Mental hospital experiences?

[Jaymes]

I’ll never forget the day I stood crying with a .357 magnum to my head. I’m glad I didn’t pull that trigger. With that said I remember the day I was arrested and sent to a psychiatric hospital for 72 hours. :biglaugh: I met some of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met in my life in there and I’m not talking about the doctors. No joke. I highly recommend you try it once.

This made me remember the time I visited a mental hospital..

I had a problem with cutting myself on the arms when I was depressed two years ago (wow, was it really that long ago?), and I ended up in a nearby mental hospital for four days.

I had the same experience 1/2 Sane did. The people that I met were absolutely amazing. One person I will always remember was a girl named Terra. She was my roommate, and helped me when I was feeling depressed and withdrawn from the other people there that were more than willing to help me talk through things. She had been in the hospital for almost two months for trying to kill herself, and ended up getting transferred to another hospital before I left.

I've never connected with a person as quickly as I did with her. I can still vividly remember helping her move her luggage out of the room and hugging her in the hallway (out of sight of the nurses and doctors... touching wasn't allowed) before she left.

I remember a few other people. A younger boy with anger management issues, who was witty and pretty sweet otherwise. I do worry about him, though. He had a history of abusing animals.

There were a few people in there for drugs. One was a girl who had been raped and ended up being punished by the school for not telling them what had happened (it happened on school grounds). She ended up resorting to drugs to deal with her emotional problems, but was on the road to recovery last time I saw her.

Another was a very laid back Buddhist. I don't remember why he was there. I just remember his easy-going acceptance of everyone.

Honestly, in mental hospitals the doctors and nurses are the crazy ones... They wouldn't even let us take pencils into our rooms, lest we try to gouge out our eyes or something.

Anyone else on RF ever been to a hospital and have stories they'd like to share?

 

[½ Sane]

I was not kidding. I met some very intelligent people in there. I was warned to stay away from one guy only by the staff. He talked to the intercom speaker. I laid some heavy crap on the young doctors too. I know I scared one of them but he had to ask. :biglaugh:

We were called “The Hole In The Wall Gang”. :jam: Everyone had to light their cigarettes by sticking it in a hole in the wall having a red hot coil.

I cried when I had to leave that place.

 

[Circle_One]

I've been institutionalized twice, once for 2 months, the other for 4 months, 7-8 years ago.

The first was for "anger problems" and for the first little while, I wasn't allowed socializing with the other kids, so I didn't get much of a chance to meet anyone really.

The second was for drugs, cocaine to be exact, and I was put in the drug abuse wing, so the only people I encountered there were other strung out addicts.

 

[½ Sane]

Step right up folks. Step right up. Frubbals to everyone admitting they were once a Fruit Loop. :biglaugh:

 

[Circle_One]

Step right up folks. Step right up. Frubbals to everyone admitting they were once a Fruit Loop. :biglaugh:

Hail to the fruit loops baby :jam:

 

[Feathers in Hair]

With my dad having what was eventually 'broadly diagnosed' (meaning they wanted to get him away from themselves as soon as possible) borderline personality disorder, he went to stay in that wing of the Mao Clinic when I was around 6 or 8. I understood why he was having to go, but the thought of the place scared me to my roots. My Biggest Fear of All Time for awhile was getting institutionalized. I imagined it as like being put in jail, only it's because of something you couldn't control, and it was up to other peoples' whims on when you were released.

When I was 20, I also began working in a PMIC (phsyciatric mental institution for children). A good many of them (I think) benefitted from their time there, especially the ones who were being put there mainly to get away from abusive parents. I still have nightmares about some of those kids, though. You could learn that a kid grew up in the most horrible household ever, and they might turn out kind, polite and well-adjusted, and then some of them had grown up in a loving, well-off family, and would say or do things to raise the hair on the back of your neck. I don't think there is any of a worse type of place for an empathic person to work.

 

[Jaymes]

My Biggest Fear of All Time for awhile was getting institutionalized. I imagined it as like being put in jail, only it's because of something you couldn't control, and it was up to other peoples' whims on when you were released.

