Involuntary hospitalization

[SN;)]

Where can I find information about involuntary hospitalization? Particularly for my question, consider the following scenario. The word slips from my mouth, and I accidentally tell someone that I have suicidal means prepared, and I am considering suicide by those means. What can they do, if my mental state is stable, but they have serious grounds to say that I'm in risk of suicide? I suspect that a psychiatrist will evaluate my mental state. I tell them that of course I wasn't going to use those means, I don't want to die, I'm happy with my life, it was just an idea long time ago, and I just haven't got rid of the means. But what if they don't believe me? Can they force me into a psychiatric ward? If yes, how long can they keep me in? If they do, I would threaten everyone involved in my hospitalization with lawsuits, does that change anything, does that make sense?

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Lots of questions but the short answer is simply thus: don't tell anyone unless you really,b really trust them to respect your autonomy.

 

[mainlanders_son]

DO NOT TELL ANY MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL YOU ARE SUICIDAL.

Mental hospitals will fuck you up more than you already are, please stay away from them.

If you admit you're suicidal, I *believe* they are required to hospitalize you, probably based on your jurisdiction though.

 

[strawberrydiequiri]

Best case scenario you have the option to enroll yourself in an Outpatient hospital.

Worst case scenario, you get on suicide watch and you get stripped naked, and left alone with your own thoughts. Could be for a few days, but maybe other people can elaborate more on that.

 

[willitpass]

DO NOT TELL ANY MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL YOU ARE SUICIDAL.

Mental hospitals will fuck you up more than you already are, please stay away from them.

If you admit you're suicidal, I *believe* they are required to hospitalize you, probably based on your jurisdiction though.

You will not be hospitalized on the basis of being suicidal alone. Any good mental health professional knows that suicidal thoughts are not always indicative of severe, life threatening crisis. Admitting intent and a plan is where you can get yourself into trouble. All of my therapists have known I've always been suicidal, I just always said it was passive. If you never tell a therapist you're suicidal they can't help you work through it and potentially recover.

Where can I find information about involuntary hospitalization? Particularly for my question, consider the following scenario. The word slips from my mouth, and I accidentally tell someone that I have suicidal means prepared, and I am considering suicide by those means. What can they do, if my mental state is stable, but they have serious grounds to say that I'm in risk of suicide? I suspect that a psychiatrist will evaluate my mental state. I tell them that of course I wasn't going to use those means, I don't want to die, I'm happy with my life, it was just an idea long time ago, and I just haven't got rid of the means. But what if they don't believe me? Can they force me into a psychiatric ward? If yes, how long can they keep me in? If they do, I would threaten everyone involved in my hospitalization with lawsuits, does that change anything, does that make sense?

If you say the right things you can have better odds avoiding hospitalization. In this situation I would avoid saying you are suicidal if it's someone you have never met before who is evaluating you. I would keep with what you stated here, and ensure you do not get hostile or overly upset. Composure and competency will help prove you are stable. As far as suing, you would get nowhere. If they have grounds to believe you were a threat to yourself then you have no shot winning that lawsuit, it'd be a waste of your time and money. Who is the judge going to believe, the person they claim is mentally unstable, or the mental health professional sectioning them?

I am well aware of how horrific hospitals are, I don't blame you for wanting to avoid them. They truly make the situation so much worse in all of my experiences. Taking away someone's dignity and autonomy and throwing them around a bunch of other sick people and expecting them to get better. Not to mention the abusive staff. Truly awful.

 

[SN;)]

You will not be hospitalized on the basis of being suicidal alone. Any good mental health professional knows that suicidal thoughts are not always indicative of severe, life threatening crisis. Admitting intent and a plan is where you can get yourself into trouble. All of my therapists have known I've always been suicidal, I just always said it was passive. If you never tell a therapist you're suicidal they can't help you work through it and potentially recover.

Yeah I totally agree, I have told to a few psychiatrist already that I've been struggling with suicidal ideation, but never mentioned that I actually have the means and plan. And yeah I don't want to mention that because I might get in trouble. This question is rather about if I fail to keep my secret (eg. somebody finds the means), what can I do against involuntary hospitalization.

 

[Hotsackage]

No comment, and you should do the same

 

[Ephemeron]

DO NOT TELL ANY MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL YOU ARE SUICIDAL.

Mental hospitals will fuck you up more than you already are, please stay away from them.

If you admit you're suicidal, I *believe* they are required to hospitalize you, probably based on your jurisdiction though.

This. It will make your life immeasurably worse.

You will not be hospitalized on the basis of being suicidal alone.

I don't know what country you're in willitpass, but in many countries, even the mention of suicide will get you incarcerated.

 

[MeowTheFlemishCat]

I spend 8 months against my will in one

 

[Illegal Preclear]

Are you in the US? If you are - remember they not only incarcerate you if you word slips out, they have a VESTED. MONETARY. INTEREST. in MAKING the word slip out of you. Don't even go NEAR the Psychiatric system. You can say nothing at all and they'll either gaslight you into making it slip or just lie about it! I've NEVER expressed suicidality to a therapist or Psychiatrist and I've been incarcerated 14 times. Explain that. They lie. They're such sadistic liars they make cops look like kittens. Granted, I'm a "special case" due to being forced into a very "special kind" of Psychiatric System as a toddler. But being Psychiatrically incarcerated as much as I have, I've talked to so many patients and heard enough horror stories from people of ALL walks of life to turn your hair white.

Psychiatrists will literally rape you. It's very easy to mix a couple drugs together to create a Scopolomine-like effect. Of course, that's very extreme, and I'd like to believe it's rarer in today's day and age, but I've known people it's happened to. At the very least - they will create a file on you that goes on your record. They can decide suicidality isn't enough, and mark you as homocidal. That's what they did to me in 2016. That report follows you as a "red flag" on background checks and any cop that runs your license place can see that "red flag". They can then use that file as cause enough to shoot you up with a 6-month dose of hard psychotropics that will leave you in a brain-damaged stupor.

In short - The Mental Health system will fuck you in ways you never thought it even possible to be fucked in. Stay as far away from those sadistic monsters as possible.

 

[SN;)]

Thanks for all the comments. Coming back to the original first question: There isn't an "Involuntary hospitalization Megathread", or anything like that, right? Or a resource, a collection of every possible information to know about involuntary hospitalization. I just can't search for it in the forum because I don't have enough posts.

 

[Felodese]

If you're in the us and want to know what the policy/law in your state says about involuntary hospitalization, Google "[state] involuntary hospitalization mental health code". It will give you the official criteria for hospitalization, e.i. when health care workers have to make a report.