I was wondering how many of you have been in and out of mental institutions and what your experiences of them were like? I'm constantly threatened by family members over this subject, so am naturally pretty concerned about how they are perceived, if it does actually get to the point of me being committed.
Experiences of mental institutions?
- Thread starter Tess
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As James said, it's dull. I've been in the crisis ward and psychiatric ward. I've been to 3 different psych hospitals. All are pretty much the same. But crisis they watch you all the time, it's a pain. On the psych ward you'll have more freedom. At the ones I went to we had group therapy most of the day. Saw our psychiatrist once a day. The days are long there. If you want to talk more about it, feel free to PM me.
I've been to the phsyc ward ten times over the last fourteen years.. It's very boring so I would recommend taking a couple of books for something to do. They have TV's in the day room but you can't hear them because everyone is talking..It's better to go voluntarily than being baker acted. If they baker act you, you have to go in front of a judge who orders you to go. Then when you get out you have to go in front of the judge again so he can determin if you are o.k. I don't think they can put you in a state hospital right away without some kind of phsyc evaluation..
i have only been once but there really is nothing to do. all they really do is monitor you. saying that i had a good experience because the other people on the psych ward were really friendly and so we all got on well with each other. if you were suicidal staff would put you on 24hour watch for as long as they felt necessary and you'd have a member of staff follow you everywhere you went to make sure you didnt do anything. that was a really horrible experience. to be watched all the time
I'm in Canada, so the whole experience could be different. It's also an adolescent ward, for I am an adolescent.
There's two TV rooms on our unit, a Wii and we have regular outings to the library - computers there! - the hospital's gym and the mall. We have private rooms - searched randomly biweekly - and also a school program in the weekday mornings.
There's two TV rooms on our unit, a Wii and we have regular outings to the library - computers there! - the hospital's gym and the mall. We have private rooms - searched randomly biweekly - and also a school program in the weekday mornings.
Thanks all for your insight, watched 'Twelve Monkeys' the other day and guess the pysch ward in that got me fretting just abit! Claire, no, just my family have been threatening to do it. I'm living back with my parents at the moment and I've been stashing away some of my dad's various medication over the past few months and they found it in a cushion in my bedroom. I went to my doctor a few months ago, got some citalopram 20mg and then after three weeks on it decided that however bad I got I just didn't want to be reliant on pills, so the next trip to see her I just bullshitted and said that I was in a much better place. I guess time will tell if I can make it without any kind of assistance, but really I have such a problem opening up about something like this to anyone and sadly just feel like a melodramatic time waster because society always seems to make the very depressed feel like that, so i've largely stopped leaving the house altogether now.
My family members would make fun of me, demean, insult, and harass me incessantly in very suttle ways that I wouldn't allow myself to go to an institution.
I'm going to kill myself in 3 months, largley because my family will be on vacation and I'll be alone in the house so no one will be able to save me. My reccomendation for you is if you have a family that gives a damn about you, you should go to the institution. Their reputation is not the same as it was 50 years ago. Have you seen the movie "a beatiful mind"? It's a real movie about a math genuis that has schizophrenia, and had to be institutionalized. There's no shame, whether the reason for going is schizophrenia, or suicidal feelings.
Good luck
I'm going to kill myself in 3 months, largley because my family will be on vacation and I'll be alone in the house so no one will be able to save me. My reccomendation for you is if you have a family that gives a damn about you, you should go to the institution. Their reputation is not the same as it was 50 years ago. Have you seen the movie "a beatiful mind"? It's a real movie about a math genuis that has schizophrenia, and had to be institutionalized. There's no shame, whether the reason for going is schizophrenia, or suicidal feelings.
Good luck
Hey Tess,
As scary as it is thinking about it, your family alone will not be enough to have you sectioned, def not in the UK anyway.
I too was dead set against medication, but now I've realised that it's not such a bad thing after all.
I hope you will feel comfortable enough to open up with us, we don't judge & we really do know how you're feeling.
If you ever want to PM me then please feel free :arms:.
As scary as it is thinking about it, your family alone will not be enough to have you sectioned, def not in the UK anyway.
I too was dead set against medication, but now I've realised that it's not such a bad thing after all.
I hope you will feel comfortable enough to open up with us, we don't judge & we really do know how you're feeling.
If you ever want to PM me then please feel free :arms:.
