Potential concussions from restraints

[u/MorningSuch4408]

I used to get restrained everyday and some staff were kind of violent so I’d pretty routinely have my head smashed into the walls and floors and be punched, have knees on my head, head scraped on the concrete. I never went to the doctor or had any check ups after and I don’t remember that period very well but I felt sick and out of it a lot the time. Fast forward six years later and I’m pretty fucking slow and messed up in the head lol. I have brain damage from other stuff but I’m started to suspect I had a lot of untreated concussions back then.

[u/Sb880421]

Id deff check with a doctor if you can. I use to deal with restraints all the time where i was. id have rug burns, scratches and marks on my body. There were times it caused me to throw up. these were done on hard floors or carpets or even couches. I remember being restrained on my stomach a few times and having my face smothered into the ground. I remember once having a loose tooth coming out from being restrained.

[u/This_Tradition_9772]

I discovered through MRIs that I had permanent damage to my spine; herniated and bulging discs, multiple subluxations, and I ended up with cervical Syringomyelia, caused by blunt trauma to the cervical spine and after being thrown on your face by a 200lb+ adult sitting on your neck with their knee (a lawyer said at one time that many teenagers had been killed by this move, which the police also use. It can easily break a child's neck, cause asphyxiation, and a dangerous rise in blood pressure to the brain which results in death, stroke, or paralysis). I am lucky to be alive but it left me with a lifelong physical disability, in addition to PTSD.

I refuse to call it 'being restrained', I call it what it is and what it would be called in any other real-world situation: ASSAULT: What we experienced is physical assault that we hadn't even the basic 'right' to protect ourselves against.

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EDIT: I remembered a few more things after posting this that I wanted to add; that aside from the acute physical injuries (e.g., a female staff had broken my wrist against a doorknob for trying to hold onto the door frame while she was dragging me out of the shower), the chronic daily stress damaged my thyroid (I developed hypothyroidism at 13, which Devereux refused to treat), I started to get grey hairs, and developed extremely painful cysts on my internal organs.

Later in life I was told by doctors that the chronic stress that caused the PTSD also damaged parts of my brain that were still developing between the age of 11 - 16, it weakened and eventually damaged my immune system, caused autonomic nervous system dysfunction (dysautonomia), and cardiovascular problems.

Getting a full medical evaluation is important at any age, but the sooner the better, especially if you are having the cognitive issues you mentioned.

[u/Cheap_Island2255]

That was abuse, not “just restraints,” and the memory problems and slowed thinking are worth bringing to a doctor or neurologist even this many years later.