STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION

OH 663/8

Full transcript of an interview with

JOHN NIKOLETOS

on 14 May 2003

By Maxie Ashton

Recording available on CD

Access for research: Unrestricted

Right to photocopy: Copies may be made for research and study

Right to quote or publish: Publication only with written permission from the State Library

2

OH 663/8 JOHN NIKOLETOS

NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT

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J.D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION, STATE

LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: INTERVIEW NO. OH 663/8

Interview with John Nikoletos recorded by Maxie Ashton on 14th

May 2003 at the

Port Adelaide Mental Health Service, South Australia, for the Mental Illness

Fellowship Oral History Project.

TAPE 1 SIDE A

This is Maxie Ashton, and I’m interviewing John Nikoletos on the 14th

May 2003,

and we’re at the Port Adelaide Mental Health Service, St Vincent Street, Port

Adelaide. And John is going to talk about his experience of mental illness and

being in hospital over the last thirty or more years.

Could even be younger. Between my puberty and all that I had – sort of between

family and all that.

Yes. Thanks for coming, John. Thanks for coming today and being a part of the

oral history.

My first real problem with mental illness was when I was in high school. My

primary school was all right, but they had all these sort of groups and all that, .....,

and I had a few girls after me when I wasn’t chasing them. Actually, I met a nurse

when I was in Cramond, and she said all the girls at the Taperoo High School were

after me, you know?

Can you think back to that first time that you became unwell? You were at high

school?

Oh, really my first time when I became unwell was we were living in another house

with my father.

Yes? Whereabouts was that house?

Wells Street, Birkenhead.

At Birkenhead, yes.

It was a different street. My family moved into the house next door, and he had to

re-do the house, my father.

Oh, yes?

Actually, we were a very close-knit family.

Were you, yes? How many in your family?

4

Two sisters and three – I was the oldest brother.

How many boys?

Three boys, including me. And my sister died eight years ago from – she had breast

cancer and she got lung cancer. She had three children as well.

Did she? Yes. Were you born in Australia, John?

I was seven months old when I came to Australia.

Oh, okay.

..... ..... ..... I went back in 1979 when I was twenty-seven.

Went back to where?

Greece, the Greek Islands.

To Greece.

Yes.

You’re from Greece?

Yes, the Greek Islands, yes.

Greek Islands? Wow, beautiful, was it?

I went to the one that my sister was on. That was Rhodos, they have a castle there

from the twelfth century which the Knights of St John built with the Franks. I was in

there. There was a flea market, where they sold all gold, jewellery and all that for

mark-down prices. And I bought a bit of gold in that.

So going back to that first time that you can really remember becoming unwell

and feeling unwell mentally – – –.

Oh, well, mainly my cousins and that used to pick on me.

Yes? So how old do you think you were?

About seven or eight.

About seven or eight, yes? And you were living at Birkenhead?

Yes, I was living at Birkenhead – probably round the corner, it would have been by

then. The house round at Birkenhead we were only renting.

5

So you feel that your cousins used to pick on you?

Yes. One time him and his big mate tied me to the letterbox and they filled it up

with crackers.

Oh, dear. So that would have been scary.

Yes, it was, yes.

So did you go into hospital then, or – – –?

I went into hospital in the Children’s Hospital. When I was four years old there was

a next door neighbour had a little girl with blonde hair, and she leaned over the

fence, she said, ‘I don’t like you.’ She dropped a brick on my toe, big toe, and they

had to pull it out. And so they had to take me to hospital. I stayed in there for four

days. That was my first stay.

That was when you were four!

When I was four, yes.

And what about the first time you went into hospital for a mental illness?

When I was nineteen.

You were nineteen.

Just out of high school.

Yes? So you’d left high school?

Yes, I had left high school.

Which high school did you go to, John?

I went to Taperoo High.

Oh, yes – down near Birkenhead, isn’t it?

No, just over near Osborne.

And can you remember what happened and how you ended up going to hospital?

Actually, when I got out of fifth year high school – I repeated, you see, fifth year –

and I wasn’t very much interested in high school, I was lazy and I really wanted to

get a job. So when I sat for the final paper I didn’t write enough down on it, so I got

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all F’s and G’s and all that. I wanted to get out. And my father wanted me to

become a doctor in the Army, you know?

Wow. Had you done well at school?

Grade Seven I was top of the class.

Were you, yes?

Top of the whole school.

Wow.

