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WishfulThinker66
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Default Sep 27, 2019 at 04:31 PM
  #1
Just an observation but it seems to me everyone tends to stay away from the psych ward and fails to visit their friends and loved ones. This both saddens and irritates me.

I have always been fortunate with several visitors daily when I have been in. However, I note that most everyone else is terribly terribly alone. Even spouses don't bother to show up. It makes me cry.

I right now have two people in the hospital who I have been visiting and attending daily. They have no one else. No one there seems to have anyone. Anytime I am there I appear to be the only visitor in the entire ward.

Why? Are people that uncaring? Self absorbed? Scared perhaps? Do you think staff ought to get involved and demand people actually show up?
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Default Sep 27, 2019 at 06:11 PM
  #2
I think there is still a lot of stigma involving psychiatric care. So while someone may feel comfortable going to the hospital to visit someone who had surgery for example, they don't feel comfortable going to a psych hospital to visit. And then there is a whole group of people who don't like hospitals period. But I think it is sad that more people don't have visitors when they really could use the support and friendship of loved ones at that time.

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Default Sep 28, 2019 at 07:20 AM
  #3
I agree with slumberkitty. I think it's a combination of stigma and being really uncomfortable with the idea of a psych hospitalization, and maybe fearing not knowing what to say.

I've been IP 3 times, and never had any visitors. When I was in one time, there were a couple of poeple who had visitors but they were always close family and they never stayed on the ward, they always went out for coffee, but most people didn't get any visitors.

I think it's sad.

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Why do people stay away?
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Default Sep 28, 2019 at 07:29 AM
  #4
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Originally Posted by WishfulThinker66 View Post
Do you think staff ought to get involved and demand people actually show up?
How would staff have the authority to do something like this? Regardless, absolutely not.

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Default Sep 28, 2019 at 08:21 AM
  #5
I once called a friend at the urging of another friend. The friend in the hospital explained to me he was there to get away from his current environment and to please leave him alone. I didnt want visitors the last time i was in a hospital for physical health reasons. So maybe different people have different needs.
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Default Sep 29, 2019 at 08:12 AM
  #6
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How would staff have the authority to do something like this? Regardless, absolutely not.
You absolutely have a point. But, when the time comes to briefing family you would think they would urge them to attend.
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Default Sep 29, 2019 at 08:16 AM
  #7
I suppose I just don't get the fear factor. But that is me not them. Yes, I too believe it is stigma that is a reason. A shame that in this day and age we live in that kind of world. I get so upset by this. I want to grab the family member and give their head a shake.

The two I visit perk up with joy when they see me which is great. What isn't is seeing those already sad then get disappointed.

I think not visiting a friend and loved one is cruel.
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Default Sep 29, 2019 at 12:06 PM
  #8
I wonder if people realize that it is permitted and welcomed to visit patients who are in the psych ward.
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Default Sep 29, 2019 at 06:00 PM
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You are assuming every patient wants visitors. Or, perhaps family is one of the reasons they are there and not having contact is perhaps better. I only allowed my husband to visit, and there were times I asked him not to come because I just wasn’t up to visiting. Some patients never tell anyone they are going inpatient. Lots of factors.
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Default Sep 29, 2019 at 06:04 PM
  #10
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I wonder if people realize that it is permitted and welcomed to visit patients who are in the psych ward.
But often it is fully up to the patient to specify visitation. In my hospital, no one could even know you were admitted without your specific permission much less get on the floor for visitation. In fact, even my husband had to have a specific code that I gave him to even call the floor and ask to speak with me. Security can be very tight for privacy and safety.
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Default Oct 01, 2019 at 08:09 AM
  #11
I called the people I wanted to call. I only gave my code out to 2 people so they could call me. Normally I prefer NOT to have ANYONE visit. Including family. That's me.

Even in the regular hospital I prefer not to have visitors. If family visits I prefer them to be very short and infrequent.
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Default Oct 01, 2019 at 10:10 AM
  #12
For shorter hospitalizations, I can understand maybe wanting some privacy and not to have many/any visitors. In longer stays, though, as the months march on, loneliness and isolation can become a real problem. My longest hospitalizations was considerably longer than a year and virtually no one visited. I felt forgotten, unloved, and unwanted. Like a piece of garbage discarded. We have invisible diseases that do not show up on any CAT scan. A substantial number of people do, in fact, actually blame us for our diseases. Like, if we were just 'stronger,' none of this would have ever happened. Maybe some day that will change.

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Default Oct 01, 2019 at 02:06 PM
  #13
Oh but @WishfulThinker66, didn't you know? Mental illness is contagious. One droplet from our crazy mouths can contaminate a whole room full of normal sane people.

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Default Oct 01, 2019 at 04:37 PM
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Oh but @WishfulThinker66, didn't you know? Mental illness is contagious. One droplet from our crazy mouths can contaminate a whole room full of normal sane people.
isn't that right.
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Default Oct 01, 2019 at 04:41 PM
  #15
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Originally Posted by bpcyclist View Post
For shorter hospitalizations, I can understand maybe wanting some privacy and not to have many/any visitors. In longer stays, though, as the months march on, loneliness and isolation can become a real problem. My longest hospitalizations was considerably longer than a year and virtually no one visited. I felt forgotten, unloved, and unwanted. Like a piece of garbage discarded. We have invisible diseases that do not show up on any CAT scan. A substantial number of people do, in fact, actually blame us for our diseases. Like, if we were just 'stronger,' none of this would have ever happened. Maybe some day that will change.
Just witnessing this very thing. And the people who should be supporting their loved one turn it around and make it about themselves. "She is being so selfish." "How could she do this to me?"
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Default Oct 01, 2019 at 07:13 PM
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Just witnessing this very thing. And the people who should be supporting their loved one turn it around and make it about themselves. "She is being so selfish." "How could she do this to me?"
I know. There is just so much ignorance about mental illness. People are scared of us. They think we're all dangerous. Like I said, they want to blame us. Many of them I believe don't know what to do and the default position is then to do nothing. Because it has gotten so very much press over the years, addiction--at least in the States--is really very widely accepted as a thing people can recover from, even by regular lay people. Maybe someday, we can get to that place with mental illness, too. I'm not holding my breath.

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Default Oct 05, 2019 at 11:27 PM
  #17
I never have wanted visitors. I don't want anyone seeing me psychotic or severely manic. I'd just rather them know I'm ill and when next they see me I'm doing better. Privacy is crucial to me.
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Default Dec 08, 2019 at 03:58 AM
  #18
I have an interesting take. I've been hospitalized a number of times. Last time I was inpatient over about a month ago I told the hospital not to allow my own mother to visit. Because sometimes a visitor or family member may be a contributing factor you're in a situation where you've had to be in a psych ward. My mom involuntarily admitted me and she was sick herself at the time with her own mental illnesses.
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Default Dec 09, 2019 at 03:13 AM
  #19
I'm kind of the opposite. I don't want visitors when I'm admitted to the psych hospital. I'm usually manic and psychotic. I don't want anyone in my outside life remembering me as being as sick as I am when in patient. I just want them to think I got sick and when next they see me I'm fine. I like being isolated.

When I was undergoing cancer treatment I allowed visitors. All I kept praying was that I didn't throw up in front of them. Sometimes I was so ill I didn't want to talk. No fun for them and not helpful to me.
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Default Dec 09, 2019 at 03:00 PM
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A substantial number of people do, in fact, actually blame us for our diseases. Like, if we were just 'stronger,' none of this would have ever happened. Maybe some day that will change.
One ward psychiatrist told me that it was my own fault for being there.

This was decades ago.

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