How to survive a psychiatric ward

I've never been hospitalised for my disorder, but I was once hospitalised with complete panic and pain in my heart and back... as though I'd been kicked in the ribs repeatedly by a rabid donkey. They never figured out what was wrong with me, and I managed to escape before they realised I was bonkers. I know what triggered it, and I do think it was an emotional breakdown, not just a sore everything. The doctor said something about "broken heart syndrome"... my husband had just died. If it hadn't been for him I'd have been hospitalised several years earlier than I did. The man did look after me. After his death I couldn't last a week without him.

EEEK I was being serious with my suggestions.

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I've been in 4 different psych wards, but never really encountered any problems. I felt pretty safe there - aside from my own suicide obsessions, and much safer in there with them than out. Most other patients seemed to complain a lot, but I found little to complain about. Sometimes the food was crappy... though sometimes it was really good! Sometimes the pdocs discounted what I had to say - as seems to be a problem with lots of doctors. The only really bad experience was when I went to one farther away and was really unhappy about it, and started out with a bad attitude - any negatives are really magnified and positives wiped out when you have a bad attitude. I ended up going there once again, and that time it was a good stay, even though I was dreading it as soon as I overheard the ER nurses say that's where I was going.

Don't try to up your Ativan scripts - they'll be checked, and you might get labeled "med-seeking" for it. And careful of complaining about pain and asking for stronger pain relievers - you may get dubbed "med-seeking" for that too, especially if you have/had a substance abuse problem and/or BPD. If you need it, try to be as calm and patient as possible when asking for it.

first time in i was taken aback but then once you realize you are there to get help then you can find the humor in it..or else how do you really get through it....

Group therapy? I thought that was a myth for brochures. I've been in three times for a minimum of a week a piece, left in WORSE state than I came in, and never once got to talk to the staff for more than five minutes a day if I was lucky. No group anything.

something I'd like to add is if you are there and the alarms go off and you go into lockdown or are evacuated try to stay calm. They do it to make sure you are safe from the patient who is getting violent. Although the nurses will support you if you get upset/scared/anxious/etc they will need to focus most of their attention on keeping you physically safe and organizing the security guards and/or police.

From experience this has happened to me numerous times and the first few times I had panic attacks and really freaked out, had to be sedated and put on constant supervision. But after I realized that as soon as the security guards were there or the police that it was safe and they weren't going to let that patient hurt us I was okay. They only times I get that bad now is when I am in seclusion with the person who is loosing it and there's no where to hide or when the person is right in my face throwing things like chair near me.

Man the QuietOne, you must have been in some serious psych wards. I've been in four times and even a maximum security one and never had the police called! Even though in the max security one another patient did attack my husband. The funny thing about it was my husband was screaming, "Let's take it outside" I thought he can't! In all seriousness though it was pretty horrifying. I think that experience is what helped my husband get fed up with my mental illness and decide to leave me.

Love and hugs,
Tara

That was my experience, too, in 2 hospitalizations! It left me so bitter, and so averse to seeking inpatient help again.

We did have "groups," but they were so pathetic as to be laughable. In one, we watched a video about Rikers Island. WTF? It was interesting, (and sad), but I have no idea what the point was, and it certainly didn't provide any sort of help.

I wanted to add something sort of funny. The first time I was hospitalized, I had no idea what to expect, and I packed all kinds of things that of course were taken away! I guess I just wasn't thinking. I brought a hair dryer and curling iron -- both immediately confiscated -- as well as a Walkman, makeup, etc. etc. etc. The nurses must have been laughing their butts off. I probably looked like I was packing for ClubMed or something!

ClubMad, not ClubMed.

Having now been through the worst crisis of my life and coming out the other side of a two psych ward stay I have some more advice. Although it may seem humorous I am in all reality, very serious. I was put in restraints twice and given "the shot" twice. I've never been in restraints before.

So here's my advice...

1. If staff asks you to stop banging your head against the wall, please do stop. Otherwise they break out the restraints and that can and does provoke traumatic memories.

