[bunnie]

Note: If you ever go to a free hospital and mention anything about suicide (attempted/not) you will get locked away!

I won't go into too much detail because I am fatigued (I will probably post a blog on my page when I feel better).

I wish I never opened my big fat mouth. I spent about 12 hrs in the hospital on lockdown and 4 and a half days in the nuthouse. It was horrible, because its not like everyone had SA there. All those personalities just drove me insane!!! Oh, the things you go through when you are not insured.....

The food was HORRIBLE, one of my roommates never showered and I even became more depressed. The only good thing that came out of it was the medication (that was my ultimate goal all along). I hope it works or I will be mad.

How long does it take for Paxil to kick in anyway? I've been on it for 5 days now.

 

[Neptunus]

Sorry to hear what happened. :squeeze As for Paxil, usually around 3 weeks to reach full effect - generally starts working somewhat within a week. I'm on it myself and have felt MUCH better.

ETA - http://www.crazymeds.us/paxil.html for more info. Excuse the name, lol!

 

[mountain5]

Wow, that's insane (no pun intended). I understand why they do that, but still...

 

[Some Russian Guy]

Sorry to hear that...

 

[Andre]

I'll be sure not to mention anything about suicide...

 

[nothing to fear]

yup, that sounds like the norm for the mental health care system. i have learned after a while that i have to watch what i say. i have been there a couple times, unfortunately i was forced to stay 14 days each time. it wasn't terrible but no matter how nice the nurses are you still feel like you are treated like a robot rather than an individual who deserves personal care and attention and perhaps some dignity if you are lacking.



at least it's done with and was hopefully was not harmful to you. good luck with the paxil


actually the food i've tried hasn't been that bad. the hospital i went to had these frozen thai vegetarian trays, and they were pretty good, equivalent to crappy frozen veggie tv dinners, but better than mushy veggies and rice which seemed to be the other option.

 

[Aurora]

I was admitted as a teen for a week, that week I spent there I had never felt more suicidal in my life. To have everything taken off you, under 24 hour survelance, cages around every exit, hearing people crying and screaming in the middle of the night, even seeing that big fat lock on the doors is depressing. I didnt even know that padded rooms still existed. I wasnt put in one. But you could clearly see one.
Ever seen 'Girl interupted' with Winona Ryder and Anjelina Jolie? It reminded me of that a lil. Except I was in a mixed teen male and female ward.

 

[shyvr6]

I'll make a note to myself to not mention that I'm suicidal in a hospital.

 

[thecraftyveteran]

wow i can only imagine. i remember going to free hospitals in the city when i was a little kid with my mom and it was like a bomb had went off in these places. but hopefully you feel better.

 

[KennethJones]

NEVER EVER mention suicide to anyone health when at a hospital.

 

[GSH]

How long does it take for Paxil to kick in anyway? I've been on it for 5 days now.

Oh lord...you might shouldve stayed in.

Chew on this before committing. I was on it for paxil and paxil cr for 6 yrs. Total set back.

 

[finster]

I told my pdoc and therapist at the VA hospital that I was having suicidal ideations and all they did was tell me that if it ever happens again, call the 800 number.

Which is a good thing, because later on when I went to try and visit an aquaintance who was in their locked down psychiatric ward it gave all the impressions of "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest."

It was actually outside of visiting hours so this mean 'Nurse Ratched' gave me the brush off and told me to get lost. But I could hear the disturbing noises and just looking through the tiny window in the locked door to the ward was not pleasant. I'll leave it at that.

But seriously, I have vowed to never go into one of these places, even when I think I need it sometimes, because I'm afraid of the stigma (still, though I should know better) and I'm afraid it will change me irrevocably for the worse.

 

[britisharrow]

If you were needing help that much why was the food such a concern? The food is intended to be bad, if they made it a vacation camp everybody would be trying to get in and nobody woud want to go out back into the community. The food is basic and you get juice or water, what more do you want?

These places exist to provide acute services to people on the verge of ending their own life, they are not nice places, they never have been and never will be.

In my country the entire system is state-run, and it's almost impossible to get committed into a psychiatric ward. There simply isn't the resources or the beds for anyone who is not absolutely off their head.

