©2016 snakeappletree
A ‘choose-your-own’ adventure story
Closely based on real events.
AGE 18 related themes.
"Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage." Ray Bradbury
In this adventure you will receive Stress Points. The number of Stress Points you accumulate is called your Stress Rate. The more Stress Points you receive, the more stressed your character becomes. There is a limit to Stress Points; A Stress rate of 10 or more results in a mental-emotional breakdown. Should this event occur, turn immediately to page number 33.
1
You discover a knife in a children's play area.
Do you:
Pick it up. [GO TO 2]
Leave it where it is. [GO TO 10]
2
The knife is a folding knife. The blade is 2 inches long. You recall that a policeman once told you during a school assembly that the legal length for carrying a blade in public is less than 3 inches
Do you:
Take it. [GO TO 3]
Leave it where it is. [GO TO 10]
3
Do you:
Glow with the satisfaction that you have won a free knife from the universe? [GO TO 4]
Decide that a mature and responsible citizen would take the knife away from a children's play area and hand it into the Police to destroy it. [GO TO 4]
4
On your way back into town, a Police patrol stop and search you; justifying it by saying that you were behaving suspiciously. The Police discover the knife on you and arrest you because it is an illegal ‘lock-knife’ despite the blade being less than 3 inches. GAIN 2 STRESS POINTS
Do you:
Tell the Police that you discovered the knife in a kids playground? [GO TO 5]
Tell the Police nothing at all. [GO TO 6]
5
During the interview the policeman says that you were reported to have held the knife against a childs throat. GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
Do you:
Deny this allegation? [GO TO 6]
Agree? [GO TO 7]
6
The Police ask you to sign the bottom of a blank piece of paper, explaining that it is for (mumble mumble confusing irrelevant reason). GAIN ONE STRESS POINT
Do you:
Sign the paperwork. [GO TO 7]
Refuse to sign the paperwork. [GO TO 20]
7
The police decide to press charges against you hoping for a conviction because you have admitted to holding a knife at a childs throat. Police psychiatrists will now interview with the intention of diagnosing you as a paranoid schizophrenic. You are looking at either jail time or high security mental ward. GAIN 10 STRESS POINTS
[GO TO 33]
8
The policeman is surprised because your intention to hand the knife in to the police shows your good character which is the opposite of the opinion he has formed on you as being somebody dangerous and anti-social. You are now free to leave. DEDUCT 1 STRESS POINT
[GO TO 9]
9
You return home to discover that your home has been burgled while you were in police custody and while the police were in possession of your front door key. There is no sign of a forced break-in. The apartment has been trashed, your property damaged. GAIN 3 STRESS POINTS
Do you:
Contact the police immediately about the burglary. [Go to 11]
Search around to see what has been stolen and tidy up a bit. [Go to 13]
10
On the television two days later is a new article about a child who has been discovered dead from knife wounds in a playground. Police are calling for any witnesses to come forward.
GAIN 2 STRESS POINTS
Do you:
Contact the police because you saw the knife in the playground? [GO TO 14]
Stay quiet about the whole thing. [GO TO 15]
11
A police telephonist explains that having a messy apartment with no sign of a break in and nothing apparently missing is not a police matter. GAIN 1 STRESS POINT [GO TO 12]
12
The police arrive the next day to take a report about the burglary but do not actually care about it or about your loss. [GO TO 15]
13
As a dedicated musician you have music equipment. The process of making an album takes a long time. You have a pile of minidisc recordings because it tis the best possible sound quality equipment available. The content of these minidiscs is a mixture of your sounds and your final tracks for your album. The pile of minidisc recordings contains five years of your work, which is three whole albums plus the one you are currently working on, and a lot of recordings and sounds, samples, sections of songs, experiments, and so forth; relating to your finished albums.
However: these have disappeared from your apartment. You are also horrified to discover that your bass guitar has been kicked and damaged, the scratch-plate holding the dials in place has cracked.
Do you:
Contact the police about the burglary [Go to 12]
Do not trust the Police [GO TO 15]
14
The police invite you to the police station where they formally arrest you as protocol, interview you and take your fingerprints because you are now the prime suspect. As you have not directly confessed to the murder of a child, the police regard that it is probably you who left the knife in the playground, therefore that it is your knife which you should not have been carrying in public much less in a children's playground. However they have nothing to hold you on and so they let you go.
GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
[GO TO 15]
15
You wrestle with your conscience. Do you:
Open your mail [GO TO 16]
Make some music [Make a note of this paragraph number and GO TO 32]
16
A letter arrives from your GP inviting you to see him.
