![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 22 of 22. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Deneb on March 27, 2006, at 21:46:12
I was just thinking about my experience with being locked up...
When you were locked up, did the people there look through your stuff?
When I was locked up for ODing to get out of a midterm, they looked through my backpack with gloves on. I felt a little violated. Plus, what did they expect to find anyways. I felt a little offended that they would use gloves to go through my stuff. Perhaps they were expecting a moldy lunch or something?
I hated that they ignored my many many pleads to see the Mental Health Act and requests to see a lawyer many many times. I don't think they took me seriously. They kept ignoring me. The nurse explained things to me, but I kept on asking for a lawyer anyways. They would say, "OK, I'll go see if I can find a copy of the Mental Health Act for you," and then they never bring it to me.
It was also really boring there. There was nothing to do. I was too wired from lack of sleep to read or watch television. I'm glad my family came by to see me everyday. They made the time pass for me. Even my little cousins came to see me. It was really embarrassing to be in a hospital gown and pants. Some people there wore normal clothes, but not me. :-(
I think the nurses and doctors where nice to me despite sometimes ignoring my requests. They microwaved my dinner for me the first day when I wasn't hungry at dinner time and got hungry later. One thing I noticed was one could get dehydrated easily. There was only a water fountain next to the nurses station. Luckily my parents bought me my water bottle.
They let my Mom bring me my comforter and pillow from home. They also let my parents see me past the visiting hours. My pdoc there took pity on me and gave me Ativan because I was scared and couldn't sleep in a strange place.
I even threw a tantrum and threw M&Ms and sat past the forbidden zone. They didn't punish me, they reasoned with me.
Nothing bad happened to me there, but it felt horrible at times to be locked up. Yep, I value my freedom, don't ever want to the locked up again. I think they made a mistake in locking me up. I think maybe the pdoc who locked me up was taking a better safe than sorry approach. Plus, I overheard the main pdoc guy tell his two students(?) that I had never been "assessed" before and that was their rationale for locking me up. I don't think I would be locked up if I ever did the same thing again, not that I would of course.
I came out of this with a diagnosis of adjustment disorder. Blah. I guess they had to put something down to explain my behaviour.
I'm just wondering...is my story typical?
Deneb*
Posted by rjlockhart on March 27, 2006, at 21:56:50
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by Deneb on March 27, 2006, at 21:46:12
No never been locked up.
I have been in a outpatient facility when i thought i was absolutly going into insanity.
People there where normal bankers, they where just going through a mid life crisis.
There was one lady (Rose) that when she was in in patient in the book of revelation in the bible, she thought in dreams she was the lady passing out wine in frout of the 7 headed beast.... i had to leave to the room i had panic attack in the bathroom ROFL. Hint......dont read revelation when your delsional. And also said Satan told her in her sleep, i was so freak out I went outside and skipped a class ROFL.
Thats it for me.
Im glad that im not there anymore, gloomy.
Matt
Posted by txtoolgirl on March 27, 2006, at 23:00:20
In reply to Re: Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by rjlockhart on March 27, 2006, at 21:56:50
i hope this gets to you. i went to your website and you are such a promising person. why are you so sad? is there no one in your family that understands you? if you can find one person, stay with them. you will be ok. im so sorry for what you are going through.
Posted by txtoolgirl on March 27, 2006, at 23:04:49
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by Deneb on March 27, 2006, at 21:46:12
no, your story is not
Posted by Phillipa on March 27, 2006, at 23:24:37
In reply to Re: Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by txtoolgirl on March 27, 2006, at 23:04:49
Deneb they only lock you up if you were a danger to salf or others. You are doing great now keep up the good work. do you have a website? Can you post a link to it love Phillipa
Posted by Deneb on March 27, 2006, at 23:48:55
In reply to Re: Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by txtoolgirl on March 27, 2006, at 23:04:49
> no, your story is not
How so? What makes my story exceptional?
Deneb*
Posted by special_k on March 28, 2006, at 10:58:14
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by Deneb on March 27, 2006, at 21:46:12
> When you were locked up, did the people there look through your stuff?
Sure. They need to list your property and ensure you don't have things that could endanger yourself / another person.
> I hated that they ignored my many many pleads to see the Mental Health Act and requests to see a lawyer many many times. I don't think they took me seriously. They kept ignoring me. The nurse explained things to me, but I kept on asking for a lawyer anyways.What was her explanation?