And in first year, second year, third year, I was coming top of all classes as well. I

was hanging round with bad groups – people that wanted to smoke and smoked – I

didn’t touch marijuana till I was nineteen, but this is cigarettes we were smoking –

and we used to go in the bushes and smoke them, and we got caught, they said we

were smoking in the boys’ room and all that. I got the cane once, but he didn’t do it

hard.

So you did your Matric but you didn’t write anything on your papers.

My first – that was my second Matric, but I did that before. I failed by one point.

Did you, yes?

Because I passed two Maths and one English.

So you left school, and then what happened?

I got a job at Woolworth’s. For a year. But after Woolworth’s very complicated my

life become – sitting around the – – –. Before I was going in to hospital, I used to

hang around with Italian boys at the pizza bar, Semaphore Pizza Bar, they used to

call me Frankie – Frank Nitty, they used to say, he was the Greek that was second-

in-charge of the Mafia. I don’t know what was going on – I went into hospital and I

was very disarranged. I didn’t know whether I was very manic or anything like that,

but I used to scream at the doctor in the hospital and the ..... pills. It always used to

come down to slanging matches as I didn’t believe that I was ill, because I was the

only one taking one tablet, Stelazine.

So can you remember how you ended up getting to hospital?

7

Yes. Actually, when I got hit over the head with the iron bar in North Adelaide, out

the front of the North Adelaide Pizza Bar, I got hit over the head with an iron bar and

my Dad took me to a doctor to get my six stitches out, and the doctor asked me a few

questions. I had to sign the form for me to be admitted. Two or three days later my

Dad came with two police officers at four o’clock in the morning.

Who came with – – –?

My Dad.

Your Dad came with two police officers.

Yes. And they took me off to hospital.

Did they? Wow. So the doctor must have thought you were unwell.

He must have.

But did you think you were?

Well, I didn’t – at the time I didn’t, no.

No. So you went to hospital in the police car?

I’m not sure now. Yes, it would have been a police car, yes.

What year do you think that would have been, John?

Just after my year – or it would have been, yes, it would have been just after

Woolworth’s.

Which would have been in what year?

1972 or ’71.

’71, ’72. Yes.

Because I left school in 1970.

Okay. So just a couple of years after school.

Yes. Actually, I spent my twenty-first birthday in jail.

In jail? Okay, so we’ll get to that in a tick, because how old would have you been

in 1971?

Oh, about twenty.

8

What year were you born?

1952.

1952, so you would have been about twenty.

Yes. The admission must have been in 1972.

Oh, okay. So which hospital did you go to?

I went to Enfield.

Went to Enfield.

It never used to be called Enfield Hospital, it used to be called ‘Enfield Receiving

Home’.

Oh, okay. And can you remember driving up the drive, or going – – –?

I can remember the roses.

Can you?

The roses around – lovely red roses where you turned around.

Oh, was there? Was there sort of like a roundabout?

A roundabout. They dropped you off at the front door, and that’s where you go in,

and then drive out along the other path.

And there were red roses there?

Yes.

And the front door, what was that like?

Two columns, like ancient Greek or Roman architecture.

What did you feel like, going through those doors?

Well, I got there – they never locked me up, but I had to see a doctor and he got me

admitted.

And did they tell you you had a mental illness?

No.

No?

9

The only problem is they didn’t really tell me that I had a mental illness for a few

years after that, because my brother went to see Dr ....., and Dr ..... said I had a

‘manic disorder’. And he decided it was bipolar, or manic depression, or some sort

of difference between – I’m not sure whether they’re different or not.

So he explained that to your brother –

Yes.

– but not to you.

He drew it on the chart – no, I was there.

You were there too.

He drew it on the chart like that, like a wave.

Oh, yes.

And a line in the middle.

What did you think when he told you that?

Well, I just thought he must have been some sort of wave leak.

Must have been some sort of – – –?

Wave leak.

Wave link.

Wave leak.

Wavelength.

Yes. Some sort of frequency that I was on.

Oh, okay, so you didn’t think it was you, or your illness.

Actually, the night I got admitted to hospital was my main ..... ..... ..... ...... ..... ..... .....

At twelve o’clock at midnight. I mean, there was a big disturbance in the house. So

we called the police. And I had my fishing knife in my pocket. We called the police

and the policeman went in the house – must have been some family disagreement or

something, and they said we’d better go home, and took off. The next morning I

arrived home, I still had the fishing knife in my pocket, and the police picked me up

10

in the morning with Dad. So I went to hospital and I looked into my pocket.

Actually, you know the nurse with red hair –

No.

– he’s done thirty years, like me. He’s down at Port Noarlunga.

