I posted this on reddit and it was a bit cathartic so I though it would post it here as well.
So in 2016 I had a psychotic break. I spent some time wandering multiple states on and off homeless, lost my apartment in Boston and my job, dropped out of college, and eventually made my way back to my parents house in another city. This lead to them obviously seeing I was psychotic and they had me admitted to the psych ward in 2018 after two years of crazy. The first night I was in a holding area and had to sleep on a chair under a fluorescent light. The next day I was moved to the psych ward where I got to meet my first roommate. He was an older man that wore diapers but also managed to pee all over himself and leave the diapers around the room. That night he decided to stand in the corner of the room and loudly masturbate so I went and laid down on the floor in the hallway to get some rest. They moved me to another room where my roommate screamed at me for half an hour about how I was the devil and deserved to be in a psych ward because I was a bad person. Then I went into the hallway after having enough to lay on the floor they took my mattress and put in on the floor in the seclusion room so I could get some sleep. I slept on the floor under a light for 2 days until another bed opened up. My new roommate would have conversations with his voices about me and walk laps around my bed all night. After a week of that I ended up getting my own room because I was the youngest on the ward and I stayed for another two weeks. They then released me still completely psychotic and my parents were going to put me in a group home because they couldn’t handle me. After about a month my psychosis cleared up and I went back to school and I’ve been pretty much fine since.
Wow that’s crazy and good you’ve turned it around alright. I know my psychosis always lead to worse psychosis. More delusions lead to others and I got caught up in them for many years. I wish I just knew about recovery after my first psychotic break and really tried but I was too hung up in delusional thinking it lead me farther and farther down a bad path.
I’m trying to think of stories of crazy roommates.
Once they roomed me with another Jewish guy who thought he was Jesus or the chosen one. He was like 6 foot 10 though and way taller than me it was interesting.
I also thought everyone in the psych ward was a paid actor.
They couldn’t handle me because I was incoherent and screamed nonsense constantly. I also needed to be watched, couldn’t drive or properly feed myself and they both work full time jobs so it was a bit of a mess. I’m all good now though!
Writing is somthing you can use for life though. I think the humanities are so important. I am currently in a STEM degree and I find it to sometimes push away my ethical side. Maybe I’ll go to law school and become truly evil, we will see
I was wandering homeless, state to state too, then committed. I was extremely paranoid about it, but it ended up being a little ethereal, I think? But things changed and I left on my own. They just discharged me
I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. Not all psych wards are like that. The one I have been to was mostly full of addicts or people who were depressed/ suicidal, not people in psychosis. I have to go to a particular one because of other medical conditions, and it admittedly sucks, but I don’t know of any that are so fabulous everyone wants to go back… Anyhow, I’m happy to hear you are doing better. What are you studying?
I had a similar situation when I was in the ward. Not only did my roommate not sleep, he constantly mumbled incoherently under his breath. He was coming off of Meth.
