What has been your experience being hospitalized --contributions welcome

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This is the process as I have understood it, of course this will be somewhat incomplete but these are my experiences from what little Could remember.

They collect some information on you for the psychiatrist like the symptoms you are experiencing and have you fill out certain forms pertaining to whether you are a voluntary or involuntary admission. Small dose of a benzo or Zyprexa (always Zyprexa) for agitation, they want you to sleep quietly in your hospital bed overnight, then the next day they prescribe something (usually a benzo) and mark down whether or not you went to the occupational therapy group and drew a picture. If you could draw pictures without twitching all over the place and pacing or nodding off that is an indication that you are tolerating the drugs. If you respond in conversation to the nurses that is also an indication that you are doing better. They make sure to account for whether or not you’re eating at meal times, they make sure you aren’t isolating, ideally they want to see you making friends and interacting. And after a few blood tests and other tests like mri and urinalysis to check for any drugs you may have taken you’ll meet with the resident psychiatrists to discuss your treatments plan, which is basically just to inform you that they are going to try you on drugs and which drugs those are. Oh, and they shout VITALS and check your vitals every 45 minutes to make sure you aren’t getting NMS or serotonin syndroms or dying for some other reason.

A lot of focus on drugs and side effects in the psych ward. I came up with my own description “5% of a psychiatrists job is diagnosis and prescription, 95% of the psychiatric profession is checking for side effects and managing them.” And lord knows there are a lot of side effects to these medications, only rarely is someone spared them.

What has been your experience being hospitalized?

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One time I got eod’d, and I was taken to the emergency room. Afterwards they sent me a bill for being in the emergency room. My attitude towards it was - “You people took me there against my will. I’ll be damned if I will pay you for it.” They sent me letter after letter, each one getting nastier than the proceeding letter. I finally paid the bill, but I didn’t want to.

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Kind of boring, Lots of just killing time. Depends on what hospital. In the long term hospital I was in people would act pretty strange and it wasn’t unusual for someone to lose control and either attack somebody else or destroy property. One guy threw a chair through a window; The staff kind of frowned on that. It had about 80 patients and there was constant arguing, screaming and yelling. And to add to the problem they had a janitor crew come in 4 days a week and strip the old wax off the floor with a loud machine and then lay down another coat of wax. This took most of the day. Coupled with the patients racket it was a madhouse. I was 21 years old and there were several really cute young nurses. Grrrrow. I spent most of the day just walking around the inside perimeter by myself or sleeping.

But I was also in nice places who had zero tolerance for violence and the place was so nice and the people were so calm that i think no one committed violence because it would have been too embarrassing in such a nice civilized place.

To tell you the truth I would say none of my hospitalizations were good experiences just because of the state of mind I was always in to get there. I always hated going in and I always wanted out as soon as possible. I was a loner in any hospital I’ve been in. Occasionally someone would like me which would always surprise me.

Ive been hospitalized 9 or 10 times but the last one two years ago was the only one that frightened me. I had stayed out of the hospital for 25 years but two years ago a bunch of bad stuff happened to me all at once and I ended up being hospitalized for feeling suicidal at age 55. i think my fright was justified because this wasn’t some plush hospital like I had been in before. This was the county hospital in a large city and some of those people were intimidating.

I remember there was some guy about 26 or 27 in there who was a total ashole. He just bugged everybody including both patients and staff. He was an arrogant jerk who strutted around talking sht to everybody and putting everybody down. But it made my whole stay pleasurable when he bugged the wrong guy and the guy attacked the jerk and beat him down to the ground and whaled on him for awhile until 4 staff members dragged him off of the guy. That was pretty cool. Who says there’s no justice in the world?

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Boredom followed by food followed by more boredom.

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I’ve been hospitalized quite a few times, both involuntary and voluntary. I’ll just talk about my longest stint (around 7/8 months) when I was 15 to 16. I should probably say trigger warning as I talk about how I got there (attempted suicide)

I took about 150 pills to kill myself. My roommate found me high as ■■■■ and took me into the ER. (Thank god, if he didn’t I would have died) they made me drink this charcoal stuff but I was too messed up so they pumped my stomach.