Is he? Okay.

He’s the one – I pulled out this knife. I said, ‘Look what I’ve got.’ It turned them

into a panic and they had everybody running everywhere!

A lot of people thought you were – it gave them a fright and they came running –

Yes, yes, yes.

– because you had a knife in your pocket.

Yes.

So can you remember anything about Enfield Receiving Home?

Yes, I remember a lot about it.

What about the walls and the people and the food and –

Oh, the food was –

– where you slept, and all that?

– oh, well, I was in a – we had share rooms, but in the other ward we had

dormitories. And then there were snooker tables, you know, like you played – 8-ball

tables.

Oh, yes.

And you had players where you played records on, and there was – I seen a Dr

Sutcliffe, I saved his life. There was this patient trying to get him, so I beat him off

and he tried to get him, so I jumped on top of this patient and all the bloody nurses

jumped on top of me.

So how many people would have been in the dormitory, do you think, John?

The dormitory? Would have been about twenty.

All men?

11

All men, yes.

All beds along the walls.

Same as Hillcrest. Hillcrest ..... we had a dormitory up the top. We weren’t as close

together as in Enfield.

And the food? What was the food like?

Oh, the food was good, very good, yes.

So how long do you reckon you were at Enfield Receiving House that first time?

Six weeks.

Six weeks.

So I went back to the same job I was in. Actually, my parents took my clothes out of

my flat and they brought me back home to Mum and Dad’s.

And did you mind being in hospital, or did you like it, or what?

There was always some sort of –

What did it feel like?

– some sort of strange feeling, like people you’ve never dealt with, or people with

bad anger – angry people. Some people you didn’t know how to talk to them,

whether they’d – they have a bit of aggression, you knew who to leave alone, you

know?

Okay, so some of the people there were a bit angry and aggressive, and you left

them alone.

Well, I was angry and aggressive. And I can remember we had this little fireplace,

we used to hang around the fireplaces. You were allowed to smoke indoors there,

and we’d always sit around the little fireplaces and have a smoke and all that. They

used to have a zoo, a little ..... zoo.

Did they?

We had a bald-headed eagle there.

Did you?

Yes.

12

Were there many animals in the zoo?

Oh, there were kangaroos and pheasants and all that. One time these two or three

dogs came in, killed three – wild dogs killed three kangaroos, so the bloke who came

in, he got an iron bar and hit one of the dogs over the head and killed it.

Were you allowed out of the ward and got to wander around the garden?

We were allowed weekend leave.

So you went home for the weekend?

Yes, sometimes I did, yes. All depended on how you managed your week, how

much trouble you were in and whether your family wanted you and all of that.

Okay. And what did you do during the day when you were there?

Oh, they used to have activities for us.

Did they, yes? So you got up early in the morning, or – – –?

Oh, seven o’clock with the alarm, seven, probably eight. Had a very small dining

room.

And what sort of activity do you reckon you did?

We had cooking and we had OT and IT1 in there.

OT means?

Occupational Therapy.

Yes, and IT?

That was something Industrial or – we had a guy there who was pretty good, he was

a carpenter.

Oh, yes?

After he left there he got a job in the prison – he was the one that killed the dog.

You know that dog in the prison? Well, he was good. I made Dad a leather belt

there.

Oh, did you, yes?

1 OT = Occupational Therapy, IT = Industrial Therapy.

13

Because me and Dad, we weren’t seeing eye to eye, because I blamed him for my

admission to hospital.

So you were angry with your Dad for the fact that you were in hospital?

Oh, my Dad used to bring me down cigarettes. I shouldn’t have been so angry

towards him.

But you did, you felt angry.

Yes.

Had you known anyone before who had ever gone into hospital with a mental

illness, John? Anyone?

I’ve known a lot of people, yes.

Before you got unwell, did you know anyone then?

Well, I didn’t know – it was a huge sort of experience.

Was it, yes. Anyone in your family that you knew of that had ever – – –?

None.

No.

My mother told me one of my grandfathers was unstable, but I don’t think he was

mentally ill.

Okay, yes. When you were in hospital, you didn’t really know why you were

there, or – – –?

I knew why I was there.

So you did know that you had an illness.

I did, yes. But it wasn’t stated out to me why I was taking the tablet, and when I was

in hospital, and when I went out of the hospital they come out, I didn’t take any

tablets. I just started taking tablets – 1979, when I left for the Greek Islands, there

was a doctor there, she wrote it out on the – like she said I was going visiting the

Greek Islands, ‘He’s not ready to take soldier duty.’ Like since I was Greek and

born in Greece, if I went back there they would put me in the Army for two years.