Do you:
Ignore it? [GO TO 17]
Go and see the GP [GO TO 18]
17
GAME OVER
18
Your GP explains to you that he has “been informed you hear voices”
ADD 1 STRESS POINT
Do you:
Agree that you hear voices [GO TO 19]
Reply by saying; “Of course I hear voices Doctor, how else would I be able to answer your question?” [GO TO 19]
Deny that you hear voices. [GO TO 21]
19
The GP says “That is a classic symptom of textbook schizophrenia. I am diagnosing you as schizophrenic and recommending you to psychiatric counselling sessions at the local mental health centre.”
Do you attempt to explain to the GP that he is mis-interpreting you and that you do not actually hear voices; that the fault is a mis-communication based on that his specific question was not ‘do you hear imaginary, hallucinatory voices’ but since he is a medical and not a mental doctor, you interpreted it to mean ‘do your ears work and do you recognise language?’ [GO TO 21]
Do you accept the GPs diagnosis. [GO TO 23]
Ask the Doctor to prescribe you some valium [GO TO 30]
20
After some time in the cells and being interviewed on tape, the police let you go, having given you an official Caution. As this is your first offence (carrying a dangerous weapon) the police do not press charges on this occasion although it will be on your permanent record. The Policeman interviewing you tells you that he has no choice but to return the knife to you as it is your property.
Do you:
Hand the knife into the police. [GO TO 8]
Leave the police station with the knife in your pocket? [GO TO 9]
21
The GP explains that he has it on authority that you hear voices and that denial of hearing voices
which is a textbook symptom of classic schizophrenia, is also a symptom of schizophrenia. On this basis he recommends you to psychiatric counselling for a review by qualified specialists at the local mental health centre. GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
Do you:
Ask the GP on whose authority he has it that you hear voices? [GO TO 22]
Accept the Doctors diagnosis. [GO TO 23]
22
The GP explains that he cannot tell you who has informed him that you are known to hear voices due to that being confidential information. GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
Do you:
Accept the GPs diagnosis [GO TO 23]
Ask the Doctor to prescribe you some valium [GO TO 30]
23
A week later two letters arrive.
Do you:
Open the brown envelope [Go To 24]
Open the white envelope [Go To 25]
Ignore both envelopes [GO TO 17]
24
The brown envelope contains an eviction letter from the council explaining that as your rent is in arrears, they are throwing you out of your council flat. You have two weeks notice. You are 100% certain that the DWP pays your rent given that you are on benefits, no rent money passes through your hands - it goes directly from one apartment to another apartment.
GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
Do You:
Go to the council offices to sort this out [GO TO 26]
Write back to the council [GO TO 27]
Ignore it [GO TO 28]
Open the other letter [GO TO 25]
25
The white envelope contains an appointment letter for the local Mental Health review team.
Do You:
Ignore it [GO TO 34]
Open the other letter [GO TO 24]
Attend the appointment [GO TO 31]
26
The council office is shut. It is always shut. On occasions when it is open, the person you have an appointment to see does not attend for spurious reasons. Making a new appointment results in more of the same. It is the way the Council work. You know all of this from previous experience.
GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
Do you:
Write to the council [GO TO 27]
Open the white letter (if you have not already done so) [GO TO 25]
Visit the Chemist [GO TO 29]
Make some music [Make a note of this paragraph number and GO TO 32]
27
Writing a letter to the council.
If your STRESS RATE is 4 or above; you find writing the letter to be stressful, GAIN 1 STRESS POINT.
If your STRESS RATE is 3 or less, you do not find writing the letter to be a stressful activity.
You write an elaborate letter to the council explaining everything, that one department pays your rent directly to the other department and that none of the money passes through your hands, and that you have evidence to support the claim by form of letters previously sent to you by the various departments themselves explaining this situation. Therefore if the one department has not received the rent money from the other department, that it has absolutely nothing to do with you and is not your fault, also that you do not owe them a damn penny given that you are on state benefits and the rent is paid for by the benefits agency, not by you.
Do You:
Post it first class recorded delivery? [GO TO 35]
Post it by normal mail (ie; not recorded delivery) [GO TO 36]
28
You contemplate how this glitch in the system has occurred. It occurs to you that perhaps the Police has informed the Council illegally in respect of the Data Protection Act 1998 that you are known to have held a knife against a childs throat, and a backstage conspiracy constituting hate crime is behind this. It also occurs to you that the system workers are useless and this type of error is likely to have happened simply by mistake. It also occurs to you that human error is used as justification by abusers who have got it in for you based on slander and hearsay.
