My therapist and regular doctor are both urging me to try in-patient therapy especially because they want to start me on meds soon. They want to watch me in case I don’t react well to whatever they give me. I’ve been working VERY hard at telling myself that this is for my own benefit and not to trick or deceive me. I’m finally considering it because my episodes are closer together and more scary now. Anyways, I have a few questions for those of you with experience. At what point is in-patient no longer voluntary? I’m afraid they’re going to commit me if they find out how bad things have been for me.
What is in patient generally like?
How long will they keep me?
Will it be in a hospital?
What was your experience like? I hear lots of negative things about it but I’m desperate to make all of this go away.
A lot of it depends on the quality of the facility and staff, wherever you will be. I’ve been inpatient only once, when I was 15, and it had its pros and cons.
In my observations, most of the nightmare stories come from people who are unlucky and get stuck with a bad staff member or something. This could happen with anything, just like with everything else in life, like getting a bad waiter in a restaurant, but isn’t the norm.
Generally there will be a lot of structure, activities to do, people checking on you to make sure you’re okay on a regular basis, meal times, etc. Kind of like summer camp but for people with mental illness.
Ive been in hospital heaps of times its not that bad if not a tad boring if your voluntary thats probably be a lot better we had outings and the nurses even took us to the beach for lunch try and get involved in all the activities i went to a clean new hospital so it depends but ive gotten over it it was years ago and in the end it helped me recover so that now im stable
I was hospitalized once agaisnt my will, it’s not that bad, it’s probably better if you go voluntarily, they won’t use restraints or straigh jackets. The food is okay, there’s a tv room and smoke breaks. Inpatient therapy and arts and crafts.
They won’t keep you too long, unless you’ve got excellent insurance, otherwise,
go in, follow their advice, take your meds without incident, eat your meals, be active in the general community, and aren’t a danger to yourself or others, you’ll get to leave as soon as you and your pdoc feel your stable.
Hopefully they have some good meals, and even better snacks…
Once we got to walk across town to the local Baskin-Robin’s for 2 (free) scoops of ice cream- yum.
Heard they can’t do that anymore…
i think you have to be a harm to yourself or others in order to be committed but i may be wrong
I haven’t read the replies, so apologise if I’m repeating anything already said.
This is entirely dependent on what laws apply where the hospital is.
Drawing upon my experiences as being the care giver to my wife across more than five admissions (I visited daily) and myself a psychiatric inpatient in the same facility once, I observed that only those who presented obvious and outward signs of being a significant danger to themselves or others lost their rights to make their own choices.
At least in my location it would seem that involuntary admissions are rare and a voluntary inpatient to become involuntary even rarer.
One must trust that the staff are there to act in the best interests of the patients. There are numerous protocols in place to prevent it ever being otherwise. I went to great lengths (when I was in good health and the care giver) to investigate such things and I found absolutely nothing of concern down any avenue.
It can feel very conflicting when you are thinking about handing over the keys to your own engine - even if you have no previous history of trust issues or paranoia (not implying anything), so there is absolutely nothing abnormal about your trepidation. I am certain everything will work out for the better if you volunteer for inpatient treatment - assuming your responsibilities in your domestic and professional life are not an obstacle, but even then … your own mental health has to be your number one priority.
Regarding some specifics of my experience. When I was admitted it was after I’d experienced it from the other side those 5 times I mentioned, so I knew that refusing would have made things worse. Else I’d have ran in the opposite direction screaming. Despite being in such a state, I was treated with dignity and respect the entire time from admission to discharge. I was quietly observed and rarely even approached, except for under circumstances such as being reminded about meal times or an upcoming meeting.
I never felt like I had no input into matters that concerned me and after having reviewed my file, I found evidence supporting that all of my concerns were actually accurately documented and with no suggestion of mal-intent at all. The same can be said for each of my wife’s inpatient stays.
In my view it is a blessing to have access to psychiatric wards within the public health system (I know this statement might not make sense to people from other countries) … in my own case, the intervention could very well have saved not just my marriage and access to my children, but possibly even my life.
The staff within such facilities are usually very busy (and often their duties are difficult to discern as they have to employ a degree of “stealth” in order to get an objective perspective of patient behaviour) and so long as you remind yourself of that fact and don’t allow yourself to begin to feel ignored or targeted, I am sure you will find the experience as much of a positive one as my wife and I.