The doctor wrote down that I wasn’t allowed to do Army service.

So the doctor wrote down that you weren’t fit for Army.

14

Yes. I went to see a doctor in Port Adelaide –

Did you, yes?

– and I got my pension. I was treated for seven or eight years. And that’s when I

left my jobs – I’ve had seven or eight jobs during the year, during those years,

different places, like Chrysler and Sunlighting Industries.

Sunlight Industries?

Sunlighting Industries.

Sunlighting Industries?

The one down on – ‘moonlighting’, it’s called now. I used to work there in the store.

And – what was I going to say? – yes, when I saw the doctor, I had to give him my

birth certificate. When I got back from overseas for three months – I was

automatically paid the pension, but they put me under the Public Trustee and Mum

and Dad thought I couldn’t handle my money. So I’ve been under the Public Trustee

ever since I came home from Greece.

So you were in hospital for about six weeks –

Yes, six weeks.

– that first time.

I measured it.

And then you came out and you went back to work.

Yes.

How did you go back at work?

I went all right, yes.

Really?

I usually changed jobs for the money. In those days you could get a job in the paper,

you didn’t have to go to Centrelink. I used to knock on factory doors – it was the

best idea back in those days. You could get a job easily just knocking on doors.

Yes? Wow.

15

Or you could go to James Hardie, they said, ‘Come back tomorrow.’ I didn’t end up

going. I went down to Holden’s at Woodville, they said, ‘Come back tomorrow,

there’s a job.’

And so you had a number of different jobs after you left hospital?

Yes, I did have, yes. I wasn’t really settled.

And did you stay out of hospital for a long time then, or – – –?

It would have been until I got my Sickness Benefit, and you had to pay to get into

hospital. I think you had to – you had to make it pay to stay in the hospital.

So you went back into hospital then, did you?

Yes, yes, yes, I did, yes.

So that was – how many years do you think you were – – –?

Three years.

So you were out of hospital for about three and then you went back in again.

Yes.

Was that to the Enfield Receiving House again?

Yes, back to Enfield, yes. Back in about 1975, they took me over to a ward which

was called 1B. –

Yes, in Enfield.

– in Hillcrest.

In Hillcrest.

This was bloody – it would be like hell, compared to – oh, it was all people urinating

everywhere and – – –.

So in about 1975 you were admitted to Hillcrest Hospital.

Only for one day. Oh, it would have been two weeks, yes, would have been two

weeks.

For a couple of weeks?

To 1B.

16

It was hell, you said.

It was hell, yes. Sleeping in a dormitory and people talking in your sleep, you

know?

So it was a dormitory –

Dormitory, yes.

– and what else was horrible about it?

Just like a dungeon. They had big gates out the front, with locks on them, going

down to the stairs. You couldn’t get out.

Okay, so it was a locked ward.

Yes.

Yes? And were there many people there?

Blokes.

All blokes, all men?

Yes.

And people were urinating everywhere, or – – –?

Everywhere. One time I was carrying a – I was sitting on the toilet and a big black

fellow, he was big, he just came in and looked at me while I was sitting on the toilet.

There was nothing I could do about it, he just looked at me.

Did he? Was it scary?

Oh, I would have been scared what would have happened – he’s a bloke – – –. I was

in the other ward at Hillcrest as well.

So was the – he was another patient in hospital.

Yes, another patient, yes.

And why were people urinating everywhere?

I don’t know.

There were toilets there.

There were toilets there, yes.

17

But they were urinating. Okay. And so you went into another ward at Hillcrest.

Another time they took me straight from 1B out to Enfield again.

Back to Enfield, yes.

Before that, Dr Ferris, who was my doctor for all those years – I don’t think he was

my first doctor, but he would have been close to being my first doctor – I think he

was my doctor for about ten or so years, I think it was.

He was your doctor for ten or so years?

I think he was, yes.

And how many admissions do you reckon you had into hospital in those first ten

years?

Not as much as I did 1980 to 1990. I had more admissions then. Because I got on a

pension, on a pension then. I had to survive.

You had to survive?

I used to live on the street sometimes.

Did you?

Down on the beach, down in the parklands. And that’s where, in ’79, I got my first

taste of marijuana and LSD and cocaine. I was a very heavy gambler, a drinker,

alcohol. Now I’ve given them up, all them.

Have you, yes. Did you smoke a lot of marijuana?