> They would say, "OK, I'll go see if I can find a copy of the Mental Health Act for you," and then they never bring it to me.
yeah. overworked... underpaid... etc etc.
> Some people there wore normal clothes, but not me. :-(
How come? Were you on special obs?
> I think the nurses and doctors where nice to me despite sometimes ignoring my requests.
Maybe they got lotsa requests...
> They let my Mom bring me my comforter and pillow from home. They also let my parents see me past the visiting hours. My pdoc there took pity on me and gave me Ativan because I was scared and couldn't sleep in a strange place.
yeah.
> I even threw a tantrum and threw M&Ms and sat past the forbidden zone. They didn't punish me, they reasoned with me.
Yeah... Sometimes the nurses don't seem to know about de-escalation...
> Nothing bad happened to me there, but it felt horrible at times to be locked up. Yep, I value my freedom, don't ever want to the locked up again. I think they made a mistake in locking me up. I think maybe the pdoc who locked me up was taking a better safe than sorry approach. Plus, I overheard the main pdoc guy tell his two students(?) that I had never been "assessed" before and that was their rationale for locking me up. I don't think I would be locked up if I ever did the same thing again, not that I would of course.I think you probably would be.. Not htat you are going to find out of course...
> I came out of this with a diagnosis of adjustment disorder. Blah. I guess they had to put something down to explain my behaviour.lol. thats what i got first time round too.
> I'm just wondering...is my story typical?
similar to me yeah.i would typically get 'volountary'
then i'd hear that they were planning on discharging me.
dometimes i didn't wnt that .
so...
well...
i'd do stuff to make sure i was put under secion to buy myself another week or so.
i find it hard to think back on that stuff now...
ug.
i'm glad i'm not doing that stuff anymore.
Posted by wildcard11 on March 28, 2006, at 11:30:40
In reply to Re: Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by special_k on March 28, 2006, at 10:58:14
i actually was fortunate. after my attempt, there were no openings on that floor so i was held in the ER where they operated on me and had my own private area, had visitors and the bathroom was the new wing being built onto the hospital. i never plan on going back. they were trying to send me to a well known hospital but by the time they had clearing, my 72 hours were up. i'll never forget though, i asked the man at the desk for a razor to shave and he handed me a man's straight edge for shaving and i was not monitored in the bath or shower...how stupid on their part but thankfully i realized i got a 2nd chance against all odds and wanted to live, even though it hurt like hell. yes to jail also but found not guilty, self defense against the coward...
Posted by deirdrehbrt on March 28, 2006, at 13:20:41
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by Deneb on March 27, 2006, at 21:46:12
Hey there.
I've been hospitalized eight times... almost 9. Some of the times they went so far as to do a strip search. Really, though, it's just a way to keep you safe. They have to make sure that you don't have anything that you can use to harm yourself.
My local hospital has even adopted a policy that when you go there for a suicide attempt that they make you remove your clothes and put on a paper outfit. That's kind of degrading too.
I had tried to hide things to hurt myself among my posessions, and they searched well enough to find them. I was surprised, but then I'm not the only SI or suicidal patient they've had. One hospital actually inventoried the plastic cutlery they issued you to make sure you weren't stashing it.
Being in a locked psych-ward isn't fun. It's meant to insure that you're reasonably safe when you get out, that you aren't going to hurt yourself. The times that I went in, it seems to have worked for a while. Looking back though, I wish that I had been more honest with them about my drinking. I could have saved four years of in and out of those places.
As for the mental health act, all of the hospitals I was in had the Patient's Bill of Rights posted on the bulletin boards for everyone to see. Don't know what was going on in your case, except as others said, hospital staff can get busy. Still, when I was told something was going to happen, it did.
I hope that things are better now.
--Dee
Posted by Deneb on March 28, 2006, at 15:42:41
In reply to Re: Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by special_k on March 28, 2006, at 10:58:14
> > When you were locked up, did the people there look through your stuff?
>
> Sure. They need to list your property and ensure you don't have things that could endanger yourself / another person.They took away most of my stuff. They let me keep a pen and a notebook though, as well as my chapstick. They took away my hand sanitizer.
>The nurse explained things to me, but I kept on asking for a lawyer anyways.
>
> What was her explanation?She explained that there was no legal recourse in a 72 hour hold. I kept trying to find a loophole, but there was none.
> > They would say, "OK, I'll go see if I can find a copy of the Mental Health Act for you," and then they never bring it to me.
