Psych Wards

Anyone else here actually enjoy going to the psych ward sometimes? I usually meet some interesting people. Meeting other SZs is kind of like meeting yourself. Where I go they have a guitar and I’ve met some other guitarists. It’s fun playing songs for each other. They also have cigarette breaks every couple of hours. The only down side is it can get boring waiting around with nothing to do. Or maybe I’m just that lonely. Sometimes I feel like going in just for some human interaction.

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No i hate it more than anything in the world and every time ive been ive been too out of it to socialize anyway which is fine with me cause i dont like socializing anyway. If i ever thought i was getting locked up again, i’d hide.

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The second time was good, but all the rest sucked big time. On the second time there was a real sense of community among the fellow patients.

That experience was never repeated

1st time I had no idea what was happening to me, the rest of them I had some insight

Here there is nothing to do in them

Hell you can’t even smoke outside now, and in 2004 they had an indoor smoking room with a TV, coffee table and chairs!

How things have changed

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Yeah I guess it depends on where you end up, who you end up with, and what amenities they offer. The place I go kind of advertises itself as a resort more than a hospital. I always request to go there. The hospital settings I’ve been in have been horrible.

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We get no choice where we end up here

It always starts off ‘go in voluntarily or we’ll section you anyway’. So I go in volunteer to keep privileges like going out on the grounds

But as soon as I try to leave they give me a 72hr section and convince me to ‘play ball’ or stay longer

There’s always a threat to your freedom

Plus I don’t appreciate being restrained and injected with Olanzapine

Here it’s no resort. More like holding prison for those who’re a danger.

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That’s unfortunate. I’m in the US so it’s a bit different here.

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Sounds good! I wish it was like that here! Definitely take advantage of it if you need to go there

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This is pretty much how it’s always gone for me too. They lock me up, involuntarily tho. Then after a while i say i wanna leave, they say no and if i try they will take me to court and commit me to the state hospital. Eventually they do that anyway. All the time injecting me with haldol and ativan. Even lying and saying i did stuff i didnt do so they could inject me. It sucks.

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Sorry you guys have had such bad experiences. That seems pretty dehumanizing.

I’ve been in several. Three of them were really nice and modern and had good food and a ping pong table and a pool table. The rooms and bathrooms were clean and nice. But I would never want to go in another psyche ward no matter how nice it is.

For me, if I’m in such bad shape that I need to be there, I’m not going to have a good experience. My state of mind whenever I was in those places was atrocious and I couldn’t enjoy much about them. I mean I could list some positive things about each different ward but 95% of the time spent inside them I was miserable.

Stanford University is a prestigious college where the students and faculty are the cream of the crop and their psyche ward was physically nice but my time spent there was awful. Interestingly enough, in my last stay there in 1988 us patients were watching the World Series when The L. A. Dodgers were playing the Oakland A’s and Kurt Gibson had his legendary at-bat against the A’s Dennis Eckersly and hit a walk off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to win game one. I’ll never forget that.

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That really sucks :frowning:

1st time I don’t like talking about much.

I was 17, and the magistrate judge sentence me to 12 months in Youth Custody. In the court I was screaming at her that I was being brainwashed by al qaeda…

She was not impressed. When I got sent to the prison, I spent a month on the hospital ward, then a crown court judge let me out on appeal to the community hospital for treatment

It really sucked. I was on a forensic ward for a while, and was groped by another patient!

They moved me to the open ward and I came out and had to do a 12 month court order for drug rehab

I said in another thread the court wanted me to go to Narconon, but that was run by Scientologists, and it creeped me out when I visited them.

Luckily I convinced them to do it in the community

Was rough, but getting clean was important to recovery levels today

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Yeah I’m sure it’s not a good experience when psychotic. I usually end up voluntarily admitting myself because I have panic disorder with harm OCD rather than for SZ and want to go somewhere safe.

Welcome to the hotel California,
this could be heaven, this could be hell.

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The music therapist at the hospital played this song on guitar last time I was there.

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With me it seems like when I don’t want to go they make me, and when I do want to go they refuse to take me. It’s the perverse logic of bureaucracy.

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I’ve never had them refuse me when I go and they learn my SZA diagnosis. I think they see dollar signs.

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I don’t like it, cuz I think everyone dislikes or hates me, and there’s no privacy in the psych wards I’ve been to.

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I hated my first time there. Nothing to do. I have overactive peripheral vision so it’s hard for me to be around others cause it feels like I’m staring at them all the time. So I stayed at in my room a lot.

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Hey sorry, I kind of copied your profile picture haha.

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I feel like I’m watched all the time anyways so the lack of privacy doesn’t bother me too much.