Voluntary hospitalization

[scales]

Does anyone here have experience with voluntary inpatient hospitalization? If so, could you please share it?

 

[hikikomori]

mines was involuntary but i didn't hate it it might help you if thats what your looking for but i just put on my smiles and charms and got out eaerly. food was aight
i was in 2 facilities in one, you stay in a room with other peopple like 6 to a room co ed so i was kinda uncomfurtable all varies from 3d graders to 18 year olds (me) i was BORED AS HELL they ask questions once a day cheick if sick etc. then i got sent to another one less crowded one nd this place had a gym (highschool gym not work out stuff) nd an art center nd TV no internet or phones tho. nd you would go around doing feel good stuff like listing reasons to liveor group activities, my main thing was all the diffrent people got put to gether so like ppl with anger issues nd ppl who O.D. nd depressed ppl so there was potential for conflict but I.E. a gay pationt getting beaten up by one of the anger ppl some of whom were in a gangs(or claimed to be). im bi but i didnt tell anyone so i was fine but still. at night they giv you rurbber toothbrushes and soap in a cup to shower and wash up but it was aight. i dit get grabbed by somone but i could very easily have been an accident

 

[hikikomori]

TLDR check the facility

 

[scales]

Thank you for sharing your experience! That is certainly interesting and definitely something I don't want to experience. Yikes.

 

[hikikomori]

honestly if you want to feel better and you dont actully want to ctb if you find a facillity like the second one itl help

 

[Threads]

Do not voluntary admit yourself!

 

[scales]

Yeah. I have never been 'Involuntarily Hospitalized.' But I've spent enough time in psych wards to know how shit rolls.

I've had the police come to my house and my wife confirm I'm having suicidal thoughts (Which I told her not too), so I was 'Forced' to be admitted. This was a result of being doxed in November of 2017 on a Discord server I was a mod of.

Here's the deal bro. If you go to the hospital and say you're having suicidal thoughts. Well. A couple things.

Depending on how terrible the mental healthcare funding is you're going to go to either a terrible facility, or an absolutely terrible facility. If you're state is an R state, you're fucked. If it's a D state, you're less fucked.

Now. Once you go to the ER, the first thing that is going to happen is that you're going to have your vitals taken. If you have to go to the bathroom, do so now. After the ER doc is gonna come in. He's going to ask you the suicide hotline questions. Registration will come in ask you to sign some paperwork. Sign it. The less difficult you are, the easier and faster shit is going to be. After all of this, the nurse is going to come in and tell you to strip. Comply. After that you are going to be moved into a room with a camera always watching you, and you may have a restraint to prevent you from escaping. Depending on how you're acting, you may get an injection of Haloperiodal or some sort of tranquilizer. The effects of these drugs is not pleasant, anything in the haloperiodal family can cause permanent unpleasant effects even under limited usage. Don't give them a reason to inject you.

How you act in the hospital you admit yourself into plays a significant role in where and how far you will go. Remember. If they send you across the state and outside of county, you have to arrange your transportation home. Don't fuck with the staff in the hospital you admit yourself into.

There is a lot of variables with this next phase. You're going to have to have a drug test. Sometime during this time, you're going to have a social worker interview you and ask you the suicide hotline questions, as well some more personal questions, you're going to be waiting a while. Depending if and what insurance you have, the time of day, if the moon is full, what you tested positive for, where you are, etc, etc you're probably going to get shipped off to another facility. I've heard of patients in West Virginia actually being shipped to county jail (Absolutely terrible facility). Expect to be in this bed restrained and escorted/watched wherever you go. You gotta use the bathroom? You're going to have an escort.

Anything that could be construed as a means to harm yourself will be taken from you. Goodbye belts, shoelaces, and everything in between. You'll probably never see them again either. Cellphone? Gone. iPod? Gone. Headphones? Gone. Cigarettes? Gone. If you test positive for drugs, you're going to have to go to meetings. Meetings in psych wards fucking suck. Don't do it. Do not piss hot.

