what is Involuntary commitment like?

[Leonard_Bangley39]

Has anyone here ever been involuntarily committed before? I'm curious to know how it went. Did you hate it? Did it help with anything? How long were you committed?

 

[martyrdom]

Yes, I have. I was committed for 2 months. I hated it and tried to kill myself 3 times (while still on suicide watch in the regular hospital, not in the actual psychiatric unit). I was violent at first so I had to be restrained and given injections, then put in isolation a few times. I became clinically catatonic with traumatic mutism for the rest of the stay. My experience might be a bit atypical because of that - I had a therapist seeing me, but since I did not speak and did not move it was more about keeping me comfortable and safe. 1:1 monitoring constantly, and I was repositioned and stretched sometimes to help with the muscle cramps and spasms, avoid bedsores and help my circulation. They also did skin examinations a few times (for bedsores). I had a nasogastric tube for food and oral medicine (some are given with injections). Visitors can see you but it will depend on your facility's visiting hours, and you can refuse to see them. They also make you do groups (not me, since I was catatonic) typically. I did not find it helpful.

This does not mean that your experience will also be terrible. I think the people in my facility were good, well meaning and would have helped someone else. It unfortunately depends on chance and how good the facility you end up in is/what sort of people are in there. You may end up in a mixed or sex exclusive unit, I had a mixed unit. If you have any other questions I'll answer what I can.

 

[gunmetalblue]

Yes. It was hell. I'm not in the US tho. Got placed into what they call a closed unit, basically you can't leave and have 0 independence. Assigned a nurse to watch over me practically all the time. Even while I showered. No electronics. Hospital clothes. Bored out of my skull I began banging my head against a wall of my room to kill the voices, nurses came in and undressed me and strapped me down to my bed for hours.
It got better after a week and a half when they judged I wouldn't jump in front of a car on sight, moved me to an open ward. Much better, I actually made some connections with other patients at the time.

 

[thebayleaf]

yep. (I live in australia btw)

in 2023 i was """"voluntarily"""" committed (told that i was going to psyche ward no matter what and was given the choice to either go voluntarily or go in restraints) after an attempt.

easily one of the worst experiences of my life. went in there a naive 19 year old expecting free therapy and rehabilitation, left the place a bigger mess than i started as. who woulda thunk that locking mentally unstable people in empty windowless rooms with zero mental stimulation for months isn't super helpful.

quick highlight reel:
- staff were all completely apathetic and some of them borderline abusive
- staff members stole some of my personal belongings
- the ward was meant to have two full time therapists working there. both of them had quit months earlier and were just simply never replaced. so, psyche ward with no psyches.
- was never given any time estimate as to when i could leave.
- zero privacy.
- zero tolerance for misbehaviour (you will be strapped down to a bed and forgotten about for the rest of the day)
- beds so uncomfortable that they're only barely preferable over sleeping on the floor
- entertainment options: colouring with crayons, dissociating and jerking off. better hope you can get someone on the outside to bring you books.
- regular fights and commotion between patients. usually nurses/security would not bother intervening until absolutely necessary
- everyday, at the same time, this one patient would walk into the common room and repeatedly smash his head into the wall for 10-ish minutes before staff bothered to stop him. i mentally nicknamed him 'stud finder'. (jokes aside i hope he's doing okay)
- hospital food diet. i lost almost 10kg during my stay.

anyway, was in there for a month and the only thing i got out of it was ptsd that i'm currently in therapy for. do not get committed, it's literally just prison for mentally ill people, it's worse than death.

 

[gunmetalblue]

yep. (I live in australia btw)

in 2023 i was """"voluntarily"""" committed (told that i was going to psyche ward no matter what and was given the choice to either go voluntarily or go in restraints) after an attempt.

easily one of the worst experiences of my life. went in there a naive 19 year old expecting free therapy and rehabilitation, left the place a bigger mess than i started as. who woulda thunk that locking mentally unstable people in empty windowless rooms with zero mental stimulation for months isn't super helpful.