>
> yeah. overworked... underpaid... etc etc.I'm not sure that she even tried to find it for me, but I understand. They were nice to me overall. By the end of my stay they were treating me pretty much like a normal person. I actually stayed longer than 72 hours. I think it was because it was the weekend. They did give me an overnight pass for the last night though.
> > Some people there wore normal clothes, but not me. :-(
>
> How come? Were you on special obs?I'm not sure. I think it was because I was a flight risk.
> > I think the nurses and doctors where nice to me despite sometimes ignoring my requests.
>
> Maybe they got lotsa requests...I actually didn't see other people making requests. Maybe they were okay with being in there, but I wasn't.
> > I even threw a tantrum and threw M&Ms and sat past the forbidden zone. They didn't punish me, they reasoned with me.
>
> Yeah... Sometimes the nurses don't seem to know about de-escalation...No, there were good with de-escalation. I was only angry for a little while before the nurse talked to me about how M&Ms on the floor might hurt people and about how throwing them and going past what I call the "forbidden" zone wasn't helping me get out of there.
> I don't think I would be locked up if I ever did the same thing again, not that I would of course.
>
> I think you probably would be.. Not htat you are going to find out of course...[I wrote a bit here about how I don't think I would get locked up again because I wasn't suicidal, but I've decided to take that out because there is no need to write those things to comfort myself because I'm never going to put myself in that position again.]
> i would typically get 'volountary'
>
> then i'd hear that they were planning on discharging me.
>
> dometimes i didn't wnt that .
>
> so...
>
> well...
>
> i'd do stuff to make sure i was put under secion to buy myself another week or so.:-( Sorry they didn't help you enough. No one really helped me either. It was just a boring stay.
>
> i find it hard to think back on that stuff now...
>
> ug.Sorry if I brought stuff up for you.
>
> i'm glad i'm not doing that stuff anymore.I'm glad you're not doing those things now too.
Deneb*
Posted by Deneb on March 28, 2006, at 15:49:55
In reply to possible trigger, posted by wildcard11 on March 28, 2006, at 11:30:40
> i asked the man at the desk for a razor to shave and he handed me a man's straight edge for shaving and i was not monitored in the bath or shower...how stupid on their part but thankfully i realized i got a 2nd chance against all odds and wanted to live, even though it hurt like hell. yes to jail also but found not guilty, self defense against the coward...
I'm glad you didn't hurt yourself more in the ER. I know what you mean about the time before getting locked up being dangerous. While I was in the ER, I still had a bottle of ____. People were not watching me constantly. I could have taken more.
I'm sorry about what happened to you. :-(
I'm glad you're able to get past that incident.
Deneb*
Posted by wildcard11 on March 28, 2006, at 15:52:09
In reply to Re: possible trigger » wildcard11, posted by Deneb on March 28, 2006, at 15:49:55
thx..you're a special person ;o)
Posted by Deneb on March 28, 2006, at 16:20:17
In reply to locked up... **possible trigger**, posted by deirdrehbrt on March 28, 2006, at 13:20:41
> Hey there.
>
> I've been hospitalized eight times... almost 9.Wow, you've been through some really hard times. Sorry you had to go through all that.
> Some of the times they went so far as to do a strip search. Really, though, it's just a way to keep you safe. They have to make sure that you don't have anything that you can use to harm yourself.
Just like in prison. I guess one really doesn't have any rights when one is locked up.
> My local hospital has even adopted a policy that when you go there for a suicide attempt that they make you remove your clothes and put on a paper outfit. That's kind of degrading too.Why a paper outfit?
>
> I had tried to hide things to hurt myself among my posessions, and they searched well enough to find them. I was surprised, but then I'm not the only SI or suicidal patient they've had. One hospital actually inventoried the plastic cutlery they issued you to make sure you weren't stashing it.I don't think the place I was at did a very good job keeping potentially harmful things away. I found a giant paperclip in my room. I turned it in because I wanted them to see how "good" I was. I used to hurt myself with paperclips.
> Being in a locked psych-ward isn't fun.Yeah, no fun, really boring.
> Still, when I was told something was going to happen, it did.
That's good
> I hope that things are better now.
>
> --DeeThings weren't even that bad then. I'd been worse. I wasn't even nearly suicidal then and they still locked me up. I guess it was the stupidity of the act that got me in there.
Deneb*
Posted by deirdrehbrt on March 28, 2006, at 16:57:56
In reply to Re: locked up... **possible trigger** » deirdrehbrt, posted by Deneb on March 28, 2006, at 16:20:17
The paper outfit was so that you couldn't use it to asphyxiate or hang your self with it. It would tear first.