When you actually do find a facility. You're going to be transported there. This will be done by either ambulance, sheriff, or local police. You're going to be restrained the entire time. Once there, you'll meet with an intake nurse, you'll have your vitals taken. Afterwards, depending on what sort of facility you're in, either a social worker, psychologist, or LPC will meet with you. They'll ask you the suicide hotline questions. Depending how you answer these questions will help (But not ultimately) determine where you are placed in the facility. You'll ultimately be moved wherever there is a bed.

Typically, you'll be moved to a waiting area with other patients. Patients are typically separated by biological sex, if you're a woman, you're going to be with women... vice versa.

Now, I just want to make clear to you. At this point, your total bill is around $10,000. You haven't even spent a night in the mental health facility, but that is probably what your bill is with all expenses up until this point.

You will be stripped down by someone who very likely does even have an associates degree in mental healthcare, and they will determine if you have or are currently self-harming. This will be dehumanizing.

I'm going to assume you're from Ohio. Ohio is a nice state. It has mid level mental healthcare. Ohio is the most average of states, right next to Iowa. Even with the nicest of foods, you're going to be eating garbage and drinking only decaffeinated foods. Privacy? Kek. You have none. Chances are you're going to be sharing a room with two other crazies. You will spend you day in an overcrowded room coloring shitty printed off pages, and doing 'group therapy.' You'll eat three shitty meals a day, need permission to do anything, have a shitty snack before bed, and be forced to take medication. There will only be one psychiatrist for the entire unit, so you're going to see an overworked, underpaid, and understaffed doctor who will take one look at you and throw the hardest and most powerful psychotropic drug available. Your unit social worker will be under the same duress as the unit psychiatrist, they will tell you what you want to hear and ignore you. Psychiatric wards in the United States are built around the profit model, you are a cog in a broken down and failing machine. You're experience in a psych ward will reflect my previous sentence. You will be given this medication, watched as you take it, and have your mouth checked. You'll stay for 4 - 5 days. You'll regret it. There is a chance you may be sexually assaulted by your fellow bed mates. It is a dehumanizing and traumatic experience. You will meet people who have very serious mental health problems and are likely very dangerous. The medication will make you feel like a drone.

The above paragraph describes if you behave. If you're like me and I am essentially an asshole, you're going to get it.

I was last warded for upwards of 16 days. Had I behaved and manipulated the staff, I would have done 4 - 5 days. I physically assaulted all male staff members I came in contact with and spit in the face of my doctor. I was shot up with drugs, and restrained. I spent hours in restraints. I wasn't as big as I am now (And I wasn't small either) but I was tackled and 'humanely' brought down. I don't care if you are Chuck Norris with the body of John Cena, you will lose in a fight against the staff. You may be able to fight off two staff members, but you cannot fight off the all of them. In jail, those behaviors may earn you respect from your fellow inmates, in the psych ward it makes you a target. Every time you fight with the staff, you disrupt 'safe zone' for other psychiatric patients, they don't like that, and you have to sleep in a room with them. Don't fight with the staff unless you're prepared to be fighting with the patients too. Psychiatric patients are dangerous and do not have limits.

I did not want to be in the psych ward and I made that shit clear off the bat. I was not going to be dehumanized and I was not going to be treated like shit. Don't do what I did. Take what you have coming to you and keep your head down.

TL:DR

Don't voluntary admit yourself. Don't fucking do it. If you're truly suicidal and do not want to die, talk with us and we will talk you down. Come to discord and DM me. If you are having that bad of a day/week/month/year/decade/life and feel like killing yourself and feel the need to admit yourself, I will talk you down. There are other ways to get mental healthcare. Do not voluntary admit yourself!

Thank you for sharing your experience, this sounds like hell. I've pretty much decided at this point I'm not going to do it, this is awful.

 

[Threads]

Thank you for sharing your experience, this sounds like hell. I've pretty much decided at this point I'm not going to do it, this is awful.

If you need resources for affordable/accessible mental healthcare DM in Discord, and I will help you find it.

