Hi! Im Elizabeth! I was in Timberlawn in 1983, I was 15, the girls adolescent ward.
I had come out of Baylors Adolescent ward before I came to Timberlawn, Baylor was so strict and rigid that I had tried to commit suicide but really didnt want to kill myself, just thought that they did send me to another institution if I caused enough trouble, anyways I tried it 3 different times, and Baylor kept me tied down to a bed in restraints for 6 months. They had me so drugged up with Thorazine that by the time I got to Timberlawn, they put me on a couch in the big lounge and layed me down and told me I wasnt gonna do anything but sleep and eat for the enxt week. I had to sleep off all the drugs I had in me from Baylor.
I had alot of the same experiences at Timberlawn as well strict and ahrd yea well, but I was so terrified of being put into restraints by that time that I was almost perfect by the time I got to Timberlawn. So I didnt get into much trouble at Timberlawn, and I was one of the lucky ones who got grounds privileges early and was able to go to PE and we walked 2 miles a day everyday and went to the Canteen on Saturday the little store they had for us. We also had patio parties and dances with the guys alot. It was very strict and hard even with the parties and all that, and I have to say that alot for people didnt have the privileges of going to dances and parties.
One person was my roommate, K. She and I were real close. She was only 13 and had run away from home with her boyfriend and her parents threw her in to Timberlawn and she was scared. I was scared too and we took care of each other and showed at group meetings and stuff and sat with each other at meals times and other places alot. I suspected then that some were saying we were gay and whats interesting is that they started demonizing her to me. She was 5 feet one inch and 95 lbs and looked like a little girl and its like guys liked her naturally you know which was no big deal but they made a big deal out of it constantly accusing her of being sexually permiscous all the time and they were always putting her on guy retriction and tried to convince me that she would take my boyfriends away from me and what not. I had a boyfriend and a guyfriend and at parties I was so scarwed shed get into trouble with guys that she and I hung out together with my BF, so we did all hang out together, and I just know they were making it into something nasty that it wasn't.
The whole thing with them being paranoid about Gays and Homosexuals, I really think they were paranoid about me and my room mate because they kept demonizing her to me.
Sources:
- The original testimony (The Fornits Home for Wayward Webfora)
- Dallas mental hospital to close before state shuts it down (CBS 7)