2. Understand that many patients in the psych ward say they are suicidal as an attempt to gain attention. If you are seriously wanting to act on your suicidal thoughts make it perfectly clear that is what you are wanting to do. Otherwise staff may brush you off as attention seeking (especially if you are consistently suicidal).

3. Know that the staff play mind games with you to see how you will cope with things. I know this sounds paranoid but is oh so very true. Many times in my experiences there have been nurses that are not suited for nursing and have no compassion. Some nurses feel it is necessary to tell you things as they see it. Remember that these nurses have only seen you at your worst and their interpretation of you and your behavior is limited to their experience.

4. Remember the nurses are human and have issues just like you and I have issues. If you run into a control freak just let her be otherwise she'll start messing with you intentionally to piss you off. Like one nurse I knew this last stay. I ordered diet coke every day (I need the caffeine once a day to keep headaches at bay). Three days in a row she went to the cafeteria as soon as she got on shift. She crossed out my order for diet coke and wrote caffeine free diet coke even though I had a caffeine order!

5. This one is funny! If you have a cleptomaniac for a roommate (as I did) hide your toothbrush, otherwise she will use it and God only knows what for.

6. Don't be afraid to ask for what you need. I kept asking for therapy and was refused at the first hospital. They ended up giving me a twenty minute session in the 15/16 days I was there! The second hospital said my insurance approved an hour a day and that therapy is what really made a large difference.

7. Don't be afraid to refuse what you know doesn't work. Whether it's a med or a stupid packet on self-harm prevention. For me, I checked myself in and that means that I had the ability to take the necessary steps to prevent self-harm and did not need to spend time spinning my wheels with a stupid packet that was "fill in the obvious blank" I don't care if they label me non compliant. Ultimately I know myself better than the staff know me.

I might add more later, but this is what is coming up right now.

Love and hugs,
Tara

There are some darker one's that is not mentioned here!

Take contraception with or drink the one's they give.

Make sure you have a hard headed friend on the outside that will not be lead around by his or her nose by the people running this type of institutions. "Someone that will check on you and not forget you and that will get help if things don't sound or look right."

...........

True prevention methods that are consistantly ignored.

1. A patient has just been amitted to the Psychward because they feel or even state that they may be seriously considering ending their life. And within that moment of admission they need to feel that they have truely been recognized that there is an urgency for comfort and understanding and that they are truely in an environment that will allow them to stop and get THE ATTENTION THEY TRUELY NEED.

2. When a patient is admitted the staff must take every step to allow help the patient feel that he or she will not be punished or controled for their admission and that patient is in serious need of therapy and guidance and someone who can help remove the immediate sense of overwhelming confusion, anger, frustration and fear.

3. That the staff understands that there is a true sense of powerlessness in the psychological state of the patient and to further add to any sense of powerlessness will be extremely detrimental to the patient. And that if the staff aquires the attitude of providing a cold and insensitive procedural atmosphere for the patient the patient may even get worse to the point that they have now put the patient in further extreme distress. If the staff has to use a restraint system it means the patient has not received the proper environment to stabilize them at all. But instead the environment has proven to be a hostile atmosphere and the patient is truely frightened and is being further punished for admitting they are unstable to begin with.

4. If a patient has a simple request, like a can of coke that has caffine, perhaps the patient has a simple but important request that should not be denied. That if a patient presents a request it should be considered a step towards a willingness to assume some action towards the capacity of making even a small decision that can be used to build on encouraging that patient to gain the ability to present more requests and include themselve in a rehabilitation process.

5. The term STABILIZING should include doing everything necessary to allow a patient to feel true release and comfort within this enviornment so that whatever is overwheming them can be put on hold and they are now permitted to relax and know that COMFORTING HELP IS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT THEY CAN COUNT ON. And the patient is in no way provided ANY SOURCE OF PUNISHMENT FOR ADMITTING THEY ARE TRUELY TROUBLED AND IN DESPERATE NEED OF IMMEDIATE HELP.