 

[zzz919]

Just imagine being involuntarily committed to Walmart ...... That is what mental hospitals are like in the United States ...... The hospital staff with be comprised of illiterate hillbilly rednecks ...... The hospital staff can barely read and write ...... Much less diagnose mental illness ...... Hillbilly rednecks babysitting people who are suffering ...... Imagine Walmart with a psychiatrist who does not care if you are alive or dead ...... Imagine Walmart with an illiterate nurse who speaks like the rapper Nicki Minaj ...... You describe your symptoms and she says ...... !!!Whateva!!! ...... !!!Whateva!!! ...... !!!Whateva!!!

 

[Finallyhere]

Been to three, none for more than three days.

First was aight, shared a room with an old dude. Patients were nice. They kept the out of control crazies on the other side. Food was horrible. Voluntary admission.

Second had a good staff, nice folks, but grumpy patients. Involuntary admission.

Third was the absolute worst. Slept on a lazy boy in a room with over a dozen other people either waiting to leave or be admitted for longer. One lady kept screaming all night, staff just kept repeating to her to quiet down or she'll get locked up. Everyone shared the same bathroom. Ironically this place did have the best food, but it ain't saying much. Involuntary admission but that's cuz I was too stupid.

I got psych meds after the second and third places. These meds haven't helped much to be honest. Considering going back to marijuana.

 

[Finallyhere]

If I was homeless and desperate for food/shelter, I'd certainly go back. Really dunno how long you could stay though.

 

[CJM]

Voluntary here. When I was talking to the psychiatrist, who I've said before, is a nice enough guy but I just felt he wasn't doing jack shit(breathing exercises? really??) So I asked him straight up how people get put away in psych wards, he explained that they can be put under the "mental health act" which is a min 5 day stay and you can only be released if a judge says so.
Anyway I asked if I could do it voluntarily, see what it is like, he said I could and arranged for me to stay. I stayed there two nights. The hospital was divided into two sections similar to a Min and Max prison, the first area which is min security which was where I stayed was shaped like an octagon with staff behind a secure room in the middle and rooms for patients to stay in surrounding it, there was a TV room, a rec room, an art room, a kitchen mess hall and another little mini kitchen for coffee and tea, the rooms weren't secure and patients could walk around and do whatever throughout the day and it's lights off at 10, meals are provided throughout with plastic cutlery(standard hospital food, fill out a preference form daily and go collect it when it's time for breakfast, lunch or dinner) it basically felt like a regular hospital except - your rooms have bars over the windows, everyone was in bare feet or socks, shoe laces are taken away from you and belts, no chargers or cables in your room, there aren't any power sockets, you can use your phone but it must be charged at the central staff room, they also have the wifi code which was actually good. Someone will always check on you every few hours when you sleep and there's a doctor that walks around seeing people every day usually the morning. Everyone just sort of mixed and mingled with each other, many were in far worse shape than I, there was a couple if instances where security or the police got involved in the middle of the night plus the odd scream from a patient.
The max part is behind a huge secure door and this is the more familiar psych hospital you hear or see in movies, white padded cells and only the absolute basics in there.

 

[Trashcan]

It was my first time. It's a lie that if you go there voluntarily, you can check yourself out at any time. I was taken back to a room to get evaluated. Then they decided to admit me. I was there for about 3 1/2 weeks. This hospital was unique - we didn't have roommates. We ordered from a menu (most hospitals have cafeterias). We had a gym for PE. We didn't have classes. We also did art and music therapy. There was a staff that was watching us at all times and even had to be right outside the door when we were showering or using the restroom. I was still a minor at the time so there was a playground we sometimes went to. We also had lots of group therapy sessions and would meet with our psychiatrist and therapist quite often. It wasn't fun to be in, but it wasn't terrible. But this mental hospital was also unique.

 

[Red star]

Yes I voluntarily stayed in hospital for electroshocktherapy because I was that desperate. 4 days passed, doctor tells me he doesnt want to do it cause I'm too young and refers me to somewhere else.

