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The Mental Illness Thread
#21
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
(May 28, 2015 at 12:14 pm)Neimenovic Wrote: I'm sorry if it's inappropriate to ask, but some mentioned being hospitalized and I wanted to ask what is the psychiatric ward like?

I heard some probably colorized stories about psych wards (around where I live only) and they haven't been pleasant, so I'm curious how much truth was in them

I've been in several.

Most recently in 2011 I spent a couple of weeks at a dedicated MH treatment facility.  Rooms were shared, 2-4 people to a room.  The ward was kept locked down, we were allowed outside under supervision for a few minutes several times a day.  Nothing was allowed on the premesis which could facilitate self-harm, so no shoelaces, belts, razors, etc. Group therapy and recreation several times a day.  This was at a private (and expensive) facility.  Most of the patients were there for both MH (primarily depression and anxiety disorders) and substance abuse.

It sucks to be locked up, however that experience was largely positive, but I went voluntarily.
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#22
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
I don't know that my illness is under control. Each year seems to be throwing me a new set of obstacles to cope with. This past year it's been constant low grade depression. For over half a year, when I was home, I was lying in bed. That may have been a consequence of the medication I'm on, but then it might not have been. That's one of the most frustrating parts of dealing with mental illness, not knowing if what you're doing to manage it is even going to be effective.

I am someone who probably cannot live without medication. My thinking is really distorted when I'm not on anti-psychotics, so they are probably a permanent part of my life from here on out. I don't mind that aspect as my thinking is much improved on the medication. Before, I struggled with satisfying my crazy thinking instead of managing my depressions. Hopefully with that distraction gone, I'll be able to focus on confronting my depression more directly. I've already started by noting that if I am active one day, that improves my functioning in the days that follow. The next step is to make that a regular part of my life with daily exercise. That's something I couldn't even seriously contemplate when I was suicidal all the time and thinking crazy. The medication has opened up new avenues of coping. I only wish I'd started the medication sooner.
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#23
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
Yes, I'd be all kinds of fucked without my anti-depressants. I'm on a very high dose and it only just keeps me being able to cope.
Feel free to send me a private message.
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#24
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
(May 28, 2015 at 12:14 pm)Neimenovic Wrote: I'm sorry if it's inappropriate to ask, but some mentioned being hospitalized and I wanted to ask what is the psychiatric ward like?

I heard some probably colorized stories about psych wards (around where I live only) and they haven't been pleasant, so I'm curious how much truth was in them

As far as I'm concerned, no questions are off the table.

It really depends on the hospitals, but I've come to the conclusion that the main reason psych. wards can make you feel better is that the conditions are so miserable inside that it makes you appreciate what you have on the outside.  The walls are painted a depressing color and the environment is extremely sterile as not to rile up the patients.  You have absolutely no control over your own actions.  You are told where to go and what to do 24/7, and you are constantly being monitored as to how compliant you are to their commands, which is how you get out.  The food is pretty much inedible.

Every once in a while, you'll be treated to a show when one of the other patients acts out and gets tossed in the foam room.  If that doesn't work, they'll strap the patient to the floor of the foam room and shoot them up with tranquilizers.  Most of the therapy you do is trivial, and you eventually get to the point where you'll do whatever it takes to get out.  That first breath of fresh air after getting out is fantastic.

What exactly were the stories you heard?  It's like I said, though, each hospital is different.  I was put in one that was really nothing more than an old folk's home for people that didn't have real care.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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#25
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
You're welcome to ask me anything you like, I don't mind. I've not been to such a facility though, so I can't comment on that. Quite amazing that I haven't, when I look back.
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.

Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum
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#26
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
I've been hospitalized many times. I don't know what to say about it. Usually it's a bunch of rooms contained on one floor. What type of treatment you receive may depend on why you are there. Some people are there to protect them from injuring themselves. Some are there to change the course of their medication or treatment under controlled circumstances. Some are there for a supportive environment around them until their symptoms improve. (Once I was experiencing such severe confusion that I couldn't figure out how to pull up my pants. I needed help on a day to day basis until they got that confusion under control.) Other than that, I don't know what to say. Mentally ill people, even when in a crisis requiring hospitalization, are for the most part "just folks." Most are too busy coping with whatever brought them into the hospital to engage in any kind of problematic behavior. It does happen, but it's the exception rather than the norm. My prevailing experience with being hospitalized is that it is very boring being contained on a closed ward with little to do to pass the time.
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#27
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
Thanks for sharing Rob Smile


Does your ME make you fatigued mentally aswell? I'd imagine it would be nigh on impossible to deal with the depression if so. Once my medication lifted my depression slightly I was able to start exercising which I think has helped


Quote:I've been suicidal (but again managing not to act on it) pretty much all that time, including now. If no one would be much affected by my disappearance, I would be planning my suicide right now. But I've promised I won't do that to my wife, and that promise has made me hang on. I went through the very worst of it about 5 years ago, I felt like I was at hell's gate. I literally could not stop myself thinking about suicide 24 hours a day, and could barely think about anything else. I can only describe that level of depression as a kind of continuous mental torture where time slows down to prolong the agony. How I got through that I will never know, and without my wife sticking by me I certainly wouldn't have. Things are much more manageable compared to how I was then. I still have what I consider to be a negative standard of life,  but that was like approaching minus infinity.