6. It shall be understood that when a patient is presented that patient already knows that their state of mind is already irrational and they have many emotions including, anxiety, anger, fear, and complete exhaustion and that their treatment should include a presentation of focusing on COMPLETE REST AND RELAXATION AND A SENSE OF OVERALL ACCEPTANCE OF THEIR CONDITION AND THEY CAN NOW TRUELY FEEL A HAVEN OF REST AND UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY SO DESPERATELY NEED. And it is already understood that the patient has punished themselves enough and further punishment WILL NOT HELP A PATIENT STABILIZE IN ANY WAY.

7. The patient is then quietly, respectfully addressed and the procedure is to provide the patient a vigil to gain rest and protection with a goal to allow the patient to feel that within that time they are going to get rest and understanding and THERAPY to help them SLOWLY ADDRESS THEIR SENSE OF OVERWHELMING ISSUES.

8. It is the prime goal for the psychward to allow the patient a haven where the patient will be able to express their concerns and there is a true place to get help in finding a path or program that the patient can get the help they need to address their issue and that there is a qualified group of individuals that will listen to the patient and the group and patient can then plan a direction where they will get the help they need according to their personal issues that they have not been able to address on their own. That the purpose of the visit is to HELP the patient take the necessary steps to gain the POWER AND SUPPORT TO "SAVE THEMSELVES" by learning new skills and getting to the next step to functioning on an out patient process that will be set up with them, for them, so that they can continue to get the SUPPORT THEY NEED TO CONTROL THE OVERWHELMING ISSUES THAT BROUGHT THEM TO THIS PLACE TO BEGIN WITH.

Open Eyes

There is a disclaimer for this: If this place really did exist, it would have to use a form of crowd control and perhaps the current methods are to do just that. This proposed method has already been deemed an irrational request in my medical file and perhaps may be considered a Cluster B trait witch entails illusions of grandure but also in my case it was considered to be a narcissitic personality disorder. LOL but true. And insurance companies would never approve this because that would mean that they would actually be forking over more money than they want and the hospitals don't want this either because they never want to be considered a resort in any way.
They would much rather disassociate altogether and deem patients as merely numbers and those number are to be lowered as quickly as possible, in other words "Next number please?"

And personally, when I did finally get to the outpatient process the therapists admitted that the psychward was defintely the wrong place for me to go and that I was only sent there because I spoke not only the words but a plan. I was finally relieved to find out quietly that the disorders that were given to me did not apply to me. Unfortunately it cannot be written down because that would give fuel to the fact that an error of judgement was made and that would lead to admitting error that could be addressed by a lawsuit and the insurance companies have already explained to doctors and facilities that any wordage that can be acknowledged as admitting error is not to be used.

So tara, perhaps that grumpy nurse resents the fact that the system is truely flawed and makes every attempt to distance herself from actually having any compassion for any patient that is admitted. Perhaps she has learned thru experience that total denial is protocal and she is expressing that in all her actions. One has to consider the fact that a person who feels guilty often tends to address distaste for the victim. Ofcourse one has to understand that often the guilty party is truely not aware of this cause and effect that they display. In my experience there was one nice, kind nurse. She was young and fairly new and had not been there long enough to revert to the cold mannerisums of the other staff that has stayed for a length of time. It would be interesting to know if that nice young nursed stayed or left due to the atmosphere.

The other thing to consider is that I do have a relative that was a nurse for many years and she was also a head nurse. When she retired she admitted that it took her time to adjust to allowing herself to feel compassion once again in a regular family and social atmosphere. She had not realized how truely desencitized she had become over the years of being a nurse.

Open Eyes

OpenEyes, thanks!

The second psych ward I went to was actually the only psych ward that has had a positive impact on my life. Most of the nurses there (two exceptions) were extremely compassionate. It was there that a nurse spent at least an hour sitting with me talking me through a suicidal crisis. Normally I just get handed a safety consent to sign and am left in my room alone. Anyway, back to the positive ward. They talked to my insurance and I got approved for an hour a day with a therapist! That means that the previous psych ward that only gave me one twenty minute session in the 15/16 days was not due to my insurance not approving therapy but rather the policies of that hospital! I was moved from the closed ward to the open one. I have never been on an open ward before.

