Have you ever stayed in a psychiatric hospital?

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I have not but i am curious to know how many have and what was it like?

I have stayed in a psychiatric ward for two weeks once. It was to protect myself from seriously hurting myself. I would not recommend it though. You can't be alone there, so recharging the inner batteries is not possible. I was much relieved when I was out of there again.

I have. I stayed for 5 days for depression and suicidal ideation. I was discharged 4 years ago tomorrow. I was a voluntary only facility so the atmosphere was calm. The food sucked and so did the bed (but not all wards are like that), but I really needed to be there. They can adjust your meds faster there than they can at an office visit. I'm still on most of the same meds I was put on at the hospital.

If you ever feel you need to go, call up the psych ward voluntarily and make an appointment for an assessment. They have to ask intrusive questions but it is generally painless- just report what has been going on with you.

Going through the ER to get referred to the psych ward can be traumatic and they will probably label you as involuntary, which can cause you trouble later. If that's what you have to do to get help though, then do it.

The laws in many European countries have changed within recent years, and involuntary admission is much rarer (and much more humane when it does happen). So going to psychiatric care via Accident and Emergency is often the quickest way in (say if you feel self-harmful / suicidal / homicidal) and will not necessarily lead to involuntary admission.

This is one means by which general doctors finally realise the severity of conditions that they have been ignoring as minor, when people finally get a full psychiatric evaluation.

Hell on earth pretty much sums up my expiriences.

I have been 3 months in stationary psychotherapy. It was actually a pretty amazing time.

I was for six days. I hated it. I felt like I was in prison.

i voted yes although i was only in the ward for about an hour, if that..
i went to a&e, waited most of the night to see a doctor, made it clear i had no intention of harming myself or others and asked over and over again for him to reassure me that, because i was a voluntary patient i would not be treated as 'dangerous' and allowed to come and go.. he told me again and again i would be allowed, so finally at around 6am i go in and surprise surprise, i'm not allowed to go out for any reason.. soon got into an argument with a few 'fascist' nurses, which didn't help. eventually realised i should wait by the door, sure enough they didn't like this at all but as soon as someone tried to get in i forced my way out.. the nurses shouted 'don't let him out' etc was very scary and followed me for a while, i turned and said 'you're making me feel threatened for my life, stay away from me or i will defend myself.. F*** off!!' or something very similar and fortunately they did.. a most unpleasant experience, i have genuine sympathy for anyone who has experienced something similar.. i don't normally 'do' sympathy but well, it's terrifying to realise you're one 'wrong move' away from losing basic human rights and freedom.
fudo

I was in and out of psychiatric wards from the age of 15 to 19. I've been in an adolescent unit 3 times, an adult unit 8 times and a secure unit 3 times

The adolescent unit was pretty good tbh (relatively clean, more acitivities, outings and nice staff), but the adult ward was horrible in comparison; it stank of urine, the staff were overworked and stressed, and it was noisy and the activities weren't that good. I got complete sensory overload there which caused me to kick off quite a lot

Strangely enough the secure unit was nicer than the adult unit, mainly because the staff there were more trained and less overworekd (1:1 ratio of staff to patients), and hence were much nicer. However some of the patients there really scared me

I've been on section 2 (of the UK Mental Health Act) twice and a section 136 once. The section 136 was horrible as the police dragged me to the secure unit by force and I was in seclusion for 24 hours, except for being drugged up a few times

Psychiatric wards have given me mixed results. Sometimes they've really helped, other times I've discharged myself (when there "voluntarily")

The second to last stay was for 5 months, but when I was discharged they put me in supported accommodation (which I'm still in now) and supported accommodation has really helped me get away from my abusive mum and learn how to live more independently

I was involuntarily forced in there for two months by trickery, several years ago.

As others have said, there is no peace and it is the opposite of therapeutic.

I was in during a particularly hot summer, with no air conditioning, and they sadistically refused to open any windows. The nurses enjoyed openly mocking the drugged patients and giggling about how they could do nothing about it, neither physically nor legally. The doctor manipulated her patients by intentionally making them justifiably angry just so that she could call them aggressive and keep them captive for longer.

And the bathroom was infested with ants.

The only part of the experience which was tolerable was the few days spent on hashish (chewed and swallowed) which another patient's visitor had smuggled in.

Last edited by Invader on 24 Sep 2010, 8:50 am, edited 3 times in total.

Been twice for a week each involuntary. Got tricked the first time and cops came to my house the second time. I acted my way out of there both times but it is seriously horrible being able to understand what they do there. They had one guy so drugged up it was like he was in slow motion.

Yeah I remember intramuscular haloperidol. Strong stuff

I wasn't allowed outside in the fresh air for one and a half months, not even in the courtyard

The only way I got through staying on the urine-soaked, cockroach-infested adult ward was by sleeping, smoking weed occasionally and burying myself into a 1,200 page textbook called Clinical Medicine

Although when I was at my illest the only thing I felt was pure fear that the nurses were Spies who were going to kill me

I've seen "psychiatric abuse" happen to a lot of patients though....like one girl who was force fed so much that she became obese (and this wasn't even on an eating disorders unit, I've never been in one of those and they sound terrifying for people who suffer from eating disorders), and a patient with chronic, severe pain who was refused painkillers and told to "put up with it"

Last edited by SteelMaiden on 24 Sep 2010, 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've been there once, because I was suicidal. I stayed there for about a month, at first it felt like prison, but it got better.

There was no peace at all, I stayed in my room most of the time, but the nurses would bug me all day. Asking questions like "why do you sit in your room all day long, come out and socialize!".

(that was before i got my diagnosis, so they didn't know that I had AS)

Also I didn't like the other inmates, most of them were drugged down with anti psychotics, and the rest were "emo" girls...

i spent from year 6 to year 9 in a psychiatric adolescent unit, and then i was released to a mainstream school, and it took 6 months for me to be expelled from the school i was released to, and i returned and i stayed in the psychiatric unit from late year 9 until year 10 when i was released again and i was expelled again from the school i was sent to, and i went back to the psychiatric unit and left there when i had completed the higher school certificate by correspondence.

Yes. But not as a patient.

ruveyn

Yes, I spent time in a children's ward when I was about 8 or 9. Starting at 17, I found myself in and out of the local psychiatric ward and related facilities where I got transferred sometimes, and I was in one a few years ago. I hope that's it, because if you don't socialize, they don't let you out. And voluntary is a myth. At least that's how it is in the US. They promised me voluntary many times but I was never able to leave.