 

[Red star]

Just imagine being involuntarily committed to Walmart ...... That is what mental hospitals are like in the United States ...... The hospital staff with be comprised of illiterate hillbilly rednecks ...... The hospital staff can barely read and write ...... Much less diagnose mental illness ...... Hillbilly rednecks babysitting people who are suffering ...... Imagine Walmart with a psychiatrist who does not care if you are alive or dead ...... Imagine Walmart with an illiterate nurse who speaks like the rapper Nicki Minaj ...... You describe your symptoms and she says ...... !!!Whateva!!! ...... !!!Whateva!!! ...... !!!Whateva!!!

LOL

 

[hunter_lewis]

I don't understand how being restrained, transported somewhere like an animal for slaughter and then kept somewhere similar to a prison is going to help anyone get better.
No wonder so many people ctb after being discharged.
Thanks for your post! I was scared of psych wards before, but your post gave me the literal creeps.

 

[worldexploder]

After I OD'd in 2015, they moved me from the hospital bed to a room were I was "presented with an opportunity to get help". I argued with them for hours about my right to go home as well as the right to die. Similar rhetoric I use on SS. I didnt yell or anything. I was very calm and direct throughout the discussion.

I knew that if I didn't go voluntarily it would be on my records. I ultimately decided to go quietly instead of kicking and screaming. For 6 days I had to listen to all these white coat pro-life optimists tell me that existing as a sentient being is a positive imposition in so many words. Trying to convince me of that is like trying to convince someone that red is blue. So I played nice while they wasted their time talking hivemind nonsense. I wanted out of there ASAP. "Higher power yada yada pro-life yada yada". If I wanted to listen to that garbage I'd go to church.

I do respect everyones right to voluntarily check themselves into psyche at their own accord. I am not anti-psychiatric facilities. I am anti-force and coercion. People should only be involuntarily committed IF they are a danger to someone else or is having a true psychotic breakdown were they lose touch with reality - such as in cases of schizophrenia. The right to die should always be an option. Otherwise the system is inherently unjust.

 

[Johnnythefox]

Yeah. I have never been 'Involuntarily Hospitalized.' But I've spent enough time in psych wards to know how shit rolls.

I've had the police come to my house and my wife confirm I'm having suicidal thoughts (Which I told her not too), so I was 'Forced' to be admitted. This was a result of being doxed in November of 2017 on a Discord server I was a mod of.

Here's the deal bro. If you go to the hospital and say you're having suicidal thoughts. Well. A couple things.

Depending on how terrible the mental healthcare funding is you're going to go to either a terrible facility, or an absolutely terrible facility. If you're state is an R state, you're fucked. If it's a D state, you're less fucked.

Now. Once you go to the ER, the first thing that is going to happen is that you're going to have your vitals taken. If you have to go to the bathroom, do so now. After the ER doc is gonna come in. He's going to ask you the suicide hotline questions. Registration will come in ask you to sign some paperwork. Sign it. The less difficult you are, the easier and faster shit is going to be. After all of this, the nurse is going to come in and tell you to strip. Comply. After that you are going to be moved into a room with a camera always watching you, and you may have a restraint to prevent you from escaping. Depending on how you're acting, you may get an injection of Haloperiodal or some sort of tranquilizer. The effects of these drugs is not pleasant, anything in the haloperiodal family can cause permanent unpleasant effects even under limited usage. Don't give them a reason to inject you.

How you act in the hospital you admit yourself into plays a significant role in where and how far you will go. Remember. If they send you across the state and outside of county, you have to arrange your transportation home. Don't fuck with the staff in the hospital you admit yourself into.

There is a lot of variables with this next phase. You're going to have to have a drug test. Sometime during this time, you're going to have a social worker interview you and ask you the suicide hotline questions, as well some more personal questions, you're going to be waiting a while. Depending if and what insurance you have, the time of day, if the moon is full, what you tested positive for, where you are, etc, etc you're probably going to get shipped off to another facility. I've heard of patients in West Virginia actually being shipped to county jail (Absolutely terrible facility). Expect to be in this bed restrained and escorted/watched wherever you go. You gotta use the bathroom? You're going to have an escort.

