Being sectioned by the police is never a pleasant experience for anyone, especially those who have a trauma based disorder or have DID. Restraint that is usually used against burglars, rapists and criminals can also be used for mental health patients that the police need to detain for the person's safety or for other people's safety. It can be a harsh and unpleasant experience.
It can be hard for someone with DID to be restrained, especially if the officers have no idea what the disorder is. In my experience the officers have been quite reassuring if I've been 'me'. However, if my aggressive and homicidal alter is out, the police have no choice but to restrain her, often having to use several officers. The mental health professionals seem to be of the opinion that "someone has to do the dirty work".
A section 136 of the Mental Health Act allows a police officer to detain someone who is an immediate danger to themselves and take them to a place of safety, such as a police cell or a psychiatric hospital - the latter being the preferred option. This can be for up to 72 hours. The police are responsible for the person until their care is turned over to the mental health professionals. The problem with police is they were originally designed to help against crime and aren't fully trained in mental health, especially DID. They don't know how to deal with it. Unfortunately I've been arrested many times for trespassing (railway lines), endangering others (e.g. if I jumped in front of a train and it had to stop suddenly) and on my most recent 136, I was also arrested for breach of the peace. Luckily, none of these ever went to court or had charges placed on me because at the time I was on a 136 and viewed as not having full mental capacity.
Below are some of the experiences from people that have had to be detained by the police.
My Latest Experience
Please note: some of my 136's haven't been too full on, depending on circumstances, and officers have been sympathetic. But there is a nasty side to things which I do think needs to be addressed. This post isn't to "slag off police officers" or say they're terrible at their jobs, so please don't take it that way.
My most recent 136 experience was 13th July 2013. On 8th July, I knew I was going to dissociate into Clarissa (a promiscuous binge-eater). She gets very excited when she's going to come out so I had warning. This was in the evening. That was the last thing I remember. According to my carers I then switched again to Fox (Clarissa's mute twin brother). He remained out for 5 days. Then yesterday I switched again to Sally (my aggressive, violent alter). Sally took me to the Clifton Suspension Bridge to jump off of it but the security guards had been warned and the police were already on their way. I've been told that they tried calling her Keri which made her go absolutely apeshit. She refused to go with the officers when they arrived so they had to forcibly put her in the back of the van as one lane of traffic had had to be blocked off so they couldn't talk for long. Of course, she wasn't having any of that and jumped from the back seat across to the front seat and opened the police van door from the front.
This is where I have 10 seconds of full memory when I switched to me for a very short time. Obviously, the police didn't know I was Keri and Sally had already got half way out the door, almost knocking over 2 cyclists. I was grabbed by one of the officers who proceeded to put his arm around my neck and carry me to the cage in the van. By this point both lanes of traffic were now blocked off. The first thing I remember the officer saying was "Right, no more fucking around. You had the easy way or the hard way so now we're doing this the hard way". Obviously, I had no memory of the last 6 days and to suddenly find myself being manhandled by police scared me shitless, so instinctively I tried my hardest to get out of his grip. The problem was, the more I tried scratching and kicking, the harder he held onto me. Having someone carry me with an arm around my neck and literally bundling me in the cage through a series of headlocks and two males using a lot of force is not something a trauma survivor should have to deal with. I switched back into Sally as soon as the sound of the cage door was slammed shut. Apparently she was violent, aggressive, uncooperative and very angry. At first the officers took her to the police station to be secured and searched while phone calls were made so they could transfer Sally to the 136 Suite at the nearest adult psychiatric hospital, the same hospital I've been admitted to as a patient twice.
I was me again after a period of time in the 136 Suite. I had no idea how I'd gotten there and knew it must've been Sally because of the flashback of being manhandled into the cage of a police van. The first thing I did was phone my carer, which is when I found out I'd been dissociated for 5 days. Luckily the assessment was arranged quite quickly and one of the people on the assessment panel was someone who I'd had a lot of contact with and was good at trying to understand Dissociative Identity Disorder. Without her there, I'm not sure I would've been discharged. The day after I was full of aches and pains from the force and amount of restraint used, especially when they get your arms behind your back and start bending your wrist to make you compliant (pointless to do to Sally as she's unaffected by pain). The ten seconds I remember have almost retraumatised me. I have NEVER been restrained in that way. This was all because of officers that had no concept of what DID was. Most other times officers are fully clued up and all information about my disorder is shared to all the officers involved. Unfortunately for me, these two officers didn't get that message and treated Sally like a violent and aggressive criminal instead of a mental health patient that needed help, not over-the-top and painful restraint.
