I was in a psychiatric hospital when I was 14-15 years old I was forced into there without my consent and it messed with my mental health. During my stay there I had staff try to restrain and apprehend me for no reason I wasn't violent I just didn't feel comfortable leaving my room when they wanted to clean this apparently was enough for them to try to push me onto the floor. I had two people by the side of me targeting my knees I was terrified and confused as to what was going on. They didn't succeed in pushing me on to the ground. When I left the hospital a week or two passed and I come to find out that I need to go to court because I have been accused of sexual assault (touching someone inappropriately). I already had a traumatic experience in the hospital and then this happened. One of the people that was trying to restrain me was female and the other one was male. The female staff that worked in the hospital accused me of committing sexual assault on her when she was restraining me. She didn't tell me this while I was there and she seemed okay with me it was only after I left that she told me indirectly through a court order. The male staff that was with her when she tried to restrain me sided with her story. This was my first time going to court in my life and I was actually scared I had my psychologist there with me during this. The accuser wasn't at court because apparently she was so scared of me and that I would do harm to her which didn't make sense to me because the people around me could tell you I am not like this. Thankfully I was proven not guilty or the case was thrown out when I went there the first time as I didn't have any more court hearings. I don't think it was possible for me to willingly touch her inappropriately because at the time my arms were being held above my head by both staff members and I couldn't move them. I was trying to protect my self in a situation that had never happened to me before in my life no one had restrained me before I was trying not to fall and they gave up when they couldn't put me down. I did say in court that If I did touch her inappropriately (which I didn't) I was very sorry and remorseful as that is something I would never want to do to someone and I wouldn't willingly intend to do such a thing.

This whole situation was so crazy to me that It had been buried in my memory for a while even while it was happening I just couldn't believe that it was real I was shocked. Even after this happened to me I kept seeing people online saying that false accusations can't happen and that they are rare but they are more common than people would like to admit and as an individual you should try to protect yourself from those kinds of situations you aren't crazy for doing so. I didn't even think about it but autistic people like me are probably even more susceptible to these things happening to us as a lot of us can't understand social situations and social cues and wouldn't be able to cope during court or altercations from people that believe the accuser. I don't know why people do this but it has to stop do not blindly believe one side and with hold judgement until further evidence or court procedures happen/conclude. I wasn't able to fully express what I went through with this post It is difficult to describe what being falsely accused feels like. I hope that I don't get falsely accused again this is a real issue that people need to address and think about and not push away with narratives that this rarely happens to people.