Mental Illness and the Psych Ward

[Faith No More]

Thats a lot of hospitalizations. About how long did you stay in the hospital each time? Did you find any of them helpful? Actually, I'm gonna ask everyone the same -- did the hospital ever help?

I spent anywhere from 2 to 12 days each time. The time I only spent 2 days was actually only 1 of 2 involuntary hospitalizations. I was still reeling from dealing with the death of a good friend, and I went to my psychiatrist to tell him that I was in a bad place. Given my history, he thought it was best to hospitalize me, but I was able to convince them to let me go, even though they are supposed to keep you for 72 hours as you said.

How much I gained from each experience really depended on what hospital I was in. The first one, which was strictly for kids under 18, was quite beneficial, but that was mostly due to starting anti-depressants combined with the fact that it was basically a twelve day vacation from the daily grind. Most of the time I was put into the psych ward that my psychiatrist whom I saw for outpatient treatment ran. It was a mess of a place where the staff was over-worked and under-appreciated, and most of the patients there were very low-functioning people that had been dumped there due to the fact that the people taking care of them in the real world couldn't take it anymore. Because of that and the fact that I was as high-functioning as the patients got, I didn't get as much attention as others there. It helped me, however, since I got a break from the real world, and they made sure I took my meds every day, which is something I was terrible at.

I could ramble on more about another hospital, but this is too long already...

Ugh, those group therapy meetings -- life cannot be reduced to a drawing of a pizza.

Group therapy was the worst, and it seemed the only point to it was to look around and see that there were people whose lives were just as fucked up as your own. At one hospital the group therapy was run by this dumbass therapist that loved cheesy sayings and pop psychology. He used to quote Dr. Phil. Fucking painful that was.

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Bring on the crazies!

Found 'em...