No. Actually, though I get tempted from time to time, if somebody offered me some

down in the street for ten dollars I wouldn’t buy it.

So you didn’t like it much?

Oh, it made me go crazy, that’s about all.

Made you feel a bit more crazy.

Yes.

And what about the LSD and the cocaine – did you use that a lot, John?

LSD I had a few. But once I took them by myself they became very scary.

It was scary when you were by yourself.

18

The first one I took, California Sunshine, I took with two women, one with blonde

hair, one with black hair. But from then on I took it by myself.

And so you said you had more admissions between 1980 and 1990.

Yes.

Why do you think that was?

In 1980, when I came back from the Greek Islands, I took a Getaway account to

Perth for twenty-five days, and with no money, and my father put me in missing

persons. I couldn’t get back. So after staying on the street for a while I spent – I

used to pinch the papers off the paper stands and sell them, and used that to buy

food. And then I was staying with Salvation Army for three days, and police – you

know, the big boys, what are they called? – the Federal Police, my father had me put

on missing persons, they put me in a psychiatric hospital.

In Perth?

Graylands, I stayed there for twenty-five days. With no money, no cigarettes or

nothing. So I had to get by on nothing. Do you want to know how this story ends?

Yes.

Well, my parents – when they discharged me from hospital –

Yes, from Graylands.

– Graylands, yes – I was so sure they’d take me to a bank, but she took me to the

Salvation Army, got all my stuff, and inside the bag there was a Getaway account. I

didn’t know that I made a Getaway account before I left Adelaide, with the National

Bank. So I gave her the Getaway account and she said, ‘Look, there’s five hundred

dollars in there.’ She told me if I paid ten dollars that she would ring Adelaide, my

parents, so she rang Adelaide, so I’ve got four hundred and ninety dollars. So I

bought my sisters some opal and my Dad a ring, a ring and a watch, and I came back

to Adelaide – First Class Ansett ANA.

You flew, you flew back to Adelaide.

First Class.

So was Graylands Hospital very different, or – – –?

19

They used to have all the wards connected by a sort of long tunnel. So you’d go

down the bakery every morning and get a fresh bun, you know? Nice thick bacon

for breakfast. Actually, I heard Heathcote’s better than Graylands, because

Heathcote’s got a swimming pool.

Heathcote Hospital?

It’s on the other side of the river.

In Perth?

Yes, on the other side of the river.

So somebody told you it’s better than Graylands –

Yes.

– because it’s got a swimming pool.

I went to Royal Perth Hospital while I was there. I got blisters all over my feet from

walking all the streets. I was over at Hay Street there.

So you got to know Perth a bit.

Yes. I went to the – – –. (tape ends)

END OF TAPE 1 SIDE A: TAPE 1 SIDE B

– – – , John, and you’ve told us quite a lot about lots of admissions to hospital over

the last thirty years, nearly, is that right?

Yes.

Maybe – is there something big in your memory of all those times that you’d like

to tell us about?

I’ve had a lot of thought about Anderson House.

Anderson House?

Yes, that was the lock-up ward in Hillcrest.

The lock-up ward at Hillcrest Hospital.

Where I must have been admitted over fourteen or nineteen times.

So many times you’ve been in that hospital, yes –

Many times, yes.

20

– that ward.

And I used to spend the time hallucinating, and they used to give me

chlorpromazine, liquid chlorpromazine.

Yes.

And people – when they used to go there they used to see the blood pouring out of

the walls.

Yes. Did you see that?

I just thought – it must have been white walls. There were plenty of those side

rooms where they used to lock you in, no toilet or just a pillow and a mattress, no

proper toilet.

So there were some side rooms that they used to lock you in –

Yes.

– that just had a pillow in there?

Yes, and a mattress.

And a mattress – no toilet.

No.

No? What did you do when you needed to go to the toilet?

Well, you had to go in this little bucket.

And did everyone get locked in those rooms, or – – –?

No, it was only times when people used to get manic or anything like that, or – I

think they didn’t know the score of PRN2 in those days.

PRN, what does that mean?

A tablet you take just in case they think you’re going to attack them, or some

problem with your thoughts or anything like that, if you take PRN then you slowly

let your thoughts out.

Okay, so it’s a bit of extra medication if you feel like you’re not so well.

2 Medication that can be taken as needed.

21

Yes, extra. There in the hospital, some use Valium, but Valium is too addictive.

Yes. Well, back to Anderson Ward – can you describe what it was like and what

the building was like?

