I’m interested as I’ve only heard stories about the psychiatric portions of the hospital, as I’ve never gone before. I’ve always had a good support system, so I don’t need to go as often as others, but more than that, is my parents being fully against it at all times, even when I come close to commiting self harm or worse. Even when I was self harming, they didn’t believe in the hospital, saying it’ll only makes things worse for people like me, a schizophrenic.
So, I’m just wondering what does it take to go to a hospital, as I’ve also been violent towards others in the past? I was catatonic for a while summer, and finally got out of it with antidepressants and antipsychotics augmentation. I hope I’m not bringing up too many bad experiences with this post, but I am interested in what other schizophrenics think?
My last psych ward visit had a woman walking around with her top off and no bra, a guy who constantly peed himself, a breakout of some virus that had us using disposable dishes for dinner, people who would scream about ■■■■ in the middle of the night while you’re trying to sleep, one guy would eat shredded up paper saying it was snuff tobacco…so they can be…different.
Multiple times at night and both times I was in the hospital, somebody would open my door and close it and I’d hear them getting in trouble with the overnight nurses cause they would try going in my room. (They wouldn’t lock doors at the psych ward I stayed in)
VERY creepy… ugh. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it.
You usually dont feel safe because theres one ahole who freaks out and takes up all the attention of the staff. Youre usually jonesing for a smoke the doctors mostly ignore you if you ask to try a medication
The first psyche ward I was in was nice and so was the last one. I didn’t grow up rich but I got put on some nice wards. Clean and quiet and relatively safe. There were pool tables and ping pong tables and a volleyball court out back. The first one I was in when I was 19 was like a country club, if I hadn’t been psychotic at the time it would have been like a vacation. It was out in the country and they took us on field trips and one morning a counselor took me jogging.
The food was good and there was alway juice in the kitchen to drink. These wards had zero tolerance for violence, if anybody got threatening to the staff or another patient they were immediately shipped out of there. Some of the patients were in there for serious stuff like suicide attempts and stuff but they were friendly.
I was in the psyche ward at Stanford hospital, at Stanford University, the Stanford shopping center was just across the road and the staff took me and a couple other people out to get coffee at a little shop. They used to let me out to take walks and I would do a couple of laps around the whole building. At Stanford psyche ward the alcohol unit was attached to the ward and they use to hold AA meetings there and I would go to meetings. I met a few girls in the ward which was interesting.
Now, the hospital I was in for 8 months was totally different. It was an older place and had like 75 patients and there was a lot of homeless and people who just got out of jail and really messed up people; some of them could be quite scary and quite a few fights broke out while I was there. Some people had been there ten years and looked it. A typical day was get up at 8:00 am, wait in line for breakfast and after breakfast the racket started. Patients screaming and yelling at each other and arguing. It was the very definition of the word “bedlam” and it didn’t let up until dinner at 5:00 pm.
The halls reeked of urine and three days a week the cleaning crew came with an unbelievably loud machine to strip the wax off the floor and put a new coat of wax on. it just added to the craziness. Some people were drinking or smoking pot. I was pretty much a loner for 8 months, I talked to very few people.
I should have said near the beginning this hospital and even the nice wards would get boring as hell. I mean you spend the whole day and night there and you can only play so much ping pong before it got tiresome. I usually spent my time pacing around the hospital and sleeping. Yeah, I was thankful to get out of there after 8 months.
Usually very boring
And there’s always a real nutcase wack job there to cause bad vibes for everyone else
Food is better than if yer in jail
There’s board games and music to play as well as bingo
Would be better if they allowed people to smoke
Blehhhh — my opinion is to ride out yer problems at home
Pop an Ativan or two drink some coffee and turn on a movie
Psych ward is also risky because if they see you as a danger to your self or someone else they could throw you in a mental hospital for months or even years if yer that crazy ---- scary stuff
hospitals are hell for me. i prob been at least 10 times. all involuntarily. i would never put myself there. usually police took me. and i was taken to court at least 4 times and “adjudicated mentally defective” and sentenced to the state institution.
basically, the police would come and get me, or pick me up off the street. transport me to the ER. where i would either be immedietly flown to a psych hospital or spend the next few days in the regular hospital waiting for a psych transfer. then i would spend prob 2 weeks- 2 months in the regular psych hospital. then they would take me to court and adjudicate me, then i would be transfered by police to the state instution were i would stay until they decided i could be realeased.
in the psych hospitals they would regularly inject me with haldol and ativan. the haldol would make me restless. i would pace all day. they would say i was aggitated and inject me again. some of the staff were abusive. i was too confused to communicate with anyone or tell anyone what i was feeling. i was scared to eat cause i thought they were poisoning me. i remember hardly any of it.
ill explain what i remember from one of my last commitments. i got picked up by the police for leaving a day program because i thought god was telling people my thoughts. a psychologist from the day program held me down on the side of the road and kept me there til the police came. i fought the police. they called an ambulance, i fought too much for the ambulance so they called the police vans with the cages. they put me in the cage. they took me to the ER. in the ER i was handcuffed in the hall. i tried to run. a cop swung me by the cuffs and i fell and hit my head knocking myself unconcious. i woke up to a bunch of drs and nurses in a different room cutting my clothes off and putting in an IV. i started screaming for them not to kill me. they knocked me out with IV ketamine. i was then transfered hundreds of miles to a psych hospital (proabably by plane) but i dont remember how i got there. i passed out in the bathroom and didnt tell anyone. then i remember being confused and eating window cleaner. then i remember waking up tied to a table and being told i ate window cleaner. then i remember being at the state institution but i dont remember how i got there. thats all i remember. it was probably a month or so and thats all i remember.
I’ve been tolf thst i’m quite thr difficult patient ehen first admitted because i’m being somewhat belligerent because of psychosis but once i stabilize i want the heck out. I hate being locked down. I haven’t been in years so i’m not sure how they are now- i was in them in the early 2000’s to about 2013 about 8 or 10 times. Different ones be they private or government psych wards. All in all i fared well.
The hospital I was admitted to had 2x wards for people with psychiatric and mental health needs. Those people with severe psychiatric problems which I would call, “the psyche ward” and those that had milder psychiatric problems called, “the inbound & outbound patient facility”. I have been to the hospital 2x for my mental health issue. First in 2002 during my early 20s when I initially diagnosed with schizophrenia and in 2009 when my family forced me to go because I was unmedicated and was uttering threats.
The actual psych ward has rooms with bricked walls and a thick metal door as well as a metal sink and toilet. These rooms were meant for extremely severe cases of people with extensive violent behaviour. I remember one guy who told me he wanted to escape the psych ward and he was put in this brick walled room. He was banging on the metal door so hard the whole ward could hear it. I need to remind people when one is admitted to the hospital, patients are forced to wear hospital clothes but those in the “inbound & outbound patient facility” and “the psyche ward” wear a different colour hospital clothes to distinguish us from regular hospital patients.
“The inbound & outbound patient facility” is less restrictive and most people are discharged here when medical professionals deem that certain people are ready to return to the general public.
You mean the guy who screams unpredictably and the neurotic women who control the one television and who never watch anything interesting? Yeah, that was awesome.
My delusions centered around being tortured by all of the patients I was in with. Exhibiting the self-control necessary to get through it though. Help me get stronger I think
