I’m kinda on risk for being put into one, so I kinda wanted to learn some stuff about how is it inside those. I think my biggest fear there is boredoom. Like, will I be able to videocall friends and/or listen to music there? Will my mp3 player/portable chinese retro emulator/phone/any eletronic be confiscated there?
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ITT: Americans sharing horror stories from inside their gutted healthcare systems.
Best part is, when people have been fucked over by these psych wards, repeatedly (I have friends who were there 10+ times, had ECT that damaged their memories, etc) they tend to believe that all mental health care is designed to shut them down while taking their money. So we’re discouraging people who need treatment the most from actually getting it ever again.
Where are you? How old are you? I have been three times. Each time I was allowed either an mp3 player or my discman. I drew and wrote stories. Also, it wasn’t boring at all, the people there were quite fun to joke with or play games. we could watch tv in the evening. The staff was mostly selfi.portant prudes, but as long as you kept quiet in front of them, there was no big deal. When you mentioned you wanted to kill yourself, you would be locked up in your room for at least 2 days, 3 nights. So don’t be honest to your therapist in there.
GERMAN EXPERIENCE
That sounds like a great way to make a suicidal person even more suicidal … mental health “care” is fucked up
Yeah, but if you didn’t talk to your therapist about it, it was quite relaxing.
Well, in my ward, we weren’t allowed to use the phone, except in the evening to talk to our loved ones. I spent almost my entire stay in hospital just reading books during quiet hours, and at other times I just watched various TV programmes, such as series on YouTube, wrote frequently in my diary about what I had been doing that day, I ate in the dining room, but the food there was cold, and it was difficult to eat pasta with sausage and rice with beetroot, but that was when I was a child. there was even a case where one guy freaked out and attacked a nurse, but they managed to restrain him, so my advice to you is, don’t start arguing with patients, and don’t swear or insult them, so that nothing like that happens. It’s important to just behave well, as if you were at school or at work.😊
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Overcrowded, understaffed, patients with different mental issues all lumped in together, minimal outside time, 5-10 people all sleeping* in the same room.
*You couldn’t really sleep because there was always someone in the halls screaming at the demons in their head. The only real sleep I got was when I was put into solitary for having a mental breakdown from sleep deprivation due to said screaming
As someone who was there to get help from attempting suicide, the whole experience just made me want to try again.
I’ve been hospitalized about 10 times. Every stay has been different based on my demeanor and the severity of my mental state. Some hospitals are nicer than others, certainly the ones with good food were more positive. Good food stuck out to me.
The boredom is awful, but it gives you time to do things you wouldn’t normally do like read books or draw/color. Make friends there, it helps with the loneliness. I never maintained contact once I left the stay, but I have memorable connections that helped me get through what I was working with.
You most likely will not be listening to music unless a worker puts some on during groups, and phone calls can be made but you won’t have any access to a smartphone.
It’s mostly a place to get you stabilized on medication and establish aftercare plans. Any discomfort is temporary and if the anxiety of doing nothing gets to you, you most likely can get a PRN like Ativan (or Hydroxyzine if benzos aren’t for you) in a controlled environment.
Most folks seem to cover the emotional and psychological aspect so I’ll give some practical tips.
Shampoo and conditioner. If you are allowed to pack some or have some brought in by a visitor, do it. The hospital shampoo was really astringent and dried out my scalp horribly. After a week my head was constantly itchy from the lack of moisture. Conditioner would have saved me so much misery.
Make friends if you can. It will make you feel better to talk. It will help others to talk. It will make you a positive influence on the ward and help get you some leniency if shit hits the fan.
Take time with the crafts. It’s so fucking boring 80% of the time that when you can make something, really put your focus into it. Take your time. It’s cathartic.
It’s okay to ask for things. A lot of what you ask for will be a “no” but sometimes you’ll be surprised. I didn’t know I could get a shit ton of paper on request and tried to learn origami. It’s something to do and you’ll find what’s available.
Good luck. The ward is only scary the first time and the folks are so tired of dealing with shit (literally they all have a poo story) that you being calm is a relief. Be cool and you’ll be fine.
Remembering that the attendants are people, people who are at work. Remember work? How fun it was? They’re at work, being chill goes a long way.