It was mainly – front, nurses out the front. On the right hand side was where they

took ...... all the places, and in the front there was a verandah – locked in – where

they used to have the visitors there.

Oh, yes, so the visitors used to come to a little verandah area.

Inside was a little more sophisticated area, where they had mattresses and that.

So it was beds – was it a dormitory again, or – – –?

Oh, they had these chairs, you know, like where they could go inside and visit.

Chairs that you could go inside and visit – no, I don’t understand.

The visitors used to come in there.

The visitors used to come in there for chairs.

You could close the ward at the front –

Okay.

– there was a lock. There would be a nurse there, just in case anything goes on,

right?

Okay, so when you had a visitor you went into that visitors’ area.

Yes.

And you were locked into that area, and a nurse stayed there with you –

Yes.

– in case anything went wrong. What were the keys like, can you remember the

keys? Were they big keys or little keys?

They were little ones, they used to have them in bunchfuls, I don’t know.

Big bunches of keys.

Yes. They used to rattle sometimes.

Did they, yes?

22

When I was locked away you’d hear the keys rattle and you’d know that they were

on their way to let you out.

Okay, yes. And what was the ward area like, where you spent the day?

It was only small. It was only small.

Was it small, was it?

Yes. There was enough for people – there was a television set, and they had a

railway – not a railway, a radio.

A radio, yes.

And there’d be a table out the back where we used to have glass around the – glass

windows. Out the back there was a table with ashtrays.

Okay, so you could smoke in that glassed area.

One every hour, you were allowed.

And the nurses would give you a smoke every hour? Yes.

Yes.

And how many people do you think were in that ward?

About eleven or twelve, not many.

Both men and women?

Yes, men and women, yes.

And did you know any of the other people?

Oh, I did, some of them.

You got to know people?

Yes.

And what do you remember most about Anderson Ward?

We used to go down the back, there were two big trees, and we played cricket and all

them games with the staff versus patients and things like that.

And so was that within a fenced area?

Yes, a fenced area.

23

So it was all locked.

With barbed wire around the back.

Was there, yes?

It was a long, long back – it went for about two hundred metres, down the back. It

wasn’t very wide, though, it was only about fifteen metres wide. A lot of us used to

play basketball, ..... ..... basketball.

Was it a two-storey building?

No, a one-storey.

Just one storey. And what were the nurses and doctors like?

Oh, they were fairly good, yes. But the medication used to upset us.

Yes, what was that like?

Some people used to sleep all day and all night when they were there. Some of the

medicine that I was on, like haloperidol, the red one, made me – had side effects like

lockjaw and tongue hanging out.

Oh, gosh.

Then they gave me – after I got released from there, they have me Haldol injections.

And what were they like?

I only had them for a year, and then they stopped them. Now I’m on this new one.

What were they like? What was Haldol like to take?

I put on a bit of weight. Made me get hunger pains.

Did it, yes. So you said that one of the side effects of haloperidol was your

lockjaw?

Yes, and tongue poking out.

And tongue poking out.

You couldn’t get it back in your face.

You couldn’t put it back in your mouth?

24

No. Only true for a few of those, but I’ve heard of other patients having the same

things on that. Plus chlorpromazine, liquid and tablets, made you sleep all day.

So sometimes you used to sleep all day on the medication?

Yes, yes.

How long would you sleep all day for? I mean, did it go on for a long time,

or – – –?

No, it didn’t go on for a long time. When I was home with Mum and Dad I used to

sleep in bed. They used to come and try me on. I wouldn’t shower if it was one of

those days. So my brother used to take my clothes off me and put me in the shower.

So your brother had to help you have a shower.

Mum had to help me, too. I used to get stiff all over, I wouldn’t even – I was

shaking.

You felt really stiff and you were shaking. And was that the reason you didn’t

have a shower, because you felt too tired?

Sometimes in the shower I used to fall over. The last episode, two months ago, they

gave me the wrong tablets and I was falling down the stairs and falling in the

shower. Went to the hospital once, twice, three – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday by

ambulance – then they found the reason for it was that I was suffering sleep apnoea.

That means I find it hard to breathe while I’m asleep, so I wake up early, then I

collapse. I haven’t had enough sleep. Yes, it’s called sleep apnoea.

So of all of those times in hospital, John, you’ve had a lot of experience –

Yes, I have.

– of going in and out of hospital.

Different doctors all the time.

Yes. Can you recall one major thing that really comes to mind, one of the biggest

things that you remember in all those times in hospital?

Oh, I can remember when there used to be groups of people going round doing plays

at Hillcrest Hospital. Salter Hall.