Anything that could be construed as a means to harm yourself will be taken from you. Goodbye belts, shoelaces, and everything in between. You'll probably never see them again either. Cellphone? Gone. iPod? Gone. Headphones? Gone. Cigarettes? Gone. If you test positive for drugs, you're going to have to go to meetings. Meetings in psych wards fucking suck. Don't do it. Do not piss hot.

When you actually do find a facility. You're going to be transported there. This will be done by either ambulance, sheriff, or local police. You're going to be restrained the entire time. Once there, you'll meet with an intake nurse, you'll have your vitals taken. Afterwards, depending on what sort of facility you're in, either a social worker, psychologist, or LPC will meet with you. They'll ask you the suicide hotline questions. Depending how you answer these questions will help (But not ultimately) determine where you are placed in the facility. You'll ultimately be moved wherever there is a bed.

Typically, you'll be moved to a waiting area with other patients. Patients are typically separated by biological sex, if you're a woman, you're going to be with women... vice versa.

Now, I just want to make clear to you. At this point, your total bill is around $10,000. You haven't even spent a night in the mental health facility, but that is probably what your bill is with all expenses up until this point.

You will be stripped down by someone who very likely does even have an associates degree in mental healthcare, and they will determine if you have or are currently self-harming. This will be dehumanizing.

I'm going to assume you're from Ohio. Ohio is a nice state. It has mid level mental healthcare. Ohio is the most average of states, right next to Iowa. Even with the nicest of foods, you're going to be eating garbage and drinking only decaffeinated beverages. Privacy? Kek. You have none. Chances are you're going to be sharing a room with two other crazies. You will spend you day in an overcrowded room coloring shitty printed off pages, and doing 'group therapy.' You'll eat three shitty meals a day, need permission to do anything, have a shitty snack before bed, and be forced to take medication. There will only be one psychiatrist for the entire unit, so you're going to see an overworked, underpaid, and understaffed doctor who will take one look at you and throw the hardest and most powerful psychotropic drug available. Your unit social worker will be under the same duress as the unit psychiatrist, they will tell you what you want to hear and ignore you. Psychiatric wards in the United States are built around the profit model, you are a cog in a broken down and failing machine. Your experience in a psych ward will reflect my previous sentence. You will be given this medication, watched as you take it, and have your mouth checked. You'll stay for 4 - 5 days. You'll regret it. There is a chance you may be sexually assaulted by your fellow bed mates. It is a dehumanizing and traumatic experience. You will meet people who have very serious mental health problems and are likely very dangerous. The medication will make you feel like a drone.

The above paragraph describes if you behave. If you're like me and I am essentially an asshole, you're going to get it.

I was last warded for upwards of 16 days. Had I behaved and manipulated the staff, I would have done 4 - 5 days. I physically assaulted all male staff members I came in contact with and spit in the face of my doctor. I was shot up with drugs, and restrained. I spent hours in restraints. I wasn't as big as I am now (And I wasn't small either) but I was tackled and 'humanely' brought down. I don't care if you are Chuck Norris with the body of John Cena, you will lose in a fight against the staff. You may be able to fight off two staff members, but you cannot fight off the all of them. In jail, those behaviors may earn you respect from your fellow inmates, in the psych ward it makes you a target. Every time you fight with the staff, you disrupt the 'safe zone' for other psychiatric patients, they don't like that, and you have to sleep in a room with them. Don't fight with the staff unless you're prepared to be fighting with the patients too. Psychiatric patients are dangerous and do not have limits.

I did not want to be in the psych ward and I made that shit clear off the bat. I was not going to be dehumanized and I was not going to be treated like shit. Don't do what I did. Take what you have coming to you and keep your head down.