While I was in it and for about 6 months after, I felt rather traumatized. It was like jail. I remember being profoundly sad when I was sitting in the common room and watching a bird eat seed from a bird feeder.

 

[½ Sane]

I imagined it as like being put in jail.

I’ve been there too but it was no laughing matter and nothing like “The Fruit Loop Inn” I had the pleasure of attending.

I saw a few sad cases while there but the doctors tended to stay away from those that were hurting. Made they’re job easier I guess. I never took it to the point of being strapped down but the doctors didn’t like me.

I played wit dare heads.
:biglaugh:

 

[Circle_One]

It took them a while to institutionalize me for my anger problems. It was only after the local authorities had done everything they could; from hundreds of hours of community service, to single nights in jail cells to Juvie hall, and even a 5 month stint in youth jail. They just couldn't control my fighting. They finally resorted to the institution and had me sedated for at least my first two days straight. I wasn't allowed anything, only pajamas with no drawstrings and cloth slippers-but that only came after I stopped trying to trash my room and attack the nurses, before that it was only those stupid paper-ish hospital gowns. I was an angry kid, man.

 

[½ Sane]

While I was in it and for about 6 months after, I felt rather traumatized. It was like jail. QUOTE]That is a long time and I can certainly understand why it would feel like jail. I hope my Fruit Loop reference can be taken as a joke. I don't want to offend anyone.

 

[michel]

While I was in it and for about 6 months after, I felt rather traumatized. It was like jail. QUOTE]

I've had three or four spells as a person who 'accepted the offer' to go in ;ie I've never been 'sectioned'. Mainly I found that I loved the people around so much that i began to feel 'attached' and didnt want to go home (That was the first two times). After that, I found I was going in there spending most of my time trying to help the others around me. I was 'warned off' doing this by the nurses with one or two patients, but, on the whole I felt it 'draining'; now, I have made a conscious decision never to go in again. It doesn't do me any good in the long run - but that's me; it need not be the same for anyone else. I find coping in society very hard; I have a very low anxiety threshold and get the most embarrassing panic attacks - I can see people looking at me strangely. I would be a recluse if it wasn't for my wife and kids.

 

[FyreBrigidIce]

When I was 16, I took over 40 of my mothers outdated pills. They ranged from pain killers to antibiotics. I took some with a glass of my parents champagne and the rest I took with Ginger Ale.
I did it because I felt that my parents would not care if I left this world.

We lived in a trailer park on the outskirts of town but too far for me to walk into town if I wanted to do anything with friends. Plus, my mother never let me leave the trailer park unless I was with her or my step-dad, or going to school. I felt like a slave because I was the only one who did the dishes at the house. (I now know why, they were teaching me responsibility)

Back to my incident though. I called a friend after I had taken the pills and while she was on the phone I faded in and out of comprehension. I reember getting sick and making sure that I covered it up so my dogs would not get to it. My friend told her parents and they called my parents to get home. When my parents walked in the house they started screaming at me. I walked outside and my mother grabbed my arm and forced me into the car to take me to the ER. At the ER they pumped my stomach I got sick from the charcoal.

I was placed in the Children and Youth Unit of our local Psychiatric hospital, where my stepdad worked. For the two weeks I was there, I bonded with many of the other kids. There were some that were not allowed to be around the rest of us because they were dangerous. I liked it there because I was around other kids. One of the girls and I used to mess with the staff by switching our name cards in front of our rooms because we were both named Brandy. Her and I would also pass notes back and forth after lights out through a gap between the wall and ceiling. My stepdad was embarrassed by me being there and he was not allowed to come over to the unit if backup was needed. At the end of my 2 weeks I began feeling that if I did not get out of there soon I would have become one of the crazy ones that were there for more serious problems. My psychiatrist and I had a meeting with my parents and for a short time things changed at home.

To this day it is hard for me to drink Ginger Ale without having flashbacks. I still have depression but I never think about repeating my attempt to leave this world. I think about everyone that I would hurt and I also remember how nasty charcoal tastes with pills.


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