Why suicide prevention fails.

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My experience in a uk psych hospital was not so pleasant. I was put there back when I was 22/23, because my mother couldnt cope with my meltdowns and my OCD had got to such a degree I was practically delusional. I left my floor a few times, so they put me on 24 hour watch..nurse sat in my open doorway all the time.. I harmed myself with a broken cup...they stitched me up without any local anaesthetic as some sort of punishment. I banged my head on the walls, they just left me to it. I had no therapist come to talk to me, my rights were read out to me when I was half drugged up on whatever they gave me, and at one point I was thrown to the floor and sat on, face down because I had tried to get away from my room and lock myself in the bathroom. I was worse when i left than when I went in... fortunately, I got into Dr Who soon after and it proved to be my salvation.

Early in my time at Wrong Planet I worried if I might not be sharing too much information.

The ones in the USA are not nearly like that at all. In fact, in a self-injury support group I belonged to, it was common to see threads like "fun psych hospital memories." and "Things you did while IP (in-patient) to annoy the nurses." etc.

Because of those people I have a bad aversion to the idea of therapy.

Thank goodness for Doctor Who!

On a more serious note, that mental hospital that you describe sounds truly dreadful. Has it been closed down? Or at least its abuses reformed? I realise that deinstitutionalisation may not always be remotely helpful for individuals and families at the end of their tether, but that place sounds only marginally more humane (if at all) than Bethlehem (Bedlam) Hospital back in the day.

I think that this "new style" is a lot like 1950s "old style."

Good post!

I myself have had good and bad experiences. Once I was stupid and I actually went in on my own will(sucked). Second was ok I was still SI'ing at the hospital but since I had been there before it was ok. 3rd was bad as it was a place I had not been and was hours from home. 4th was bad as I was in such a s**t place I almost allowed myself to get SA'd. 5th was at ICU that scared the s**t out of me. I chose not to go to pward and have not been hospitalized since.

Well I'm not saying it was a pleasant experience, but it is by no means a horrible place to be. And the people there are not psychopaths, I was there with other people who were struggling with problems like me. People who were criminally insane were kept in another sort of hospital.

I had both good memories and bad, and I actually did make a lot of friends in some of these places...some friendships that I have even now maintained.

Hehe, sorry. I did not mean to actually reply to you. At first I was just going to say I liked your post then I decided hell I'll post my experiences but that got kinda botched up since I didn't really want to go into very much detail. Simply put my experiences have been good and bad.

I don't see why you are apologising for sharing some experiences. heck, look at all the stuff I shared! But yeah, like you said it was good and bad...but for me the "bad" mainly had to do with either the emotions I was dealing with at the time, or bad interactions with other patients. Not the place itself.

I also have had experiences as you describe where I was in a hospital for weeks that was hours away from home. That was rough in a different way because visitors were rare, so I didn't have a lot of the sense of familiarity that I had at other hospitals. Even when my family came for the weekend, and I got to go out for the day on a day-pass...I was in a city I was unfamiliar with and I wanted to be going out around my own home town...but it would have been too long of a drive.

eee gawds. . Eldorado!

(I can smell the refinery in my dreams)

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In cyberspace everyone can hear you scream. . .

my first mental hospital was Topeka State, ah, the memories, good times, good times. . .
The lady who drank the Drano was in our ward - you have never lived until you seetwitching and frothing at the mouth like that. The lady that drank the NyQuil that had been on the AA program for 12 years and had alcohol poisoning AND a wild couple of days, poor woman, she was so embarrassed and that was my first straight jacket binding I have watched. No, really, they just let us bunch up at the door and watch.
Bunking in the same room with the woman that was put in there for helping her husband and brother hold down their rape victims. The 42 year old hulking giant with the mind of a very experienced three year old. The smell of schizophrenia in the morning.
I was impregnated in that very same hospital and still wretch with early morning sickness when I think of the smell of schizophrenia that permeated the walls.

Merle

The way that last post sounded I'd expect it to be a summary of a horrer book...

Oh, I know El Dorado and Augusta all right. Between them there is a smell that no one can even identify.

it was, however I haven't written the book yet!
LOL
Merle

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in cyberspace everyone can hear you scream. . .

In a weird way it makes me feel comfortable that someones life was much worse then mine... I'm very sorry...