Doctors play God with my daughter

LARNA PAUL, 24, has severe autism and suffers with bipolar disorder.

She has been sectioned for months at a time and admitted to private and NHS mental health units over outbursts of obsessive and uncontrolled behaviour since she was 17.

Larna has been treated with antipsychotic drugs to sedate her. But her mother Mandy, 50, of Chatburn, Lancashire, insists that her daughter needs support rather than being locked up with powerful medication.

They have been desperate for help with the episodes in which Larna will scream, bang her body, face and fist against a wall, and shout and behave aggressively – but she has never harmed anyone.

Mother-of-two Mandy visited Larna in May to discover she had bruises on her arms and face. Larna said the drugs had “stopped her arms from working properly” so she had not been able to break a fall.

The ice-cream shop owner said: “The whole experience is both terrifying and barbaric. You lose control and your child is taken away over something minor and then held in seclusion against her will.”

Six weeks ago her daughter was released home from a psychiatric ward on strict condition she takes a daily cocktail of powerful sedating drugs. She had phoned her mother every day begging to be released when she was last held for 12 months.

Mandy added: “These doctors are playing God with my daughter but it is not just her. I feel sorry for the hundreds if not thousands of others in the same position.”