Assuming this is for commitment to a locked facility:
Bring some clothes without strings, shoes (again, no strings allowed so you might want to consider slides or slippers), no belts, no scarves. I recommend slides since they double as shower shoes. Valuables, electronics, anything considered a hazard to have on the unit will be confiscated. Includes dangly jewelry, large rings. And in general, consider that there are many patients up and about, some very sick and confused - don’t bring anything you’d be devastated if it got stolen or damaged. Don’t bring food/drinks, cigarettes, lighters, drugs -foodstuffs bc they can’t be verified or stored for hygienic reasons.
No smoking, but they’ll have nicorette gums or patches.
Small amounts of toiletries brought from home may be allowed at their discretion.
You might be allowed to use your smartphone for a short time under supervision (no smartphones for privacy reasons). There should be shared computer, phone, headphones use.
Since you won’t have your phone, DO have important phone numbers written on a piece of paper if you don’t have them memorized.
Expect a non-invasive skin check with a nurse during intake.
SIGN the information release form for family and friends you want involved in your care. Without your permission, they will be turned away.
Ask when the visiting hours are. You can have people bring you food and sometimes order food delivery (check with the staff).
If another patient is bothering you, maybe you’ve got a problematic roommate -let a staff know. They can maybe find a different arrangement.
Shower early or late. Higher chance of having the shared bathroom to yourself.
Stay on the normal sleep schedule and don’t stay up too late. First of all, they track how you’re sleeping. Second, it really sucks to sleep through your daily check-in with the psychiatrist (who basically controls how long you’re staying).
Staff are required to do frequent 24hr safety rounds on everyone, so this means at night too.
There should be recreational time outside to get some fresh air. Some group activities that are optional but encouraged to attend.
But yes, the days are boring! These places are geared for medications and getting you out of a crisis situation - not so much therapy. Recommend bringing reading/writing materials. Daily journaling is a nice idea. Remember no spiral bound because the spirals are sharp.
all of this, yes. yes and yes.
I haven’t been to any location that ever allowed cell phone use at all. they did allow people to use the landline to call out but only certain times per day and to specific numbers they cleared.
otherwise everything you said was spot on.
and please take the clothes thing seriously, and put your full name on the tags. the clothes they give you will probably be two sizes too big or small and the staff will tell you it’s all they have (which is a lie, they always “found” something better when someone from the outside brought it up with mgmt).
Welp, touching stuff. Not for me.
Got some problems with touching. Dunno if it’s autism, bad experience, or a mix of both, but now I think it’s better to lie to my psychiatrist.
I wouldn’t recommend that. Is that the Psychiatrist who is currently treating you and is possibly discussing admitting you to a psych ward? If so, be honest with them and let them know what worries you about being admitted. Maybe they can help you find a new perspective.
And in case you mean the staff in the psych ward, let them know your boundaries early on. It will improve the quality of your stay. Usually the staff will ask you about your symptoms on the first day, get an overview over your needs and challenges. This would be a good opportunity to mention that.
Well, my mom’s working place just switched health plan corporation and now I’m not on the psychiatrist anymore. But I guess it would be better to not risk it.
If I understand correctly you receive healthcare through your mother who’s healthcare is covered by her employer, and they don’t cover psychiatry, right? Or would you be forced to switch your treating psychiatrist?
Regardless; if there are financial issues, talk it through with your mother. IIrc she was making calls, trying to get you professional help. It seems to be important to her that you get proper support. And she too will be aware of the issues with healthcare and she is still trying to help you. Be honest with your psychiatrist. You can discuss any worries you have about finances/healthcare with them. They’ll usually know some information that could help you.
Please be honest with them. I know it can be scary, but you will have a better outcome.
Wait, lemme map this:
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My mom works in a corporation;
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Corporstions in my country usually give a health plan that usually cover prices of doctor attendances, but you’ll have another bill to pay at the end of the month;
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Yea, they do have psychiatrists and stuff (but very shitty ones, last one I was on said I thought about sewslide because I liked it and that if i wanted to do it I should have done it already.)
