How many times have you been placed in a psychiatric hospital?
I have had six separate hospitalisations. I was forced to go (sectioned) on each occasion, mostly due to my suicidal tendancies and also due to me being deeply psychotic. The main thing I remember from every placement is being totally bored out of my mind. I could either watch TV in a separate room or lie on the bed. It was so monotonous. Although, it was nice to chat to the other patients who also had schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. There was some common ground and it made the experiences easier.
What was your experience of being in a psychiatric hospital? Were the mental health staff nice to you? Did you get on with the other patients? Was there enough going on to keep you from getting bored?
I don’t remember how many times I’ve been in the ward.
But they have a good one in my area. The staff are nice, and the food is great.
Not much to do except chainsmoke, watch tv or sleep. The other patients were nice, but I’ve always kept them at an arm’s length because some seem to grow overly attached if you let them.
I remember constantly smoking, too. There was not much else to do. I was hoping it would lessen the severity of my symptoms. Maybe it did. I stopped smoking a couple of years ago. I vape now and I feel so much healthier. My brother smokes and it really worries me.
Most of the other patients were bipolar so I couldn’t really talk about my experience with any of them. I just said I had psychosis and there were many there who had it. The food was edible. I had my own room for half my stay which was great, you get your own shower too. Beds were comfy too. The facility was good, cooking classes, pottery, art therapy,computer room, big garden,gym.It was a relaxing safe place with plenty of activities
It seems you had a good experience. The facilities you had are definitely better than I’ve ever had access to.
There weren’t many other patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in my various placements. The reason that I was able to find them is because they usually sat or stood alone, away from everyone, smoking. It takes one to know one.
I do hope @Ninjastar doesn’t accuse me of making “sweeping generalizations” again. Whoops!
About six times over a period of ten years. Last time was a year ago. The staff is usually nice but the patients vary, some are kind of scary. I had a guy push me, and another guy punch me in the face out of the blue. It really depends on which one of the hospitals I end up at, it all ends up coming down to how much space I have to roam and whether it’s in a line (hallways) or a circle (big rooms). I’ve been in one without enough space, it’s suffocating.
If I got to choose which hospital I went to, that would be terrific.
I have never been forcibly hospitalized. I did PHP once my choice, they wanted me to do inpatient but I didn’t want to because of my classes. It wasn’t really helpful knowledge wise but it did establish a daily routine for me which stabilized me. I think the whole reason I became unstable was because it was summer break so I had nothing to do all day and my brain was eating itself combined with me having cold turkey dropped a mood stabilizing med.
You just never know where you’ll go or who you’ll end up with. That goes for the mental health staff too, not just the patients.
On one occasion, there was someone who was quite dangerous on the ward. Very aggressive and controlling. I think his diagnosis was anti-social personality disorder. He was like a predator and the other patients were his prey. They were vulnerable. They were all potential victims of his callous nature. I’m glad he got moved on pretty quickly.
I learned quickly how to appear “normal” and how to hide my psychologial issues. I coudn’t wait to be free and away from the suffocating, stifling psych ward. It was a toxic atmosphere. You could almost cut it with a knife.
I do hope you’ll never have to go to one. When you take the required anti-psychotics and attend appointments with the mental health staff, the chances are pretty slim anyway.
17 times in the past 8 years and about the same or more in outpatient programs. I watched a video of an old guy in a schizophrenia documentary who was hospitalized over 80 times in his life. He was a genius. Went to MIT and planned on going to med school. He died. He got sick from LSD in college.
I guess I’m not that bad, but also not the healthiest member here.
I was hospitalized more than 6 times.
The hospital is awfully boring- I use my computer a lot because I’m an English major (so I’m constantly writing something). Not having my computer means less opportunity to write.
But it was keeping me safe, so I’m glad that I was in the hospital- or I was probably injuring myself constantly without psychiatric care.
I’ve been placed in a psychiatric ward twice out of the 18 years being diagnosed. Both times I was at the hospital for 1 month so that the medication would kick in.
6 different hospitals, ten times total. Yeah, boring. My first psyche ward was really nice. Really clean, kind of peaceful but boring. Its actually when my suffering started.
We did some really great stuff but it was hard to enjoy it. A counselor took me jogging with him. That was cool. They took us to the park to play kickball. That was cool too. We took a walk en mass to a 7-11. Always cool. A woman liked me in there. We made out one night and she gave me her phone number. I really liked this other woman in there. She was tall for a girl. A cute brunette. I invited her for a walk around the hospital. We had a nice walk.