[GO TO ]
29
The chemist gives you the prescription order from the GP. You now have 3 x average strength valium pill. Each pill will reduce your Stress Rate by 50% but after you have taken 3 of these, you will require a stronger dose for the same effect. Valium is psychologically addictive. You may take one or more of these pills at any time.
Return Home [GO TO 32]
Attend the Mental Health Review [GO TO 31]
30
The Doctor writes you a prescription for some average strength valium.
You will have to collect this from a chemist.
1 average strength Valium Pill will reduce your Stress Rate by 50%
[Return to your previous Paragraph number]
31
Mental Health Review.
You explain to the state workers of the Mental Health Psychiatric Review team that you do not believe that you hear voices and there has been some mistake. They explain to you that a symptom of classic schizophrenia is denial of being schizophrenic; therefore this verifies that you are schizophrenic. GAIN 2 STRESS POINTS.
The Mental Health Review team offer you a choice of psychiatric pharmaceutical drugs for treatment of schizophrenia.
Do you:
Accept a drug which causes growth of lactating breasts in males. [GO TO 37]
Accept a drug which will give you audio hallucinations (to cure your alleged audio hallucinations). [GO TO 38]
Accept a drug which has been banned due to it causing suicidal tendencies. [GO TO 39]
Decline ALL the above psychiatric drugs [GO TO 40]
32
You record some very dark, depressing dirge-like music; however it gets some of the stress out of your system. DEDUCT 1 STRESS POINT.
[Return to your previous paragraph number]
33
It has all gotten too much for you and you cannot cope with it any more. Your mind shuts down to process the overload of stress which you are soaking up from experiences. Your biology responds by going haywire, sending floods of random hormones in random orders in an attempt to balance itself going wrong and causing further imbalances. The precise nature of a mental breakdown varies between individuals however it is recognised that you are no longer able to function in normal society.
GAME OVER
(not because this is the end of the story but because it is the end of you having any choice over the rest of your life worth writing about; and this being a choose your own adventure story rather than a novella).
34
having ignored appointment for mental review letter
35
You are satisfied that the letter will arrive at the council and will be answered because you have evidence that it was sent - thanks to having posted it by recorded delivery, the recipient will not be able to pretend they did not receive it. You make sure the receipt for the postage is in a safe place. DEDUCT 1 STRESS POINT
[GO TO ]
36
You save yourself fifty pence but you worry that the letter will be lot in the mail, or that the recipient will throw it in the bin and pretend it was lost in the mail. GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
[GO TO ]
37
You are prescribed a box of 10 pills.
Every time you take 1 of these pills, DEDUCT 1 STRESS POINT
For every 1 of these pills, your breasts grow by 1 inch for the duration of the following week, after which they return to normal. When your breasts increase by 3 inches they will begin to lactate. Another side effect of this drug is that your voice rises in pitch by 1 western musical note (eg; a white piano key) per pill. If you are a man your testosterone and fertility is reduced by 50% per pill. If you are a woman your fertility increases as does your desire for motherhood.
If you want more of these pills you will have to go to your GP [Make a note of your paragraph number and GO TO 60]
For now; [GO TO ]
38
You are prescribed a box of 6 pills.
Every time you take 1 of these pills, DEDUCT 1 STRESS POINT
For every pill you take, you will begin to have audio hallucinations, such as hearing voices and other random sounds.
If this occurs while your STRESS RATE is at 6 or above [GO TO 61].
If this occurs while your STRESS RATE is 5 or less, you can cope with it by accepting it as a side effect of the drugs.
If you want more of these pills you will have to go to your GP [Make a note of your paragraph number and GO TO 60]
For now; [GO TO ]
39
Every time you take 1 of these pills, GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
If you want more of these pills you will have to go to your GP [Make a note of your paragraph number and GO TO 60]
For now; [GO TO ]
40
Is your STRESS RATE equal to 7 or less? [GO TO 41]
Is your STRESS RATE equal to 8 or above? [GO TO 42]
41
The psychiatric team identify that you are not dangerous to yourself or society. They explain that because you have attended the review of your own volition and are refusing to accept any of the chemicals they have offered for treatment, there is nothing else they can do. They will put on your medical record that you have been diagnosed with Schizophrenia by a GP and that you will have to get a second opinion from a different GP to change that, although there is a chance a second GP will verify the diagnosis as correct. They do not believe you require to be ‘Sectioned’ (psychiatry terminology for ‘dragged away and locked up by men in white coats against your will’) - at this time.
