Venting My psych ward experience.

[Merocero]

For clarity, I'm from Poland, and the mental health awareness is pretty... shitty. I admitted myself into a psych ward cause of suicidal thoughts that ive had for over a month, and meds weren't helping me. To start- I was sleeping in the hallway. For 3 nights. I couldnt sleep because the lights were always on at some end of the hallway and the nurses were loud after nighttime. The food obv was awfull so i lived off of instant noodles my mom brought me, and some stuff we shared with a few other people, the people were nice, but thats the only positive thing i have to say unfortunately! I was there for a week, and out of the 6 times i asked for a talk with a psychologist, i was ignored half the time. I couldn't have any electronics there so i was stuck without my coping mechanisms available and constantly triggered cause of seeing other peoples self harm scars. They also got my medical information wrong and prescribed me the wrong meds cause of which i cant sleep sigh.... i was somewhat truthful with my psychologist at first but after two days i realised that this wont work, and started lying to get out asap, managed to get out after a week, still suicidal, still self harming, just now i have to be more cautious so my family members wont notice. If i ever went back, it would be for the people cause they were really nice and i felt the support from them! The system just sucks..! How do they expect me to be honest about my thoughts if im gonna be tied up for saying that i want to self harm? or theyll take away my stuff? i cant understand the people that were honest about everything with staff... I could never, that would just keep me there longer...
I'd love to hear any stories you guys might have from psych ward experiences, were they bad? were you taken seriously there?

 

[Surdfieldharvester]

Yeah similar experience and stayed for about 3 weeks. Just slept as much as I could and talked with other depressed people.

 

[whocares?]

Yah, alot of mental health support systems are pure bullshit. My therapist is greedy, he saw me planning for suicide/ self harm. And yet, he doesn't do anything about it.

 

[Merocero]

Yah, alot of mental health support systems are pure bullshit. My therapist is greedy, he saw me planning for suicide/ self harm. And yet, he doesn't do anything about it.

That sucks.. i have a therapist now and even though i told her about self harming almost daily she just says and "ill do what i want" so she cant help me..?? waoh i though you were supposed to help but ig nope lmao, great, she also just gives the same advice that basically sounds like "just go out" erm youre not helping?? literally told her that its hard for me to talk about my self harm cause i feel judged and she looked at me with disgust when i talked about that,, welp

 

[XiaroX]

I think pretty much everywhere in the world mental health systems are failing people, and there are likely more people with bad experiences than good. I've had very different experiences in different psych wards, but it would fill a book and I won't put anyone through that today. Well, maybe it's just that I can't put myself through the writing of it. However, you deserve support and understanding about self-harm.

One little anecdote for today: I was in family therapy, and said I would probably kill myself one day, and the therapist said, yes, that's your right, but my family ignored me as if I had said nothing and just went back to talking about themselves, and the therapist gave us no further guidance - when a big part of family therapy is that families might have communication issues. (To this day, it seems impossible for my biological family to think of my feelings and experiences as valid. So for me, family therapy -Epic Fail.)

I understand not wanting to have confinement inflicted on you - when really what you want is to talk, and you want understanding. Some psych wards are really f-ing scary, but on the plus side, it seems like now so many people have psychological problems, there's more of a resource/beds issue (although if you're still young, you might be more likely to have it forced on you). I think that alongside climate change, there's also psychological climate change going on, and it might not be reversible.

I've spoken three times this year to a suicide hotline, and also 3 times to a drug and alcohol place, and I've mentioned my deathwish and my prepared method (hanging), and no one came to take me away. I've also expressed to my doctor that I want to put my vote in for euthanasia for people like me - and none of this resulted in a forced psych stay, even factoring in my history of attempts.

Really sorry, this turned out much longer than I intended. It's a problem, and I'm working on it, but probably can't change.

But you're right. Forced incarceration does not generate the trust needed to fully open up.