I was living with my mother during this time and I did not feel good. She came to my room and wanted me to eat, I told her that I needed to rest. Then she said “Lynn maybe you should get checked out”… meaning I would go to the hospital where they would inject me with poisons and I would have so many toxins in me I would die. Not could – WOULD.
I ran outside crying… “NO! I can’t do this again! They will really kill me this time!” A couple blocks later I walked into the woods. I stumbled down the hill till I got to a base of a huge tree. Scared to death not knowing what I could do to get away, I started to try to bury myself alive. Thinking if I stay real still they won’t be able to see me… after 25 minutes of frantic panicking, I covered my eyes with my hands and made everything go away and I started to breathe slow deliberate lifesaving breaths.
That night when it got dark it rained, and I stayed right at the base of this tree. I was scared not only of the elements, but some type of weasel came out and looked at me as if asking why I was so close to their home base. When it was finally light out I walked the woods finding water bottles and an old jacket someone had left behind. I was at peace now in the woods, it actually was the best vacation I had ever been on. When I came back to the “Home Tree” I ate the mushrooms that were growing right off the bark of the side of the tree. My peace did not last long. About 50 people came into where I was at. I curled up at the base of the tree, praying that they would not see me.
I heard a man say “Look there is a girl, she might be dead.” I slowly raised my hands and said “I’m okay.” I asked them not to touch me but they forcefully put handcuffs on me, and carried me out – my head almost touching the ground. To this day not one family member, friend (or anyone for that matter) asked me why I ran away in the first place… They were all just pissed at what I had put them through.
The Turn Around
When I was little I had the same nightmare over and over. I was a little red ball going down the road. At first people on the side of the road were smiling at me, then they started to cheer for me, then scream and yell and chaos endured. Then it would stop and repeat over and over until I would wake up in a hot sweat. I believe that these nightmares prepared me for difficulties I had to endure throughout my life.
In 2017 I actually lived that nightmare. I was having difficulty sleeping so I suggested to my Doctor to prescribe Ambien for me because it had helped in the past. But this time I had a horrible reaction to it which made so off balance I was hopping in and out of the bathtub to regulate my energy. Then I got so paranoid I left the house with no shoes and ran down the train tracks… trying to get away. The tracks aligned with a red light from a tower. This felt like the chaos from my childhood nightmares. No matter how fast I ran or walked I was never going to reach that red light. I veered off into a corn field, going through big thick pricker bushes, and multiple barbed wire fences. By the time I reached civilization, I had no idea where I was. I flagged down a car and asked for a ride to Fairfield they told me Fairfield was in the opposite of which they were driving. So I flagged down another car. (Picture a woman in a ski jacket with a small skirt on lots of bloody scrapes on her legs and no shoes) They were kind enough to take me back to the center of town. All that walking and running I never even make it out of Fairfield. All it would of taken was one slip…
The next morning I was detained by the police and this incident changed my life for the better. Please read below this was in our town’s news paper.
(From left are Lynn Sausville, Police Lt. Julie Harvey and Police Chief David Thomas. Photo by: Nicole Major)
Police chief says crisis intervention program works
By Nicole Major, Fairfield Ledger staff writer | Oct 24, 2017
Fairfield resident Lynn Sausville is thankful for the Fairfield Police Department who came to her rescue mid-September.
“I have been afraid of the police for most of my life; now, I actually admire them,” she admitted
Having dealt with bipolar disorder throughout her life, Sausville said she has experienced rough treatment during a manic crisis from law enforcement authorities in other states.
“Do you know how many times I’ve been handcuffed or grabbed?” she said. “I hated the police.”
However now, Sausville has a different outlook about law enforcement, thanks to the positive experience she had with Fairfield police officers.
Sausville had a bad reaction to the sleeping aid Ambien. She said that instead of the drug calming her down, she had an opposite reaction.
Confused and disoriented, she soon found herself barefoot and dangerously walking along railroad tracks on her way to her friend’s place out of town for help.
“She was in crisis,” said Lt. Julie Harvey, explaining that the station had already received several calls from Sausville’s family members, alerting them that she needed help.
Police finally received a tip from a local business that Sausville was there.
“I was not detained, but given options like a human,” Sausville said of the way she was treated when officers arrived. “I cannot thank the Fairfield Police Department enough for what they have done for me … how many lives will they save because of a new program they learned about crisis prevention?”
Last March, Lt. Julie Harvey and officer Brent Cook completed a Crisis Intervention Training in Johnson County. Harvey said the CIT program has made all of the difference in the world when it comes to assisting people experiencing a crisis.
Harvey said in the past, officers would determine whether or not a person planned to hurt themselves or someone else, if not, they would move on.
“Back in the day, we would have got back in the car and said, ‘see ya,’” Harvey said. “In the recent past, we would call Optimae.”
Now, with CIT training, officers have learned how to better evaluate an individual in crisis, so that better decision can be made on the individual’s behalf.
Police are also part of a larger team of mental health and health experts. Now, Optimae LifeServices has several appointments that are set aside daily for police related crisis calls.
“I’m really proud to say that it’s been effective,” said police chief David Thomas of CIT. “That’s the neatest thing for me … is that it’s working.”
Thomas said that officers had been routinely trained to respond to individuals experiencing heart attacks, trouble breathing or other health concerns, but that in the past, they had very little mental health training.
“Not everyone needs to go to the hospital,” Thomas said, further explaining that each crisis situation is different, and that with CIT, officers are able to calm subjects down, and make better determinations about where they might need to go.
Harvey agreed, and said that the training she had received helped to make a difference in recent crisis calls they have received.
“There’s only one bed for over 123,000 people in need,” Harvey said of the current state of mental health in Iowa. Although resources have been cut in half throughout the state, Harvey said the CIT training is a helpful component.
Three officers will be trained in crisis prevention, and Thomas said that those officers would be dedicated to responding to crisis calls.
Sausville said she felt like she had won the lottery, because trained CIT officers responded and were able to get her the help that she needed.
“Every state should have this training,” she said.
Katerehanna 