How it's like to be in a mental house or psych yard?

[badtzmaru]

I'm thinking about signing myself to a psych yard before i can harm myself and therefore harm my family, i truly believe will do me good. What is like to be there?

 

[Felodese]

I guess it depends a bit on where you live. It differs from country to country.
My experience would most likely not be the same as that of someone in the US. But my experience was not great.

 

[badtzmaru]

I guess it depends a bit on where you live. It differs from country to country.
My experience would most likely not be the same as that of someone in the US. But my experience was not great.

You feel like explaining further?

 

[Final_Choice]

Depends on how good the psych ward is and how much the workers care, it can vary greatly depending on those factors, from a great experience making progress towards recovery to a terrible experience making the patient much worse.

 

[Felodese]

You feel like explaining further?

The situation where I am is that though we have universal health care, which should be good thing, it's really underfunded, so a lot of things aren't working that well.
Being in the psych ward is basicslly just to be kept in custody so you won't hurt yourself. There's medication but no therapy - which is something that is apparently comonly made available in other voluntarily . People who are there voluntarily will be discharged asap, even if they want to stay.
And then there's the more personal issues I had there, from me being there against my will, to constantly being moved from room to room as they tried to rearrange to make room for new patients, and so on.. Being locked up with people even crazier than myself, some of who were aggressive or just really unpredictanle. There's lots of stuff.
The health care systems differ from each other and so do, the actual care that is provided to people in the psych ward.

 

[dajabe]

I was in several ones in germany and I think we have Overall a pretty good mental health care System.my expiriences where in some awsome, the actually took my Problems searios (bpd, autism, Depression) and in others terrible where they told ne i was seeking for attention and dont have any mental illness, just faking it.

 

[Zazacosta]

As several people said it differs from country to country and from mental house to mental house.

I can speak of my country - one in and for several houses I was in.
It is boring as hell - in every place I was in, boredom was the most difficult issue.
You are thrown out of the bed in the morning (usually in every mental house)
Your room is locked for whole day between 8:00 and 18:00.
Nobody takes care of you, except few hours in the morning.
Food is very bad.
Your only activity can be sitting and watching TV (very censored), reading a book, playing some very childish board game or walking in the corridors back and forth (which most people do).
You are forced to take medicine.
You pray for your release every day.
You are allowed to smoke in the dedicated place.
EDIT: I forgot to wrote that every mental house is usually divided into several departments. These departments vary from the perspectivity (How long they think you will need to be there) and also vary how they think can trust you (closed/semi-closed/open departments).
My experience is usually for the semi-closed depts. I was never in closed one. From what I hear and saw, it looks like prison there. When I get to open departments (Usually in the end of my treatment),there were at least signs of some therapy, usually in the morning and you were also allowed to go outside for several hours, sometimes even alone to go to a shop and buy something.
The biggest bullshit of our system is however that people with any diagnosis can be in one deparment. I was in one department with drugg addicted, people after unsuccessful CTB, depressions, anxiety disorders, bulimia, psychotics, schyzofrenia, bipolar disorder... People with every diagnosis together in one place...

 

[HopingOnaMiracle]

I was in several ones in germany and I think we have Overall a pretty good mental health care System.my expiriences where in some awsome, the actually took my Problems searios (bpd, autism, Depression) and in others terrible where they told ne i was seeking for attention and dont have any mental illness, just faking it.

Bro what country are you in? This sounds like prison.

Ive been in a psych ward twice, once for 3 weeks, once for 2 weeks on a special programme. I was bored a lot too. There were therapy sessions but those were not too great. Very basic CBT in a group once a week. Creative 'therapy' which was just doing whatever creative. I decided to paint. Garden 'therapy' was even worse. That was just working in the garden, cutting weed and grass etc. I asked the guy what the point of it all was, he said we get 'activated' by doing garden work. I felt terrible while doing it and it felt useless. I liked driving around on the lawnmower though.
In the end it was a place with people in crisis. To keep them doing stuff and maybe recover.

I applied for a commercial psych ward but they rejected me because I had a freak out on video call. Because it took a week longer for them to decide if they will take me. Because of that they rejected me. I was devestated. I guess they don't want people in conditions that are too bad like me. I'm still angry about this. About myself because I let myself go that one time and fucked up this oppurtunity.

 

[theboy]

I have had 4 hospitalizations. Ask whatever you want

 

[Jorms_McGander]

Once I got over the shyness and accepted that I have a safe space to go to if I don't want to socialise, I honestly really loved it a lot. I was in for six weeks and not sure if I ever had the same meal twice. I made a couple friends. I actually made a lot of friends. I became a social butterfly. Some neighbours were more challenging but I have the time of day for anybody. It was very helpful.

It is also the only context in which I could stand a chance for diagnosis as I present uncommonly so I needed those daily interviews.

 

[lita-lassi]

sorry in advance for the novel. my experience will not be similar to someone who goes voluntarily.

i was admitted fraudulently. i went to a behavioral health building looking for a referral to a therapist, i specifically said i didnt want to kill myself and they lied and said i had a "plan" so they wouldn't let me leave. i quickly had to call my father to take care of my cat who would've been left alone for days without food or whatever if i hadn't gotten lucky on the timing. had to call work and tell them roughly what happened while having a full on panic attack. had to go through an embarrassing intake process and missed doses of prescription meds i actually needed for several days. every time a person talked to me for like 5 mins tops it was a brand new human who i had to reexplain to why i shouldn't be in there at all and none of them helped. i have severe social anxiety so every time they even mentioned group therapy i told them to fuck off, i will become extremely worse off, and they kept trying to convince me anyways. the psychiatrist was a dismissive dick who just wanted to argue with me about everything. the psychologist was actually a good person but they're so understaffed and busy they didn't bother having me meet with him a second time despite the regulation being that everyone was supposed to get 20-30 min every day with him - i got 10 for the first, and no second appointment despite asking to talk to him again. i didn't eat for 2 1/2 days out of severe stress. i lost weight, i threw up. i barely slept and when i did i had 2 of the most vivid nightmares about 2 of the men that had hurt me more than anyone/thing else 2 nights in a row in very uncomfortable beds. i grabbed a giant book and read as much as i could focus on, that mightve been the best part actually: a bunch of patients had started a written "scavenger hunt" within the pages and i got to contribute to the games patients play within the confines of a large depressing russian novel over many years.

the only good thing overall would be upon leaving i finally got the giant list of referrals i had originally come in for and a prescription for anxiety medication that sort of helped.

*IMPORTANT BIT*: despite all of this, i know that it wasn't really the fault of staff at all. there were too few of them, they were nice, they tried to do what they could within reason. they had several young people actively trying to kill themselves in the ward to deal with, they had difficult or demanding patients every which way. if someone is okay participating in group therapy, willing to connect with those around them, asks for worksheets to fill out and talk through with decent councilors, i feel like it could've helped. it just wasnt good for me. sorry again for the really long ass post

 

[badtzmaru]

I have had 4 hospitalizations. Ask whatever you want

Did you felt like any of those four hospitalizations made any improvement in your mental health or stopped your suicidal thoughts in any way?

 

[theboy]

Did you feel that any of those four hospitalizations improved your mental health or somehow stopped your suicidal thoughts?

Yes, it has helped but not completely. My suicidal thoughts have always returned even if I haven't thought about CTB for months. The important thing is the drugs in combination with psychotherapy.. pm if u want