I know this from experience. I became frustrated at not getting any help so I declared that under the Mental Health Act 1983 I would harm myself if I was not admitted.

"We've assessed you and you won't be admitted to acute services. If you don't leave the hospital the police will come and remove you."

Looks like it's better in Chicago, at least you got in and got recognised as needing help.

I spent two weeks in an NHS mental ward. I got basic food and some juice that was it.

 

[jordo]

I was admitted to hospital after attempting suicide, but wasn't locked away. Did you threaten to do it when you were there?

 

[britisharrow]

Are you asking me or the author of the thread?

 

[jer]

sorry to hear about Bunnie and all the others who had to be admitted to the psych hospital and had to endure all that stuff especially hearing the screams of other patients.

For me paxil took around 2 weeks to kick in.
the benefits I had was depression was reduced, anxiety was reduced , ocd was reduced. insomnia was gone.
but social anxiety remained the same.
side effects were I gained a lot of weight (but that is ok. i can live with that) and I was very sleepy

 

[estse]

I spent two days is the addicts ward of a psych hospital after attempting suicide. I spent the whole time reading. One guy was real annoying, but everyone else was was fine or zoned out. I guess addicts may be easier to tolerate.

 

[spookyben]

I was locked up for 6 days after attempting, and they were the greatest 6 days of my life.
Brand new hospital. Nice and clean. None of these cages, locks or padded rooms you guys are talking about. Very nice staff. All of the patients ate decent meals together three times a day. I played cards with another patient every night. I actually miss it even though I bugged the doctor to let me out every day.
It could also be that I was floating around on a barbiturate high all week. I was being very polite and friendly and genuinely happy. Now I am back to being scared, paranoid and withdrawn.

 

[Thomas Paine]

Been there, done that. Since I live near a military base there were a lot of Iraq vets in there, so I got to hear some seriously disturbing/frustrating stories that made me realize how easy I actually have it.

 

[nothing to fear]

i should probably restate that despite what i said about feeling like a robot, they do provide pretty adequate care, it the cases i observed a lot of patients were completely non-functional in many ways and immediate intervention and being put under constant supervision was honestly the best option.

i think because i have a lot of experience with this, i'm aware of the different degrees of my suicidal ideation and i know when it's just something in the back of my head and when i'm actually planning it out and on the verge of attempting. so when i know it's not a big deal i might hold it back.

but the doctors don't know that at all, they can't always know exactly what the patient may or may not do after they let them leave the office. with my first pdoc, after a suicide attempt she did nothing to ensure that i was safe, other than ask "so do you have any other plans to kill yourself soon?", and because i was so overrun with embarrassment and shame after showing her and my parents my neck, i said "no" and she sent me home just like that without saying or doing anything else. in those following few weeks i had come very close to doing it again and came close enough to warrant a trip to the ER a few months later.
my next pdoc was much more adamant in making sure i was okay and gave me a number for a helpline, for the hospital, and made me promise to come in if i needed help. i wouldn't be surprised if that first pdoc had patients who did end up offing themselves when it could have been avoided if she had just forced them to get help and made extra sure they were okay.

to people who aren't as aware of when they might be too sick, i wouldn't ever advise anyone to keep the suicidal feelings to themselves just to avoid being hospitalized.
if that was encouraged then so many lives would be lost and i know in some cases they might be overreacting, but 'better safe than sorry'.
i really think my dad wouldn't be alive right now if he hadn't spoken up to his doctor that he was planning on ending his life and admitting himself to the psych ward, despite how incredibly stubborn he is and how crummy the conditions of his hospital were.

i kind of go back and forth when i try to gauge on whether being hospitalized saved my life. i think it did in the long run, as over the years i was just sinking lower and lower and the episodes got worse and worse and i was becoming closer to death more than ever, which says a lot considering i first thought about ending my life at age 12. since those two hospitalizations i've been very slowly going uphill, which is strange to think considering how bad things were up until age 18 (spent that birthday in the hospital actually.. god how depressing) and before that i couldn't fathom ever feeling better.

anyway my openly negative feels towards it are mostly concerning the treatment methods and what they focus on in that regard as i don't think they take all of the patient's life and health into consideration.

but the main purpose for short-term hospitalization is to keep you safe from yourself and others and they usually (hopefully) succeed in doing that.