quick highlight reel:
- staff were all completely apathetic and some of them borderline abusive
- staff members stole some of my personal belongings
- the ward was meant to have two full time therapists working there. both of them had quit months earlier and were just simply never replaced. so, psyche ward with no psyches.
- was never given any time estimate as to when i could leave.
- zero privacy.
- zero tolerance for misbehaviour (you will be strapped down to a bed and forgotten about for the rest of the day)
- beds so uncomfortable that they're only barely preferable over sleeping on the floor
- entertainment options: colouring with crayons, dissociating and jerking off. better hope you can get someone on the outside to bring you books.
- regular fights and commotion between patients. usually nurses/security would not bother intervening until absolutely necessary
- everyday, at the same time, this one patient would walk into the common room and repeatedly smash his head into the wall for 10-ish minutes before staff bothered to stop him. i mentally nicknamed him 'stud finder'. (jokes aside i hope he's doing okay)
- hospital food diet. i lost almost 10kg during my stay.

anyway, was in there for a month and the only thing i got out of it was ptsd that i'm currently in therapy for. do not get committed, it's literally just prison for mentally ill people, it's worse than death.

So the beds are a universal disaster then. I literally remember sleeping on the floor for the last week, asked a cleaning worker to give me extra blankets. I was so fed up I ended up roleplaying sleeping like a survivalist (again) to get some mental stimulation.
Psych wards with like one singular psychiatrist that pumps drugs down you, and no therapy, or actual heath workers that try and make conversation with you or anything else is like way to common sadly.

 

[thebayleaf]

So the beds are a universal disaster then. I literally remember sleeping on the floor for the last week, asked a cleaning worker to give me extra blankets. I was so fed up I ended up roleplaying sleeping like a survivalist (again) to get some mental stimulation.
Psych wards with like one singular psychiatrist that pumps drugs down you, and no therapy, or actual heath workers that try and make conversation with you or anything else is like way to common sadly.

my dad smuggled in a foam mattress topper for me and it felt like sleeping cloud after two weeks on that concrete slab bed. silver lining is that i can literally sleep anywhere now lol.

 

[gunmetalblue]

my dad smuggled in a foam mattress topper for me and it felt like sleeping cloud after two weeks on that concrete slab bed. silver lining is that i can literally sleep anywhere now lol.

No that's like so true, to his day I sleep on a damn futon because I'm conditioned to hugging the floor apparently.
Lucky they didn't notice that topper, a girl who was in the unit with me had the flowers her husband brought to her thrown in the trash, in front of her 0_0

 

[idiotmother]

I'm in the U.S., my mother called the cops on me for being suicidal due to a terrible supplement reaction. I scared her and I shouldn't have done that, but being forced into the psych ward has actually made me worse. They forced me onto an anti psychotic while I already had a sensitized brain from meds and it was hell. I'm still not able to get off the med. if I refused to take it, they would inject me with the med and some sedative too. The doctors are so high and mighty, I wish I could get revenge on them. They've ruined me further. I begged them not to, that if they hadn't just stopped the klonopin I'd be ok and just prescribe me that but apparently that's too dAnGErOuS! But these anti psychotics that fuel my anxiety and have zombified me aren't?!! It's so awful!! I have a family but I feel like I absolutely need to die now as there's no way to taper safely. And I've heard of all the tapering methods, it doesn't matter, I've literally sustained too much neural damage, I can't take anymore withdrawal effects. I just want to rest in peace!!!

Psych wards are terrible!! As an above poster said , they are prison for the mentally ill and shouldn't be allowed to operate with the amount of abuse that happens in there. They literally tanked my brain. They stole my child's mother and broke her into pieces.

 

[meddle]

im from russia, live in moscow. was involuntary commited in one of the best hospitals here. it wasnt so bad actually. pretty boring tho (no phones), and the food was gross as hell. but no injections, no restrains. we even could take a shower twice a day. and the people there were pretty nice (i mean both staff and patients)

 

[ifihadnever]

For me.....a living hell to this day I've still never recovered from (and this happened many years ago).

But everyone is different......

 

[DeadManLiving]

It's where they send you off to your death. Career, family, everything collapses and you're worse off than before, leaving you with no other option but to go through with it.

 

[fedup1982]

I have, multiple times. It depends what country you're in as to what conditions to expect. In the UK it's not too bad. Although you dont have home comforts like nice sofas or access to a kettle or microwave, it could be worse. These days they lock the activity room though so there is very little to do other than watch the communal tv or talk to other patients. There is so little to do that meal times are a welcome distraction.