My belief is that most psych wards are warehouses. They are just there to store the patient in a safer environment than what they have on the outside. When the suicidalilty eases then they release the patient. Because they have failed to actually teach the patient coping skills or do anything that can be remotely interpreted as positive the patient then starts taking part in the revolving door that many psych wards have. They return time after time after time thereby creating more and more income for the hospital. Of course this is a highly negative view of psych wards but 6 out of 7 times for me this is what has happened. The last psych ward actually had a full time staff member dedicated to marketing. If you think about it they had to have him because they were actively working to heal their patients and so the majority of them would not be returning for a while if ever.

Love and hugs,
Tara

Oh, I can believe that, it is all about business isn't it? Well at the very least you now know the best place to go if you need it. Hopefully you have a therapist that can help you so that you don't get to that point again.

I know that sometimes is can be difficult to find a good therapist as well. I can raise my hand on that one. I am glad to hear that you did get treated nicely, gives me hope that perhaps things will change for the patients that really want help. I could see that in my own stay at the psychward I was in, I really felt sorry for those patients, they were trying and lost. And I do wonder from time to time how they are doing now, and if they got help, I really felt good therapy was in order for some of them and it was what they really needed. And you have expressed your own interactions with patients, it was proof that you do have a kind heart, even as you struggle yourself.

I was hoping there was a local support group but this site is all I could find and it took me time to find my way around. I hadn't even realized it was a world wide site in the beginning. But it does make it interesting. And I actually like the way I can just come to my computer and write when I get overwhelmed and out of sorts don't you? And there are always these little replies that can be so comforting.

I also like to have a place to come and just open my thoughts up verses having no other real place to do that where a person not only knows you but now knows all about you. I actually like the fact that I have the ability to just be Open Eyes and
not be judged by anything else.

And I don't know about you but it has also been a good barometer for me as I have my statistics that allow me to revisit what I have written and see if I made sense during that very stressful time when I wrote it. LOL, let me see if I rambled or made sense that day at all.

Very interesting thread tara, gave me a chance to address what I went through and how it could be improved.

Open Eyes

I like the more recent ones too! Even if they aren't meant to be funny... They're honest and will help people greatly facing admissions!

Hollywood showers. Forget about taking time taking a shower and getting ready. We would be woken up after a night of 15 minute checks at 6:00 and have to get our stuff out of lock up, get ready and take our meds before our 6:30 group. Fun!

At least you were able to get your stuff out of lockup. Last time I was hospitalized the nurses told me they wouldn't give me my stuff (blow dryer, curling iron, hair spray) unless I had to go to court. (I was under a court commitment for suicidality.) Then the reports my shrink wrote said I looked disheveled. WTF??

I finally found a kind nurse who let me have my stuff in the morning. I think that's already been mentioned in this thread: Some nurses are Nurse Ratchets; others actually seem to have some compassion.

wow. Reading everyone's posts about psych wards makes it sound like a nightmare or hell or prison. I have very negative feelings toward the way the healthcare system treats people period. Doctors and nurses scare the crap out of me, no matter who they are really. With the exception of a few.

Caffine free diet just because she doesn't want to keep getting a coke for someone? That is just plain mean and wrong. She is thinking of what is convenient for her and not caring about the ill person's needs. That's terrible. It sounds like these staff are trained to think that the patients are being like naughty little children unless they cooperate and do everything the nurses tell them to even if they don't want to, no matter the reason? I'm so glad I stopped going to therapy. I'd never want to end up in a hell on earth place. I know I would be trying to escape 24/7 and I suppose they'd just strap me down and inject poisonous chemicals into my veins to keep me sedated.

I don't understand how psych wards can make people get better. From everyone's posts, it sounds like I'd get much worse!

I hope I don't offend anyone...

O-Dawg

It kept me alive. I think that outpatient treatments such as partial hospitalization and individual therapy are most helpful, but sometimes you need someone to keep you safe.