They Said
They said the pain was all in her head. She had struggled since being a tiny baby due to a mishap which damaged her bowel. But, no-one would listen.
Moving away and renting her own flat in Blackpool in the 1960s gave her time to think in her late teens. Somehow she found the strength to approach the hospital.
They sent her to the psychiatric hospital after tests were ‘fine’.
And so, she experienced electric shock treatment. The sort once used to ‘cure’ homosexuality. The treatment was approved for stimulating seizures to get rid of depression. All of her pain was blamed on mental illness.
Subjected to intensive electric shocks two to three times a week and kept in the secure mental health unit she saw terrible things. People were severely mentally ill here and she forced herself to think she was imagining her pain.
Tightly pressed on either side of her head she dreaded the next session, and the next and the next. She was awake throughout and felt the shocks passing through her, convulsing her body.
Then she was discharged, back into the community, no explanation, still in pain.
Strong, loving lady.
How did she get
through? How did she survive so long in pain?
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