On the day of your discharge, you'll be handed a pamphlet of resources. Most will be for outpatient therapy and outpatient treatment through the hospital, you can't afford this. The rest will be phone numbers (suicide hotline), local AA, etc, etc. None of these you will truly ever use. If you need resources for mental healthcare, get on Google at home, everything the hospital gives you is just another way to overcharge you for more understaffed and underfunded activities.

TL:DR

Don't voluntary admit yourself. Don't fucking do it. If you're truly suicidal and do not want to die, talk with us and we will talk you down. Come to discord and DM me. If you are having that bad of a day/week/month/year/decade/life and feel like killing yourself and feel the need to admit yourself, I will talk you down. There are other ways to get mental healthcare. Do not voluntary admit yourself!

Jesus!! That sounds like hell.. I've never been on a psych ward and after reading that I don't want to either and I'm in the UK.

 

[Xerxes]

Everything about the US mental healthcare is true. It truly is the shithole and no wonder so many people who do get committed these days, aren't getting better. I spent a month at Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee. The staff can beat you up, you're at the mercy of other crazy individuals, and you have to pay for all that. At least in jail, you don't have to pay and you get to freely beat up whoever fucks with you or get beaten up. They test all these drugs on you, give you a shot in the ass when you don't calm down, and/or lock you up in solitary. The 'group therapy' is usually just coloring or meditating with platitudes. They used to have pet therapy which was cool, but that went away when one of the patients started choking and abusing the dogs.

So in the end, you're left more traumatized, you hate your family because they put you in there against your will, and you owe them 50-100k dollars. While they take their research, and apply their findings to other institutions that this is a helpful method.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Everything about the US mental healthcare is true. It truly is the shithole and no wonder so many people who do get committed these days, aren't getting better. I spent a month at Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee. The staff can beat you up, you're at the mercy of other crazy individuals, and you have to pay for all that. At least in jail, you don't have to pay and you get to freely beat up whoever fucks with you or get beaten up. They test all these drugs on you, give you a shot in the ass when you don't calm down, and/or lock you up in solitary. The 'group therapy' is usually just coloring or meditating with platitudes. They used to have pet therapy which was cool, but that went away when one of the patients started choking and abusing the dogs.

So in the end, you're left more traumatized, you hate your family because they put you in there against your will, and you owe them 50-100k dollars. While they take their research, and apply their findings to other institutions that this is a helpful method.

Yes, Florida seems to have mastered its own form of cruelty in this realm as well. I continue to reside here.

I had totally forgotten about coloring. At some point during my insane journey, I and an motley crew of mental patients were given a circular, maze-like design to color. We were only given a stub of a pencil, with such crappy wood that it split under the slightest pressure, causing whatever graphite-like substance to break as well. Pencils in jail were far superior.

Good times.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

Yes, coloring is the go-to when it comes to things like group therapy or what have you. You're made to feel like it's not childish because you can buy an "adult" coloring book, which is the same as a kid's coloring book, except it's tediously long and difficult to complete, and costs $25 instead of $2. What is it with this "therapeutic" nonsense? Play "Two truths and a lie", create something in a sand box... fuck off already. That's just how it was during my time in voluntary psych. Pump you full of pills, play games with you, then send you a gigantic bill. Like thanks, I feel a lot better.

 

[Johnnythefox]

I'm now wondering how many people on here have been hospitalised, I may start a poll out of curiosity.

 

[TAW122]

Well said, and yet most people either deny this, pretend it isn't as bad, or even white wash it. I also try not to correct or argue with people around me because it not only doesn't change their mind, but also increases the risk of people treating me like I'm some mental case or something, simply for disagreeing with their indoctrinated rosy-tinted perspective of hospitalization.


While I never been to a psych ward (voluntarily or involuntarily), I wholly agree with threads' posts, do NOT ever voluntarily admit yourself to a hospital or psych ward and generally avoid talking to mental health professionals as doing so just opens up the risk of being hospitalized (for saying the wrong thing). They aren't looking for your best interests, but rather their own (wallet, career, and society). Whatever happens to you during and after the experience, you suffer, but society doesn't, which to me is a bullshit package.

