My notes indicate I have been involuntarily admitted in the past however as far as I know this was technically not true. There was the time I was put on a section for a few days but at the time I was already a voluntary patient.
The only other time I got near to a section was when it was a case of come in voluntarily or we’ll section you.
5 1/2 out of 6 admissions were involuntary. I say 1/2 cuz it was technically voluntary but I was tricked into it. 3 were by police (1 arrest) and 2 by doctor
I was voluntary. But the put restrictions on me. I could not leave or had two workers with me all the time outside the hospital ward. I was such a mess in my head I volunarily agreed to anything in the beginning. I did not understand what was going on.
Mine was voluntary, but once I was there they wouldn’t let me leave for nine months, I should have left before I got worse but came out more damaged, than I was when I went in. They had me restrained, threatened injecting, failed to keep me safe, drugged me to my eyeballs and then just let it happen for months until my mum butted in, they’d have happily kept me that way no doubt and I’ve had been released a zombie! They did even take me off it with the rapid weight gain, I wasn’t over eating, the very opposite. The doctor was a narcissist!
Basically you could say I went in voluntarily but my stay was involuntary.
I’m sure I won’t be able to avoid hospital all my life, but I hope it’s never like that again!
Well, I’ve never been carted off by the police and put in a hospital by force. In my first round of hospitalizations my parents arranged all my hospitalizations and I never refused. I was in the throes of psychosis which was new to us and we just did what we were supposed to do. Back in the eighties if you were sick and couldn’t function then you were put in a psyche ward. I never WANTED to be hospitalized but I just went along with the program and accepted it.
I actually checked myself into a few psyche wards on my own. Or I would walk over to my psychiatrists office when I felt I needed to be hospitalized and we would walk from his office to the hospital and check me in. So yeah, sometimes it seems I had no choice but I was never forcibly put in. It didn’t occur to me to refuse to be hospitalized.
I don’t know about the US, or elsewhere, but here in the UK it’s now very hard to be admitted voluntarily. My admissions were at a time when if you had a downturn in your mental health it was suggested you became an inpatient for a few weeks/months. Nowadays with far less beds since the closing of the asylums the main route to hospitalisation seems to be involuntary commitment due to danger to self or others.
I’ve had almost nothing but involuntary admissions. Out of the over twenty times I’ve been admitted, I think there was only one where I was voluntarily admitted. I think there might have been some where I was technically voluntarily admitted, but there was quite a bit of coercion involved.
25 times in 11years,
24 times involuntary, 1 time strongly suggested voluntary.
A few times in hancuffs by the police, a lot of chases, which ended most times in restraints due to “elopement issues” meaning if they turned their backs, I’d run and not come back…
I was involuntarily admitted the first time I went to a mental hospital. It was a scary experience for me because I thought I had done something wrong.