Jacqueline Back On Track
Illawarra Mercury
Monday October 8, 2007
JACQUELINE Freeman has spent her teenage years battling a mental illness that nearly killed her.
Now, at age 18, she believes she is finally on a path to recovery and intends to return to school next year.But it has been a long and painful journey for Jacqueline, who has borderline personality disorder and post traumatic stress disorder relating to an incident when she was 10.In the past eight years, she has been rushed to hospital several times after overdosing on paracetamol and self-harming.In April this year, she took more than 100 paracetamol tablets. "I had flashbacks (which were) pretty continuous and that would just make me down in the dumps and not feeling good about myself," Jacqueline said."I felt worthless and didn't see any point in being here, so I do that (self-harm) to try and get away from what's going on."Jacqueline's battle with mental illness has been even more difficult as her family struggled to get adequate care for her.Her mother, Joanne, publicly complained in April about the lack of mental health services and treatment of people with a mental illness.She was angry at the treatment Jacqueline received when she was admitted to Wollongong Hospital after overdosing on paracetamol.Jacqueline said family support, as well as medication and shock therapy, had helped her manage her mental illness on a daily basis."(Now) I feel just normal, really good," she said."I'm always looking forward to doing something and I look forward to living a long and healthy life."I feel, like, because of what I've been through, it's given me a lot more strength and more wisdom and maturity."In a way it's scary (looking back), because I did so many harmful things, and if it wasn't for the help of my family I wouldn't be here."
© 2007 Illawarra Mercury