker
Contributor

A journey through cancer.

Hi, im new. I was diagnosed with mental illness 20+ years ago. I find it very frustrating that i cannot get any legal help to fight misdiagnosis, many stories there all law firms wont touch mental health unless your rich to pay them off up front. So Drs & nurses can do what ever they like with you knowing there isnt any way i can legaly fight back. I dont deny mental health issues but do dispute diagnosis, especially when i am a victim of crime & cops put me in mental health & mental health call my injuries delusions ignoring my evidence( x ray ect)

In 2008 i got diagnosed with cancer. I had 3 months chemo no help at all. The mental health clinic was supposed to arrange a cleaner while i was sick but my Dr (medical officer) didnt arrange it said to me i cant expect to be treated like the Royal family. I was left without any support from family & have very few friends so i was left to my own devices to get food & didnt clean as i was too sick I had to live in a mess. I could tell you things you wouldnt believe!

With my difficult relationship with staff in mental health due to my argumentative stance on their constant mis-diagnosis my relationship with mental health has descended to a mutural hate with most of them. I am now the subject of bulling by male nurses & ridicule to provoke me into loosing my temper, raely i bite but with all the stress from PTSD & cancer & other issues sometimes i find it hard not to stand up to the bullies. Always results in alerts on my computer record to encourage more difficulties for me, is a modern mental health nurse bully tactic.

Even now i still am often illtreated & if i complain i am given a union cover up. I dont like to complain but whats a guy supposed to do with a cold war between the bully nurses & me. You would think that being a cancer patient the bullies would lay off but they dont. I had to fight for my life in fist fights many times on street & with nurses where they just ignore my frail fragile state being chemothearapy sickness. Some even say i am not a cancer patient, but i am to tone down my fraility.

So now i dont know how long i have to live, i may have 20+ years or just a few. I slowly die alone never having had a love life. It is a burning to see my sexual health die as i slowly aproach death. I sit in silence alone every day. I dont get along with anyone, all the difficulties i have had since childhood i can't bare much more!

But i have to man up & toughen up this is the truth of the cold world we live in. I once asked a female nurse who hates me to make peace with her, i was then subject to an attempted assault by male nurses if it wasn't for my 6 month remission for cancer i would have been locked up in a locked ward. I now am terrorified of health care workers, like i say there are 2 types of patients, citizens & inmates. One cared for, the other often abused ganged up on by both health care workers & citizen patients.

I try my best to be positive, love like, forgiving, nice, thoughtful & respectful & i try to make the best of my life. But i am often frustrated by my own torment exacerbated by lonelyness & yerning for love.

I pray & hope for something good to happen!!!

24 REPLIES 24

Re: A journey through cancer.

Welcome to the forum Seeker,

 

Im very sorry to read such a story like yours- it sounds as though you have had quite a battle so far.

 

I do hope you come to find this community very supportive of every one and i also hope you like to read the stories and experiences of others here too.

 

I hope that you have come across some positives through out all these experiences- i only hope because when some people endure such traumatic and stress ful lives its important to remember the little bits of light, and let them sine through in your memory.

 

I look forward to your future posts.

Baboo

Re: A journey through cancer.

Hi @Seeker

That's a pretty harrowing tale.  I'm truly sorry to hear that the mental health system has made you feel this way.  I would hope that there have been some exceptions along the way but overall your experiences make for a tough read.

Your story really underscores one of the most powerful casualties of long-term mental health issues - all our connections and support.  It's very hard for families and friends to stay connected through all the ups and downs.  But then the eventual isolation is so damaging.  You sound as if you are completely on your own.  You have my admiration for continuing to fight for your rights.  

I do wish that the system was better at differentiating the individual from the symptoms.  Lots of times we react to the symptoms and lose sight that there is a person behind that problematic behaviour that wishes things were different.  And is trying to achieve that.  Instead we can get into confrontation with an illness and the client loses out. 

I remember reading a while back that Victoria Legal Aid were setting up a specialist unit to advocate on behalf of patients in mental health wards.  If you're not in Victoria I wonder if your state has something similar?  At least this indicates an understanding of the power imbalance in these settings and that patients need some assistance.

I hope you stay around the Forums and share more of your experiences.  It can be one way to rebuild those connections.      

Re: A journey through cancer.

I hear your yearning for love and am sad about your torment..

People do have very different experiences in MH wards, I am sorry yours was not good. 

I have never been hospitlaised but I started visiting MI hospitals when I was 10.  When we visited dad at the Repat the other patients would attach to me.

My brother is also struggling with bowel cancer .. so I have been in those wards too.

I can only say hi and give you virtual hug.

Hope reading and posting in the forums helps you.

Re: A journey through cancer.

Thanks for sharing your story @Seeker

Re: A journey through cancer.

Thanks Baboo. It takes faith in me that one day good will come :s Sometimes i loose myself for a moment in hate due to si=uffering so i must remember my place as a love like being to deal with it or the hate getins in me & hurts me.

Re: A journey through cancer.

Thanks suzanne. Unfortuantely some patients are targeted & bullied & abused & the dust never settles. A lot of my problems are due to some of my enemies having too much infulence in gov. Some patients are abused due to a variety of reasons. You would hope nurses would be kind & some are but unfortuantely if you piss th union off the dust never settles.

I come from a child abused background & lived in foster/kin care as well as a short stay in a boys home. My step family were very nasty abusive to me many whom worked in health care & other gov (un-named agencies) who made my life hell on earth. I have caught them interfering with my treatment. I will not say how they took out my credibility.

they system here has a very strong culture of abusing patients & if a patients stands up to staff its hell for them forever.

We have a WA mental health law centre but they cant help as mental health act 1996 & new 2014 act have no provisions for patients to fight mis-diagnosis or any leagal avenue to enforce crimes against mental health act committed by mental health staff. This legal abbyss patienst are in is what fuels a lot of agro towards staff as staff know they can do anything to a paitient knowing patients do not have any menas to enforce their huamn rights or rights under the act.

I hope to connect with happy love filled people to share the love 😄

Re: A journey through cancer.

Thanks appleblossom, I hope to connect with happy love filled people who share my connection to nature. I pray to end the torment i never wnated to be fighting staff or anyone else but i find some of them are just nothing more thasn evil & the guardian in me must stand up to them!!

Re: A journey through cancer.

Thanks coffeegirl. I hope my story inspires people & to encorage mental health staff to stop the abuse by gving them an insight to a bullied patienst heart.

Re: A journey through cancer.

Dear @Seeker

i also experienced abuse in foster families and orphanages when growing up .. no place for children.  Have you ever heard of CLAN Care Leaver Australia Network.

I see the "in care" part of the name as purely ironic.

I am not always the happiest person but I try to do good and I hear you in your struggle not to let negative thoughts damage your own system. Stopping nternalisation of bad experiences which came from outside of ourselves takes a lot lot of effort to combat

I hope you find some relief.

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