I found some things in the hospital that could be used to hurt yourself. I was very creative. I even managed to [xxx]. I was truly bent on causing myself harm at times.
Anyway, you have someone here who understands what it's like. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I hope that you don't have to again. I hope though, that if it ever comes about again that you'll choose the hospital over the alternatives.
Many blessings,
--Dee
Posted by Deneb on March 28, 2006, at 17:01:27
In reply to Re: locked up... **possible trigger** » deirdrehbrt, posted by Deneb on March 28, 2006, at 16:20:17
>I guess it was the stupidity of the act that got me in there.
>
> Deneb*I don't mean to say that anyone is stupid if they did what I did. I just meant to say that what I did didn't make much sense to others.
Just trying to be civil here. :-)
Deneb*
Posted by Dr. Bob on March 28, 2006, at 23:57:10
In reply to Re: locked up... **possible trigger**, posted by deirdrehbrt on March 28, 2006, at 16:57:56
> I found some things in the hospital that could be used to hurt yourself. I was very creative. I even managed to [xxx].
Just a reminder, please don't use this site to exchange information that could be used to harm oneself.
If you or others have questions about this or about posting policies in general, or are interested in alternative ways of expressing yourself, please see the FAQ:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faq.html#civil
Follow-ups regarding these issues should be redirected to Psycho-Babble Administration. They, as well as replies to the above post, should of course themselves be civil.
Thanks,
Bob
Posted by deirdrehbrt on March 29, 2006, at 0:42:35
In reply to locked up... **possible trigger**, posted by deirdrehbrt on March 28, 2006, at 13:20:41
Sorry.... I purposefully didn't mention the "how", but I guess that mentioning the "what" could give ideas too. Sorry again.
--D
Posted by stickywicket on March 29, 2006, at 15:10:20
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before?, posted by Deneb on March 27, 2006, at 21:46:12
I was locked up for ODing. I'm BPII and was rapid cycling at the time. The staff told me and my husband that while in the Emergency Department I re-obtained my *stash* of meds (which apparently must have been near my bed) and took more pills. I have no recollection of that, but they put me in restraints for 4 hours. My husband never believed I took more pills in the ED and thinks they put me in restraints so they could ignore me. I wish I knew. I just can't remember much until after I was admitted. It's awful enough to know that I overdosed initially but then to try again in the ED and not remember it, has always scared the sh*t out of me.
I'd like to know how people who have attempted suicide get over the guilt of putting their family and friends through h*ll.
Posted by stickywicket on March 29, 2006, at 15:11:20
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before? » Deneb, posted by stickywicket on March 29, 2006, at 15:10:20
Posted by Deneb on March 29, 2006, at 17:22:39
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before? » Deneb, posted by stickywicket on March 29, 2006, at 15:10:20
Sorry about the rough time in the emergency department. I'm glad you made it out okay.
I was only threatened with restraints. I tried to escape the ER. I pulled off my IV thingie and all the electrodes on my body. I put on my regular clothes and tried to sneak out. I actually thought I was okay. I didn't want my parents to know. Meanwhile my heart was beating more than 140 beats/min resting because of what I took. I wonder if I would have been okay without treatment? The nurses checked my vitals every hour for 2 days.
Deneb*
Posted by deirdrehbrt on March 30, 2006, at 14:46:39
In reply to Re: Anybody here been *possible trigger* » stickywicket, posted by Deneb on March 29, 2006, at 17:22:39
My last experience they put me in restraints because I kept trying to pull out the NG tube. I only know about it because my roommate told me. I don't remember it at all. I just remember waking up in Intensive Care. I have no idea how I avoided a psych hospitalization after that one.
Posted by special_k on March 30, 2006, at 15:00:29
In reply to Anybody here been locked up before? » Deneb, posted by stickywicket on March 29, 2006, at 15:10:20
> I'd like to know how people who have attempted suicide get over the guilt of putting their family and friends through h*ll.
you don't know that...i've attempted precisely because nobody gave a sh*t my family didn't give a sh*t and i didn't have any friends.
maybe i should have felt bad for wasting the time of the er staff or something.
dunno. i guess i feel pretty bad (put through hell) that they kept me living...
...
this thread is a little triggering for me. don't really want to get into reminiscing about times past and wrongs done to me etc etc. it isn't such a nice place... not such a nice place to be...
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Social | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.