I'm really sorry to hear about your experiences and I can understand that you'd wouldn't want to be treated like a subhuman (no one who values their own self-worth or dignity would). I don't know what I'd do if I were in your situation, but I could certainly see myself being upset perhaps even putting up resistance if I knew I had nothing to lose or no real incentive to do well. I guess you could say I'm a bit fucked up in the whole incentive vs. deterrence department, but that's another story.

I do want to make clear that I don't condone the treatment of people like this and FUCK all of the people who try to downplay, misrepresent, whitewash, or otherwise sanction such barbaric treatment of people who haven't even committed any crimes. Also FUCK the mental health industry and professionals for trying to push this as some sort of thing that people should be grateful of. It is inhumane and while it may be better than the last century, there is still NO excuse for this kind of treatment towards people who haven't done anything wrong nor hurt others to begin with. Sorry I am really infuriated after reading what happened to people in mental health hospitals, it's quite disgusting and barbaric, and even the most heinous suspected criminals are still treated slightly better (at least they can get a lawyer, have some civil rights, and what not) than psych patients.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Yes, coloring is the go-to when it comes to things like group therapy or what have you. You're made to feel like it's not childish because you can buy an "adult" coloring book, which is the same as a kid's coloring book, except it's tediously long and difficult to complete, and costs $25 instead of $2. What is it with this "therapeutic" nonsense? Play "Two truths and a lie", create something in a sand box... fuck off already. That's just how it was during my time in voluntary psych. Pump you full of pills, play games with you, then send you a gigantic bill. Like thanks, I feel a lot better.

I've seen the adult coloring books put to good use in my caregiver support groups. However, in the setting I described, with the given materials. I don't have insurance so they took me off of basic medications like the thyroid replacement hormone levothyroxine, which I had been on without incident for many years prior and have been for many years since. They're monsters and crazier than the majority of people they hold prisoner in the name of "safety."

 

[concededarc]

I posted in the other thread about my experience. Because the area I attempted in was so rural I was sent to a medical centre and not a true hospital so there wasn't a psych ward. I shared a room with a nice old lady who probably had cancer or something, they didn't take anything of mine, I just couldn't use my phone because nobody had a charger. To be honest I don't think the general staff knew why I was in there, they treated me like I had the flu or something. Really nice people.

I spent 3 nights there, watching CPAC and eating warm tasty sandwiches and apple juice. Honestly it was really chill and relaxing. It took a whole day for the psychologist to get to the medical centre. She told me there was nothing the system could do to help me, that they could force me to stay for up to 30 days if "I really wanted to" but that it wouldn't do me any good. She's the only therapist that ever made sense to me.

I left after the 3rd night, I was allowed to drive home on my own which was 5 hours away.

 

[Fucking loving it]

Where I live the psych wards aren't terrible. I spent a lot of time bored. I never had any bad experiences in one.

 

[MAIO]

Does anyone here have experience with voluntary inpatient hospitalization? If so, could you please share it?

When I was in highschool my suicide attempt failed I woke up in the hospital. The psychiatrist told me I could either voluntarily commit myself or she would involuntarily commit me. So I was "volunteered hospitalized. It was really boring and I didn't gain anything from it. I really liked the people there though. Ended up hooking up with this girl evreyone called barbie

 

[Sundayafternoon]

Does anyone here have experience with voluntary inpatient hospitalization? If so, could you please share it?

One morning, march 2012, i was going to be late to work (possible writeup) i was feeling really jittery like i wanted to run away from everything. I called my then therapist who called the hospital and told them i was on the way.

I told the hospital i was prepared to drive myself into a fucking wall because i was over it all. They kept me from Thursday to Sunday. I complained every day. Sitting in those stupid classes. I wanted to go. Doc wanted to keep me for a week. But they let me go.
Month off of work and an intensive out patient program. That i was kicked out of because my pee was green. in my defense, they asked me to bring up all these painful memories then sent me home. I told them i had no support system.

I was left with a couple thousand in debt, loss my job and i was closer to choosing death.

Your experience may be better.