Thanks Ryan and Claire. I don't know, I think when push comes to shove, my mother in particular is such a stickler for glossy outward apperances and would be so ashamed that she couldn't have me committed. And at the end of the day, she knew of my first attempt when I was thirteen and I'm now twentyfour. I have one of the most unbelivably judgemental families even though not one of them is an upstanding member of the community, most of them are still various misfits in their own way, and yet the unbeleivable abuse and the callous, derogotory remarks I get from them if I so much as mention I'm at my wits end is so fucking alienating and hurtful. So I just don't say anything to them. I as good as much told friends a couple of months back that I couldn't deal with seeing them and I just want to be left alone because I couldn't stand being a constant fake or the effort in being 'acceptable'. The only person I had was my boyfriend of four years, but we're currently not together as of a fortnight ago, and I just cannot cope with life if I never see him again, I am disgustingly, pathetically dependent on him and he can't cope with it because he is severely bi polar and gets in such bad rages that I have to hide from him in the house! This is the worst I have ever been, all I think about is suicide and then the fear of the pain of suicide and then well maybe, if or when me and my ex get back together (which we always have) then there's a reason not to commit suicide. I still talk to him via text and online every day, to the point of harassing him, but I just cannot go on much longer without him. I can't believe I am seriously willing to give my life up if it means not being with another nutcase, albeit a nutcase I could very much relate to. I've been in bed all day every day for the past five days except when I'm on the computer, I haven't eaten a morsel of food for three days, just been forcing myself to drink milk as I figure it's fattening so will provide some sort of meagre sustenance. I utterly, utterly, utterly detest this embarassing means of existence, I can't even bring myself to get a job like proper people because it's too much effort and involves a level of social fakery which I cannot seem to hack any longer. I just look at baby photos of myself and cry for the cute little girl who would inevitably grow up into this sorry sack of shit. Sorry for the whinge, but I'm just so exhausted with this feeling. And I can only sleep between six in the morning and ten, the rest of the time I just lie there staring at the ceiling. What a nobody.
Hi Claire, no I haven't gone back and am really uncertain about it as I lied through my teeth when I saw her last to the point where I think she seemed a bit taken aback and suspicious by my dramatic turnaround in mood! She's a really nice and unjudging GP, but to be honest my family make me feel like such a nuisance and piece of shit if I say anything that I suppose I'm just conditioed to think anyone else out there will treat me the same. But yeah, I should probably go back to her, do you think I could ask her to put me on something very strong straight up, because I think a milder medication just won't do anything for me?
Hey hun, it's definitely worth going back & discussing these things with her especially as she seems very understanding.
I don't know how willing she would be to change your meds right away, these things are really trial & error. The dose of what you are/were on is really just a starting dose. If your GP thinks you had such an improvement with the low dose then she would be reluctant to change your med or change the dose. Perhaps you could discuss increasing the dosage & seeing how this works first? If there is no improvement then maybe she will consider changing your med? Obviously every GP will have their own guidelines etc according to what trust they are under but I'm assuming in the UK most would do this.
If you've been in the same situation for a long time with respect to your family then yeah it's definitely hard changing how you think & how you perceive yourself but only you can know how you're feeling.
Make an appt with your GP & see what she says hun, sometimes it's hard for others (e.g. families to understand unless they have actually experienced this themselves).
:arms:. xx
I don't know how willing she would be to change your meds right away, these things are really trial & error. The dose of what you are/were on is really just a starting dose. If your GP thinks you had such an improvement with the low dose then she would be reluctant to change your med or change the dose. Perhaps you could discuss increasing the dosage & seeing how this works first? If there is no improvement then maybe she will consider changing your med? Obviously every GP will have their own guidelines etc according to what trust they are under but I'm assuming in the UK most would do this.
If you've been in the same situation for a long time with respect to your family then yeah it's definitely hard changing how you think & how you perceive yourself but only you can know how you're feeling.
Make an appt with your GP & see what she says hun, sometimes it's hard for others (e.g. families to understand unless they have actually experienced this themselves).
:arms:. xx
It's better to be honest with them hun. They can help you better then.
I know how tempting it is to answer everything with 'I'm fine', even when you're not, it's a bad habit to break but a necessary one.
If you ever need to talk feel free to PM me. Please keep us posted on how you get on.
Big hugs :arms:
Claire xx
I know how tempting it is to answer everything with 'I'm fine', even when you're not, it's a bad habit to break but a necessary one.
If you ever need to talk feel free to PM me. Please keep us posted on how you get on.
Big hugs :arms:
Claire xx
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