Go Home [GO TO 43]
42
The psychiatric team identify that you are highly stressed. This is itself not a dangerous mental illness. A note is made of this in your case file. [GO TO 41]
43
A letter has arrived in a brown envelope.
Do you:
Open it [GO TO 44]
Ignore it [GO TO 45]
44
The letter is from the DWP (department for work and pensions) and explains that because you missed an appointment at the JobCenter, your benefits have been stopped. The letter explains that you can Appeal if you believe they have made a mistake. You will also have to make an appointment to make a new claim for benefits. GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
Do you:
Go to the JobCenter to get an Appeal form and Benefits Claim form [GO TO 46]
Phone the DWP help-line to get the paperwork posted to you [GO TO 47]
45
ignore DWP letter
46
go to jobcenter for appeal & claim forms
GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
Do you:
Look in the Job Centre computers to see if there are any appropriate jobs? [GO TO 53]
47
phone dwp for appeal & claim forms
48
Filling in the Appeal Form and Benefit Claim Form there is a section which asks if there is anybody else to help you with this.
Do you decide that you can cope with it yourself [GO TO 49]
Do you decide that you require somebody to help you with it [GO TO 50]
49
You fill in the Appeal Form and post it to the DWP.
Do you send it by recorded delivery? [GO TO 51]
Do you send it by normal post? [GO TO 52]
50
Due to your recent involvement with the Mental Health Review team, you have been allocated a Social Worker who recognises you are having trouble from the system and invites you to see her in her office. She basically can jump you through the hoops so far as paperwork is concerned. DEDUCT 3 STRESS POINTS.
[GO TO ]
51
appeal form by recorded delivery
52
appeal form not by recorded delivery
GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
The DWP deny ever having received your Appeal Letter.
53
There are currently 3 available jobs to apply for in the Job Centre database:
Supermarket Shelf Stacking [GO TO 54]
Public Toilet Cleaner [GO TO 55]
Fast Food Fryer [GO TO 56]
Decide that none of those jobs are worth doing [GO TO 57]
54
You are invited to attend interview for: Supermarket Shelf Stacker.
During the interview you are asked if you have any previous experience? (+1)
Any history of involvement with the police (-1)
Any history of mental illness (-1)
You are permitted to lie about this, although doing so constitutes fraud which is a criminal activity.
Add up your points.
If you have zero or more points [GO TO 65]
If you have less than zero points [GO TO 66]
55
You are invited to attend interview for: Public Toilet Cleaner.
During the interview you are asked if you have any previous experience? (+1)
Any history of involvement with the police (-1)
Any history of mental illness (-1)
You are permitted to lie about this, although doing so constitutes fraud which is a criminal activity.
Add up your points.
If you have zero or more points [GO TO 65]
If you have less than zero points [GO TO 66]
56
You are invited to attend interview for: Fast Food Fryer.
During the interview you are asked if you have any previous experience? (+1)
Any history of involvement with the police (-1)
Any history of mental illness (-1)
You are permitted to lie about this, although doing so constitutes fraud which is a criminal activity.
Add up your points.
If you have zero or more points [GO TO 65]
If you have less than zero points [GO TO 66]
57
58
The interview form asks if you have a history of mental health problems.
The interview form asks if you have a criminal record.
Technically a caution is not a criminal record, it will not show up on a basic background check but it will show up on a detailed background check.
Lying on an application form constitutes fraud and this itself is a criminal offence.
If you answer Yes to either of these questions [GO TO 62]
If you answer No to both of these questions [GO TO 63]
If you throw the interview form in the bin [GO TO 59]
59
60
go to doctor for more pills from the mental health place
61
prescribed hallucinatory pharmacology drugs get too much to cope with
62
You never hear back from this job application.
Return to you previous paragraph number.
63
The letter is an invitation to attend an interview for the job!
64
65
Congratulations, you have got the job!
You will now be able to economically stabilize your life and prove that you are a reliable member of society.
GAME OVER
66
Unfortunately your application was unsuccessful at this time.
GAIN 1 STRESS POINT
If you would like to apply for a different job [GO TO 53]
If you would like to go and make some music [GO TO 32]
67
Attempting to retrieve a copy of mental health medical records.
You are informed that your case file has been lot by the NHS.
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