 

[zombiegirl]

terrible if you live in the US and don't have insurance. went to a ward in chicago, me and many of the other girls were sexually abused/harassed. roaches in the bathrooms. nurses all on a power trip. i puked in the sink of our room because they gave me the wrong meds and they refused to clean it out for 2 days. i ate this chick's pussy tho and they did not give a fuuuuck 10/10

 

[Leonard_Bangley39]

terrible if you live in the US and don't have insurance. went to a ward in chicago, me and many of the other girls were sexually abused/harassed. roaches in the bathrooms. nurses all on a power trip. i puked in the sink of our room because they gave me the wrong meds and they refused to clean it out for 2 days. i ate this chick's pussy tho and they did not give a fuuuuck 10/10

god damn that last sentence hit like a fucking flashbang, lol

 

[Rev346]

I've been twice, both in Midwest USA. First time was for 2-3 days and second time was for about a week. Both times were alright. I got to pick food I normally don't make at home and I didn't have to worry about work, bills, or any other home stuff. The people there were nice and staff were polite. I refused medication on my 2nd stay until they provided me peer reviewed journal articles showing that the medication was statistically significantly better than a placebo. Even if I'm suicidal I'm still an engineer and want technical documentation before making major decisions. The bad parts were that it can be really boring and you have almost zero privacy. Oh, and the bill I got a couple weeks later. One of the biggest problems I had was that we had to participate in a religious activity which I thought was BS. Overall my stays weren't bad.

 

[DeadManLiving]

I've been twice, both in Midwest USA. First time was for 2-3 days and second time was for about a week. Both times were alright. I got to pick food I normally don't make at home and I didn't have to worry about work, bills, or any other home stuff. The people there were nice and staff were polite. I refused medication on my 2nd stay until they provided me peer reviewed journal articles showing that the medication was statistically significantly better than a placebo. Even if I'm suicidal I'm still an engineer and want technical documentation before making major decisions. The bad parts were that it can be really boring and you have almost zero privacy. Oh, and the bill I got a couple weeks later. One of the biggest problems I had was that we had to participate in a religious activity which I thought was BS. Overall my stays weren't bad.

Did they provide you with the technical specifications at least?

 

[Pale_Rider]

Yes. I was there a year. Recived my first DID diagnosis there. Sucked really bad at first. Eventually I got a game system, and did that most of the time in my room. I was so much of a problem bouncing off the wall in those days they were happy to have me glued to a game instead. Then when the court released me I had no place to go so that took months more to get out. I even escaped once. But was talked into going back. Escaping from a mental hospital with a civil commitment has no consequences I learned from that.

 

[Rev346]

Did they provide you with the technical specifications at least?

Yes, the doctor did provide me with several articles from peer reviewed journals. Still addicted to the same drug I started during that stay: cymbalta. Tried to get off it but the withdrawal symptoms (doctors say it's "discontinuation symptoms") were horrible and after being clean for about 6 months I had to restart it (long story).

 

[DeadManLiving]

They're an expensive population behavior control mechanism.

 

[Spite]

yep. (I live in australia btw)

in 2023 i was """"voluntarily"""" committed (told that i was going to psyche ward no matter what and was given the choice to either go voluntarily or go in restraints) after an attempt.

easily one of the worst experiences of my life. went in there a naive 19 year old expecting free therapy and rehabilitation, left the place a bigger mess than i started as. who woulda thunk that locking mentally unstable people in empty windowless rooms with zero mental stimulation for months isn't super helpful.

I'm also in Australia and I spent a week in lockup at a psych ward back in 2022. I can confirm I had a similar experience to what you went through - doctors and staff who seemed indifferent to the fact that I was there or didn't show much care or compassion, long and very boring hours mostly spent being confined to a bed and not being allowed to leave, having no privacy, and feeling very afraid of the other patients there. I'll never forget one person who was being held in a room near me and would let out the most horrifying, blood-curdling screams that felt like they lasted an eternity. Being in lockup did worse for me than if I was just never involuntarily committed in the first place. It really is like prison for the mentally ill - hell on Earth. I get extreme anxiety about anyone finding out that I'm suicidal and forcing me to go back there...