Yes? Salter Hall.

25

Salter Hall, yes. That’s at Hillcrest. They used to come and do plays for us, then the

nurses put on some stuff for us.

The nurses put on a play, did they?

Yes. Or funny times, or something like that.

And what were they like, those?

They were good, yes.

That was good?

I remember when Hillcrest – they used to sell tobacco to us.

Did they?

They did. But when the scare about smoking came on you couldn’t get them there.

No, no. So what was the longest time you think you were in hospital?

Six months.

You were in hospital for six months?

Twice.

Couple of times.

Six months in Glenside and six months in Banfield, Hillcrest.

Banfield was a ward in Hillcrest?

Yes. And they had a Banfield at the other place. Glenside had a – – –.

A Banfield there as well, did they?

Yes.

Okay. And when you were in for six months, do you remember why you were in

hospital for that long, or – – –?

I knew that I was hallucinating and had delusions of grandeur and all that. I could

imagine that the radio and the TV were talking about me, but I didn’t – I knew that I

was sick at the time, but I didn’t want to go back into hospital.

So you knew you were unwell, you thought the radio was relating to you.

26

One night – I’d smoked three ounces of marijuana in one weekend – I looked at the

TV and I thought the Third World War was coming.

Did you? Yes.

So I went round to everybody’s house in the neighbourhood, knocked on their doors

– apparently I broke into a policeman’s house, jumped his fence and four sons then

come out and they put me in the lock-up out the back, and the police came and

handcuffed me behind my back.

Yes?

They put me in the cells in Port Adelaide. I never did anything.

No, no. So after you were in the cells at Port Adelaide, did they – – –?

They had me on – they put me on charges.

Oh, did they?

I was screaming and yelling at them and I didn’t know what – I saw my mother and

father out the front. I was screaming and yelling to the doctor I was acute, but the

doctor said, ‘Oh, take him back to Enfield Hospital.’ So I didn’t get to jail, I was in

care of a doctor at Enfield Hospital.

Yes, okay. So just thinking back to when you were first unwell in those early

times, back in the ’70s, can you remember what your family and the neighbours

thought about you going to hospital?

Actually, I wasn’t the first family member to go to hospital.

You weren’t the first? No?

Because about a year before that my sister went.

To a mental hospital?

Yes, to Enfield she went. And my father thought it was a good idea to have me put

into there to control me.

So they thought it would help to control you –

Yes.

– a bit. And so they thought it was a good idea.

Yes.

27

And what about the neighbours? What did they think about it?

My cousin said my sister’s a ‘case’, that she’s a ‘case’.

They called her a ‘case’.

Yes. But they didn’t know mainly about me, because I think it was – I didn’t have

as much – my workmates, my brother said to my workmates I had a crack-up.

Okay, so they described it as you had a crack-up.

Yes.

And your sister? Did she have a mental health problem, too?

Not afterwards – she just had a slight nervous breakdown.

So she got better after she was in Enfield.

She hasn’t been back to any hospital. She’s married now with three, adopted a son.

Okay. So thinking, John, about living in the community now, can you tell us

about where you live now, and – – –?

I live at 22 Wyatt Street. Sunrise Support Accommodation.

Supported accommodation.

Run by Jenny Angas. Very well, I’m very happy there.

It’s a boarding house, is it, or a hostel?

Yes, they call it a hostel, but it’s very complicated because they support you in sort

of living.

Do they, yes? How do they support you?

Well, Jenny, she’s been a nurse for thirty years, she was a District Nurse for thirty

years.

Was she? So she –

She knows all about medicines.

– oh, okay. She looks after the medication?

Yes. And Barry looks after the financial part. He does the shopping.

And do they cook meals for you?

28

We have other women who do that, too.

Okay, and clean the place.

Yes, we’ve got a cleaner, yes. Us people, we’re involved with sweeping up the butts

outside, and cleaning the table – I clean up the table sometimes, including all the

cups.

So sometimes you help with the jobs that are around.

But I’m never there, I’m always out on buses.

Are you?

It’s just a place to come back to. Like a halfway house.

Okay, yes. So how many people do you reckon live there?

There’d be twenty at the moment.

And are they all men, or is it a mixture of men and women?

No, no, all men.

All men.

Except one couple that are roomed by themselves, one woman. And all the staff are

women. We have about six women staff there. The men seem to get on better with

the women staff than with the men staff, better than the men staff. The men get

along better with women staff than men staff. Do you understand that?

No. The men get along better with the women staff, do they?

Yes.