The first few days were a complete blur. People told me after that I had crazy wide eyes and you couldn’t see the colour of my eyes the pupils were so big. I was connected to IV’s and tubes and didn’t walk for long enough that my muscles deteriorated so I couldn’t walk or stand to shower, I needed a walker.

As the drugs got out of my system, I found out I was pink slipped. Every so often they would renew that and read me my rights and so on. At first I was in the pediatric ward (since I was 15) and had a nurse watching me constantly.

However a friend brought me flowers and a vase so I got an idea. I asked the nurse nicely to go get me a pop, while she was gone I went into the bathroom broke the vase and tried to slit my throat.

Of course security burst in and I got in trouble. I was sent up to adult psych (they didn’t want to do it but didn’t have a choice I guess) and was put under 24 hour watch. If I showered, ■■■■, masterbated , whatever, they would be there.

Since I was in adult psych they didn’t want me around the others so they put me in an isolation cell with a toilet and a mattress on the floor and a camera watching me. I was there for a few weeks before I was allowed to participate in group activities and hangout in the tv room.

For a while there was talk of them helicoptering me to a children’s hospital in a city off the island. I ended up going to an adolescent psych facility a few hours away.

I stayed there in the intensive care unit for at least 6 months. There was me, three nurses in a bubble, lots of arts and crafts, and another bed where quite a few people came and went while I was there.

They kept reading my rights every so often and I memorized it and always said it back to them. By the end the nurses were making jokes about how I should be working there (I would tell new nurses protocols they forgot ect)

The staff there was amazing, they said I was lucky I came in when I did, if I was 16 I would have gone to a poorly run adult psych ward. I had an amazing team of people who genuinely seemed to care about me. (I guess that’s what they do to kids though)

Weekly I saw a psychologist, a psychiatrist, an occupational therapist that would help me with scents and making clay. I grew attached to a few nurses there. I did some schooling while I was there. After some time I was able to go to the library with a nurse, and another would go on runs with me and after buy me starbucks.

I spent so much time there. I guess 8 months doesn’t seem like much but when you’re 16 it’s an entirety. I have never since seen that kind of caring and compassion that those staff showed me.

Now that I’m an adult it seems like nobody cares, nobody is interested in my health. I suppose that psych staff are trained to be kind and gentle to children and adolescents, and it probably was fake, but I prefer it to the cold words and stone expressions of my Pdoc and therapist now.

Unfortunately now I have a thing with going into the hospital, I always think they’ll lock me up for months at a time.

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Went to a few different places when I was young,

And they were fine actually, just one I was in had like nothing to do but walk a small hall play a puzzle or read a book for a week

didn’t do like a 6 month stay in a state facility

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I was only mentally miserable in the ward closest to where I live. I was treated humanely. The problem was it was excruciatingly boring and I had little access to any music or any sound to block the voices. So yeah take away the only thing I have to cope and expect me to get better.

The time I was hospitalized far away from where I live was terrible. Initially, I was strapped down to a gourney, completely immobile, in a pitch black dark room for hours. I hadn’t attacked anyone, not physically, and not even verbally.

So before I went to the ward for minors, I was in a ward with adults and I was in an empty room with a mattress (no bed) for a while. It was a round this time that I apparently didn’t obey the male nurse fast enough. Gee, when you keep people drugged up, maybe they don’t react so fast? He put me in a claw hold, painfully tearing at my armpit with his fingers, while dragging me down the hallway. I tried to get my feet under me so I could walk where he wanted me to walk, but the ■■■■■■■ kept me off balance.

My mom eventually noticed the huge bruise under my armpit and I think called NAAMI. The only thing that forced them to let me go was when the insurance company cut off payments to them.
But before that could happen there was more abuse. I flipped out but not on staff. I never threatened anyone I just yelled and punched a metal locker. You’d think given that I was a minor they’d want to solve this without physical violence? A grossly fat security guard spun me around and put me in a chicken wing/choke hold. I got choked into unconsciousness.