You should be proud of yourself for having the insight and courage to contemplate self-admission. I didn’t.
Being an inpatient wasn’t too bad, had okay meals, clean surroundings, tv, radio, magazines, crafts, yoga, beading, etc. But a large part of the day it was rather boring.
I’ve been hospitalized over twenty times, so I have a wealth of experience to draw from. For me, in patient has never been too bad. At worst, the hospital was kind of drab and boring. I’ve heard some guys say in patient was terrible for them, but I really don’t understand why. The thing I like least about in patient is that they have the authority to force you to take medications. Almost all of my in patient experiences were involuntary, so I have experience with that too. It can be very unsettling to be forced to go into the hospital. A lot of people get really angry about it because they feel helpless when this occurs. They feel like their freedom is being taken away arbitrarily. Most of their anger depends on how bad their break from reality is. A lot of how good or bad in patient is for you depends on your attitude. If you just accept involuntary treatment it is a lot easier.
Wow, these answers are incredibly helpful… And encouraging. Thank you.
I just fear being in a new place under someone else’s watch and say will make things worse. Still struggling with the idea that my therapist is on their side after her urging for this. I keep imagining myself hooked up to a bunch of machines and God forbid I start becoming nervous and all the machines start going off… Do they monitor that stuff? Will they rush in if I set them off?
“Kind of like summer camp but for people with mental illness.”
I really like this idea. I went to summer camp when I was younger and absolutely loved it.
I was involuntary and didn’t like the staff, so some of my complaints are subjective to my personal experience.
But other than that, I would say the only annoying thing is that at first they might have very strict security for you. Like not letting you have pens in your room because you might use them to hurt yourself, or things like that. It’s meant for your safety but can be a bit obnoxious. However where I was at, these things would be lifted over time if you seemed to be doing well.
it was fun for me because i am young and got to meet other young people. You’d be surprised how hard and seemingly unnatural it is for that to happen in todays society. The only stupid thing was this dude nurse kept coming to check on me every hour at night, opening and closing the door sometimes loudly. So freaking unnecessary, how are we meant to sleep?. Why not just install a camera in the rooms, we’d probably get paranoid though haha
I agree it’s mainly the little annoyances that were the only real problem. My main fears were caused by a lack of knowledge and unrealistic portrayal in the media. And fear of other patients, I mean what did they do to get admitted. It didn’t take very long to realize things weren’t that bad. I made a game of guessing other people’s issues to pass the boredom.
Some annoyances I remember were largly attempts to protect you. Shaving can be a bit tricky and at least in my case the policies were inconsistent. Some attendants just handed you a razor, some would have to watch you others wanted to shave you, They also wanted to control your money so other people would steal from you or take advantage, but it was more hassle than it was worth.
I hope the only thing I will have to worry about is the door! Glad someone also has a “it was fun” outlook on it instead of “it’s not that bad” gives me a bit of reassurance that it wasn’t just tolerable for you. Thank you @lolaby
I hadn’t even thought of anything like that. From what I hear it sounds like 48-72hr stays are most common. To be honest, I’ll probably just shave before I go in and forget about my razor. I’m sure they’ve dealt with worse than my hairy legs:joy:
I will however not bring any cash and work with just my debit cards if need be. I REALLY don’t like people messing with the money I earn.
It’s great that you brought these things up, it helps me to plan for possible issues. Thanks @Maggotbrane
Inpatient is a lot different from country to country and even from hospital to hospital. So where I stayed we needed cash for coffee only. It was fifty cents a day. They kept our money in a sealed envelope and we could withdraw the money we wished. There was this paper with the amount of credit and withdrawals. People didn’t steal but it was best not to leave valuables on the bedroom. I became paranoid a girl stole a pack of tissues from me but she didn’t.
I concealed chocolates. Lol
I stayed for two weeks.
Hmm that’s certainly interesting, that’s something that I’ll need to figure out before. How long ago did you stay? Just wondering if this is a common thread with these places. @Minnii
I have no idea if it’s common.
It was almost two years ago.
I will ask, I don’t know why they would do that? I mean I’m sure people aren’t being so reckless with their money there that they must monitor it so carefully. There are only so many $0.50 cups of coffee you can buy before you go broke under their supervision haha. @Minnii