Felt Like an Attention Seeker - Caroline H
I hated being detained. I couldn't deal with it so I disappeared and self injured. I was found by someone walking by who called an ambulance. I just wanted to be dead. My alters were being so mean. I refused to get in the ambulance and ended up hysterical. They called the police and they restrained me until I calmed down. They took me to a medical hospital under a 136 and they couldn't get an assessment for 10 hours. An officer had to sit there with me all that time. I felt like all eyes were on me and couldn't help but feel like the officer felt like he was babysitting me and wasting his time. I dissociated while in my cubicle into Samantha. She made advances on the police officer and I found myself restrained, not knowing why. The staff didn't seem to understand that I had no control of my switching and the officer almost pressed charges for sexual harassment. I got help though. I was sectioned and got a really good therapist who deals with DID all the time. I'm a lot better now and that is partly because of getting 136ed.
Very Helpful - Suzanna H
I've heard a lot about people who have bad experiences and I'm sorry to those that do. For me, they've only been beneficial. I think it really does depend on the police officers. Some are open minded about mental illness whereas others don't have a clue. But isn't that what it's like in normal society? Yes, I was restrained, but it was done in a non-harmful way and looking back at the incident I know it had to be done. I'd like to add that there are a lot of people who have good experiences of being on a 136. Some have even managed to get extra help because of police involvement. I realise police can be a little over the top at times but sometimes it has to be done. Some people with mental illness can be very unpredictable, especially someone with uncontrolled DID. Police officers not only have to keep the person they've detained safe but also have to keep themselves safe too.
I found that being 136ed actually got me extra help. Yes, I've had bad experiences, who hasn't? But mostly the officers that have to deal with me are understanding and sympathetic. Those that don't understand mental illness and go full on with restraint and control I think need to do some training! If anything I do pity them a little as they're dealing with a situation they aren't familiar with.
Totally Ignored - Anon.
I got 136ed after I suffered a psychotic episode. The police knew I had DID. They were called when I sat in a library. It was closing time and I was refusing to leave. I switched to a toddler alter and just cried. The staff working in the library tried to comfort my alter but it didn't work. He went with the police very peacefully when they got there but all of a sudden I switched again and an angry alter came out. He started attacking the officers and I was taken to a police station and dragged into a cell. I was left there for hours before an assessment could be arranged. I wasn't even allowed a blanket as they thought I'd try and suffocate myself with it. I was cold, hungry and scared. I was ignored until the point when two detention officers came to take me to a room where the assessment panel was. None of them knew about DID and just thought I'd been attention seeking. I was discharged and kept getting 136ed every other day for a week or so before my mental health team finally got back from their holidays. It was a horrible experience and it won't be one that'll be forgotten.
Twitter Comments
"I understand restraint if it is needed but I think it's used more often than it should be. What happened to just trying to talk to someone?" - Mel Y.
"I think the police do a good job in my area if you get put on a 136. I think they deal more with mental illness than they do actual crime!" - Sandy L.
"Screw the police. I hate them and think they suck. They've never helped me. They just don't give a shit!" - Anon.
"There's too much of a burden on police. I think mental health professionals leave the bad bit for the police to do. It's not fair on them." - Anon.
"Traumatising, distressing, degrading!" - Kirsty O.
"I think the police go in to heavy handed on s136 patients they are not criminals they are ill !!" - Lady T
Reply from Insp Michael B: "That's a big generalisation about 25,000 interventions a year ... I hear many stories that say otherwise?"
And also a quick thank you for those who retweeted and replied (at the time of this post being published): Julie W, Kirsty O, Wokstation, Insp Michael B and NYPOLFED.
So that's that, such a variation. Sometimes it's helpful, other times it can be traumatising. That's why we need to raise awareness so that people like us aren't viewed as attention-seeking or some other kind of negative label.
People with DID (or any other mental illness for that matter) need help, not stigma or being treated like a criminal. If you're a police officer or mental health professional and you're reading this, try to understand. We don't mean to cause 'trouble' and we aren't attention seeking. In times of crisis all we need is someone to listen, help and understand.