So one of the hospitals I stayed at was miserable but humane, and the other was kind of Guantanamo Bay lite.

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I was always voluntary but this last run nine months ago was better as they had more staff and thankfully comfortable beds plus a sensory room u could go in to listen to music or squish a squishy squisher for about 20 minutes, supervised, of course.

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Jesus ■■■■■■■ christ dude I’m sorry you had to go through that. I would ■■■■■■■ burn that hospital down to the ground. Wow.

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I walked and walked and walked the halls

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Thanks for the sympathy VP. I really don’t think about it too much though. That hospital eventually had the ward shut down, I think.

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That sounds like a terrible ordeal. I can’t stand being hospitalized for even a week or two. Sorry you went through so much VP.

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Yeah that was my favorite activity in the local hospital where I was treated decently. Aside from calisthenics.
Not that I’ve ever been in super-shape or anything. But there was a lack of anything else to do.

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Severe akathesia the first two hospitals I was in from the meds they gave me. I was miserable. I tried to get out of one and had to have a hearing. The psychiatrist lied to keep me there. She straight up said a ton of untrue stuff so I would become involuntary. I just shook my head because I knew they wouldn’t believe me. The only good thing about that place was that you could smoke cigarettes and fairly often too. That place I was forced to go to classes where they repeated the same ■■■■ over and over. They told me theyd get me paint so i could paint but never did. One day they forced me to take ativan when I didn’t need it but wouldn’t let me have any one day when I did need it.

Another hospital mental I went to had a lot of drama. People getting into fights. I had a hard time there because I thought this guy was in there disguised and spying on me so I didn’t go to many class group things. They kept the women and men separate except for those. The good thing is they didn’t force me to go.

Another mental hospital I was in for a mont changed my psychiatrist on me three times. They put me on the same meds I had been off of for a week before I got in there. Waited til three days before I got out to put me on what I left on.

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Totally. What else to do, right? I think that sitting would make me more tired.

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I’ve had both good experiences and bad. In my early days, they were all bad. Being locked up in isolation and tied up in five point restraints all of the time. Usually for no good reasons. Only because I was getting on the staff’s nerves. In recent times, the experiences were more positive. Possibly because of my maturity.

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Only time I had to stay at a hospital was when I had to join a… program? For my eating disorder because I was at risk of dying from cardiac heart arrest, or something heart related. I was there three weeks. I was READY to leave. I CANNOT imagine how people actually stay in hospitals for more than a few weeks, let alone a month. And I wasn’t even there as an in patient, I was an extensive out patient! There was someone there who had to stay there 24/7 and she did NOT like it. She looked miserable. I’m very lucky to have… uh, not really solve my problem, but being compliant so I could get out of there.

I must admit, it was awful. I don’t think I want to go to a hospital again. They fed me crap tons of food two times a day, three big snacks in between, and if you didn’t finish even a crumb (no exaggeration), you’d have to drink a large ass cup of this… food supplements? I don’t know. It wasn’t bad, I always got chocolate and I enjoyed the taste (sometimes I would purposefully not eat so I could have some of that supplement), but you gain weight FAST, man. The way they feed you, they actually prescribe patients with anti nausea/vomiting meds because they literally make us gorge food. But what REALLY sucked is that my food is anxiety based, and having to eat in a table of others made me v nervous, and you had to cold turkey break your nervous habits day 1 because you’ll trigger others.

The hospital is so depressing. Not to mention you can’t take a dump without them watching. It was soo embarrassing, because I had two use the bathroom twice a DAY, which an old lady with her ear against the door. UGHH

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Near the cities good luck getting a bed.

Our local hospitals have like holding tanks where you go unless you are a danger to others.

Then the social workers try to find a bed.
Hours or days later they may find one.

They are just hoping you stabilize enough they can discharge you without actually admitting you.
And I have always had good insurance, not a charity case.

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