Well done for not acting on it. I can relate to much of what you said although thankfully my life isn't something I endure now, I wouldn't go as far as to say it's enjoyable yet but i'm over the worst of it. At it's worst I enjoyed nothing, even passive things like watching tv were impossible, i couldn't focus on anything for more than a few seconds such was my mental fog, all i wanted to do was lie down and wallow all day, that's all I could do - so the time slowing down thing makes total sense as there's nothing to take your mind off of the despairing, hopeless thoughts. It completely eroded my sense of identity aswell, all my core beliefs, personal qualities and ability to form a cogent opinion disappeared and with them went my pride - those things require effort, energy and clarity to maintain, i was incapable of that. The slim hope that my anti-depressants would take effect was the only thing keeping me alive and thankfully they did

Quote:I should be getting a new series of therapy sessions soon

I'm sceptical about therapy for the very depressed, like detailed above. CBT basically boils down to positive thinking, if you're as hopeless as I was that just feels pointless, and therapy can't work if you don't buy into it - it took me 6 years to feel like therapy was something that could help. And with severe social anxiety, you don't even want to leave the house let alone sit and talk to a stranger for an hour

I remember you saying in my introduction thread that your social anxiety was very bad, how is it now?

Quote:This forum has been a great help to me

I struggle being on here tbh, i had to force myself to introduce myself, post regularly and start this thread. Writing the OP took me about 6 hours, and I put off doing it for about a week before that. In all social interactions I get very apprehensive, thoughts of all the reasons not to talk to people and all the things that could possibly go wrong from doing so pop into my head - they're very hard to power through, it takes a lot of time and effort and is quite stressful. Expressing any sort of personality/individuality especially brings out these thoughts, opinions i'm ok with


Quote:We don't do enough as a society to allow those who have problems to feel comfortable to talk about it.

I don't think healthy minded people are comfortable talking about mental illness, I feel like I have to pretend to be reasonably happy around healthy people, takes tons of effort, I hate it
“The larger the group, the more toxic, the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought. And when you suspend your individual beauty you also give up a lot of your humanity. You will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own. Injuring, hurting, killing, drinking are all part of it, because you've lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that's bigger than you are and that controls you.”  - George Carlin
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#28
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
Yeah, if you were forced to describe the hospitals in word, "boring" would definitely be it.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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#29
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
thank you for answering guys

(May 28, 2015 at 12:47 pm)Faith No More Wrote: What exactly were the stories you heard?  It's like I said, though, each hospital is different.  I was put in one that was really nothing more than an old folk's home for people that didn't have real care.

Mostly things about violent incidents happening there, and the staff treating the patients badly, but it could be made up or just the system around here

(May 28, 2015 at 12:56 pm)Saxmoof Wrote: I struggle being on here tbh, i had to force myself to introduce myself, post regularly and start this thread. Writing the OP took me about 6 hours, and I put off doing it for about a week before that. In all social interactions I get very apprehensive, thoughts of all the reasons not to talk to people and all the things that could possibly go wrong from doing so pop into my head - they're very hard to power through, it takes a lot of time and effort and is quite stressful. Expressing any sort of personality/individuality especially brings out these thoughts, opinions i'm ok with

Great job you're doing so far. I'm sure it'll get better as you spend more time here. Anything I/we could do to help?
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#30
RE: The Mental Illness Thread
Quote:It really depends on the hospitals, but I've come to the conclusion that the main reason psych. wards can make you feel better is that the conditions are so miserable inside that it makes you appreciate what you have on the outside.  The walls are painted a depressing color and the environment is extremely sterile as not to rile up the patients.  You have absolutely no control over your own actions.  You are told where to go and what to do 24/7, and you are constantly being monitored as to how compliant you are to their commands, which is how you get out.  The food is pretty much inedible.


Every once in a while, you'll be treated to a show when one of the other patients acts out and gets tossed in the foam room.  If that doesn't work, they'll strap the patient to the floor of the foam room and shoot them up with tranquilizers.  Most of the therapy you do is trivial, and you eventually get to the point where you'll do whatever it takes to get out.  That first breath of fresh air after getting out is fantastic.


This sounds exactly like the ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
“The larger the group, the more toxic, the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought. And when you suspend your individual beauty you also give up a lot of your humanity. You will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own. Injuring, hurting, killing, drinking are all part of it, because you've lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that's bigger than you are and that controls you.”  - George Carlin
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