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Well, she’s only doing it to keep her reputation. Hell, she saw how sad was her friend when her son sewsided. But when it’s with HER family she just lowk goes “Nah, you’re too sensitive and need to toughen up”
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The more you pay typically the better it is.
rhe american way baby
For me, I treated my stays like the opportunity it is. To relax, decompress, and take a break from the internet and social media. A cleanse of the mind.
I’m one to usually just keep to myself. I do not tend to socialize much, but I still go to group sessions and keep my responses short and to the point.
I try to just sleep through the week while adjusting to medication changes.
This is the best way to look at it I think.
Visited my brother in a few, so I’m just going off what he said.
Some are better than others, and either way, they will make you do things you don’t want to do, but that’s because the people in there want to do things that are not healthy for them.
Behave yourself, participate in therapy, and follow your plan and you’ll be out of there a lot faster than if you fight it.
They all vary pretty wildly from what I’ve heard. The one I spent 2 weeks in was mind-numbingly boring. No phones, no internet, and one hour of the wards ipad a day. The only saving grace was that I stole a water damaged deck of playing cards from some volunteer guy at the hospital I was initially put in before they transferred me. I played solitaire probably a couple thousand times over 2 weeks.
Other than that, you pretty much just talk with other people there and watch TV. They did some kind of activity every day and if you didn’t it would take longer to get out. The activities were dumb little arts and crafts nonsense and a bunch of coloring. After a few days though, anything is better than nothing.
In the ward I was in, medication was an issue for me. They put me on haldol and I had a really bad reaction to it, but the staff didn’t believe me until I couldn’t move and was in a lot of pain. Generally the staff doesn’t care much and will ignore lots of what you or anyone else says.
Well, so it doesn’t change in anything from the outside.
Not bad. Strict schedule. Sleeping sort of sucks because people are always checking in on you.
Getting forced to have a room mate because they can’t be trusted by themselves isn’t great either.
When all of the other older kids are gone and the nurses trust you, they let you handle some of the data entry, or they let you play with the really young kids. It’s sad to see 5 year olds with depression.
Five year olds? Well, I once met a depressed 10 year old, but 5 year olds?
It was ok, but this was back in 2008 and smartphones weren’t really a thing yet, so them holding your phone wasn’t a huge deal regarding internet access etc. (I had a Motorola slvr at the time). A typical routine for me: a crew came in at like 4am to draw labs, woke up 7am-ish, shower fucking sucked (motion-activated, ran for a limited time, about the amount of time it needed to heat up). Food was average hospital, no caffeine. I found out if I called ahead to request a meal I could get caffeinated coffee/tea. Group therapy like twice a day, individual therapy once a day, medication meeting once a day, lots of downtime and board games/card games. I could listen to music because I had a classic iPod separate from my phone.
Most people shared rooms. I somehow got my own, likely because I was the youngest by at least 10 years. Smoke breaks were still a thing, so after a few days of being cooperative you got those plus your belt back. For me it was an excuse to go outside and socialize for a few minutes.
Ultimately a good experience because I got the treatment and meds I needed quickly. Your mileage may vary of course.
Well, I never drank coffee on my life, so I’m fine with the coffee part.
Seems quite alright, expect with the “wake up at 7am part”. Now my last doubts are about the boredoom and the people thing.
Thanks, lad. Best response I saw until now.
I really genuinely hope that you find the help that you need, and in a way that you feel comfortable with.
Mine wasn’t a pleasant experience either time if I’m being honest. I technically went in voluntarily but the people I was around didn’t really give me a choice. Not saying it was the wrong choice but I digress.
The point of the place I was in was to keep me from killing myself for a few days, thats kinda it. No doorknobs or hinges, no shower heads, no cloth towels, very thin bedding in a very cold building. They tried to change some medication, tried some group therapy type get-togethers but it was cliche and soulless. I wasn’t allowed my phone or any electronic at all, I could bring a few books but that was the last thing I wanted to do while I was there. Mostly ended up sitting in silence in the little interior cube of outside we had access to and watching ancient reruns on the one TV the ward had.
I’m alive so they did their job at the time but the experience was traumatizing and did more to hurt me than help.
Don’t get me wrong, if you feel you are out of control of yourself then please use this resource and take care of yourself just realize they aren’t there to make you better. They’re there to get you past a crisis so you have the chance to make yourself better later.