Okay, yes. And do everyone that lives there, the twenty-one men, do they all have

a mental illness?

Yes.

They all have a mental illness.

Or some have some sort of illness of the brain, like – what’s it called when you have

something wrong with your brain, brain damage or – there are a lot of mental illness,

there are a couple of guys, they have seizures – – –.

Oh, okay – epilepsy.

29

Epilepsy, yes. Two have epilepsy. All a cross-mixture, you know. We’re all

individuals there.

Do you get on well with the people?

Oh, some do. But there’s a lot of them bludge your cigarettes and everything. It

makes a war there. Like some people there aggravate half the others. We have to

pay a lot of money for our cigarettes.

So people after cigarettes a lot?

I’m trying to quit now. I’ll do it in my own time, I know how to quit now. Seeing

that I’m enjoying them so much I’m trying hard to – because the more I say, the

more I smoke.

So you said during the day you’re out on the buses?

Yes. Well, I’m out, I’m visiting. I’ve got a big family.

Yes? So you’re out visiting –

Yes.

– all your family.

Yes.

Okay. So what time – tell me about a normal day. What do you do during a

normal day?

Well, I’m up at six o’clock in the morning.

You get up about six.

And the lady – if Judy’s on, she’ll give me coffee at six. But if Jo’s on she’ll wait

till seven o’clock to give me a coffee. And my normal day, well, I have breakfast at

seven o’clock. With Judy it’s a bowl of cornflakes and a cup of coffee, and my

tablets.

Yes? How many tablets would you take in the morning?

Fifteen, sixteen.

About fifteen or sixteen tablets. And then, after breakfast?

30

I go up and clean my room and get all the magazines I’ve been reading – and I’ve

got a lot of books, I’ve a thousand books in my room out of my collection, from

school and all that.

Wow – so you’ve been a –

And me and –

– keen reader.

– and me and what’s his name – Stevan Howison, we’ve gained a lot of knowledge

in a lot of books.

Okay, so you share ideas and exchange information.

Yes. He sends me out a tape and I – I’ve got four tapes from him this week, that’s a

book.

Wow, that’s good, that’s great.

Yes.

And then, during the day, you go visiting people and catch the buses around the

place.

Yes. Sometimes I’ll be down to West Lakes or up to Croydon. In the last three

months I’ve only been into town once, but I want to go to the Museum. I used to go

to the Museum a lot, but – I used to go to the Museum a very lot. I used to like to

look at the Egyptian – try to work out the Egyptian scrolls.

Ooh, wow! Great.

I’d look at the Aboriginal Dreamtime, used to have that to look forward to.

So the Aboriginal Dreamtime.

Yes, I’ve studied Aboriginal History in Adult Matric.

That’s amazing. Well, so what do you think about your life now, John? How do

you feel about it?

I feel I’m – I’ve reached fifty years old in November. I feel like I’m more contented

than what I ever was.

Do you, yes?

31

Survived down there with Jenny and Barry, a very positive vibe, they were nearly

threatening of kicking me out, the most aggressive I ever was. So they got me –

increased the Seroquel from four to six. I think it’s working out.

So it’s a new medication and you feel like it’s working out.

I’ve been on it since last year.

Yes, but it’s increased a bit.

Yes.

And it feels like it’s working out.

Yes.

Okay. So you feel more contented now than you ever have in your life?

Yes.

Wow. And what do you think about the future, John?

I don’t know. (laughs) I haven’t looked too much into the past, either!

No, so you haven’t looked much into the past or the future.

No.

You prefer it that way?

Well, I think about these – what do they call them? – people who are clairvoyant. I

gave Des a book, it’s called Sleight of the hand and all that. I really feel that they

can’t predict it either.

No.

I was reading a book, she had the science of being religious, or what’s ahead. Is it

science or religion, or is it a mixture of both?

And what did you conclude?

They got nowhere.

Nowhere.

No. Life is what you make of it, you know?

Life is what you make of it?

32

Yes.

Yes? And how do you feel about your life?

I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I’ve learnt from my mistakes. Some people

don’t even learn by their mistakes.

Yes. So you look back and you think you made a mistake, but you learnt from it.

Yes, I’ve made a mistake, yes. One word that slipped out which shouldn’t have

slipped out, you know?

Yes. All right. We might finish the tape there, John, unless there’s anything else

you’d like to say –

Oh, I’ll say –

– about your life –

– thank you.

– and about a story?

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, thank you, John. Thank you very much.

Shall we have a cup of coffee?

END OF INTERVIEW.