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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 7 of 7. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by joe f on September 28, 2015, at 14:51:06
has anyone ever been in one voluntary and their experiences
Posted by Brot on September 28, 2015, at 16:30:01
In reply to experiences in a psych ward, posted by joe f on September 28, 2015, at 14:51:06
> has anyone ever been in one voluntary and their experiences
very very boring... i was smoking a lot because of boredom there. but its nice to get good food without cooking youorself or going to the supermarket..
and if you became a non smoker recently its a very bad idiea to go there because you will start smoking again.
and the worst thing was docs didnt listen to my complaints or ideas regarding my med treatment there.. i got out of there in a worse condition than i came inwell thats my story :-)
Posted by joe f on September 28, 2015, at 20:12:31
In reply to Re: experiences in a psych ward, posted by Brot on September 28, 2015, at 16:30:01
did they over medicate you?
Posted by Brot on September 28, 2015, at 20:39:52
In reply to Re: experiences in a psych ward, posted by joe f on September 28, 2015, at 20:12:31
> did they over medicate you?
not really. i seem to be one of the few ppl out there who get even more depressed on some antidepressants. they "insisted" that i take lexapro which made me just much worse depressed. they argued it cannot be that someone gets even more depressed on an ad. thats just impossible! they said. pfffff sure sure lol
these docs were just "bad"
and i took amisulpride at 50 mg and they took it away because they didntt know about its effect on depression... i was able to obtain some studies demonstrating the antidepresasnt effect of amisulpride and they where like "wheeew thats new to me" we didnt know that. (lol wtf)that was about 10 years ago. from my current point of view i just got into a mixed manic state with this lexapro and so on.. but felt and looked mainly like a depression. and cogintive impairment (depressive pseudo dementia) was rally bad at that time. ssris have caused/worsened this in my case.
today im on lithium, effexorl, amisulpride and seroquel and im realtively fine
next time i go to a psych ward they will have to catch me on the streets .... haha :P
Posted by baseball55 on September 28, 2015, at 21:30:37
In reply to Re: experiences in a psych ward » joe f, posted by Brot on September 28, 2015, at 20:39:52
I have been in psych hospitals several times. They are not spas. They are for people who are a danger to themselves or others. Each time I was on the verge of suicide and was grateful to be in a safe place. Sooo - boring, whatever. If you feel you are about to kill yourself and need to be safe, that's what they're for. Generally, I was so depressed that I barely got out of bed each time, so not being free to go out and do things was not an issue - I was not going out and doing things anyway.
As far as staff goes. My experience was very good except at a for-profit hospital I went to, where coverage was minimal. I went to teaching hospitals with lots of attendings and residents and social workers and highly experienced nurses. Every one was kind, attentive. I never lacked for someone to talk to if I could get up the energy to talk. I spoke with a psychiatrist and social worker each day, usually for as long as 1/2 and hour each. There were lots of groups, once I felt well enough to attend.
They did not overmedicate me. Just tried to find drugs that would get me up and moving and stop ruminating on suicide.
That was my experience. The ER experience, though, is a different story. Left alone under constant observation for hours while they search for a bed in the region. There is a shortage of psych beds and ER stays can be endless while they wait for a bed to open. Also, once you go to the ER and they decide you are a suicide risk, you are totally stuck there and there is nothing voluntary about it.
Posted by bleauberry on October 2, 2015, at 13:45:05
In reply to experiences in a psych ward, posted by joe f on September 28, 2015, at 14:51:06
I was in one voluntarily, and again another time involuntarily. Both due to suicidal intentions from longstanding depression resistant to MD drugs. All of it ended up being Lyme Disease and 90% remission was achieved on antibiotics and herbs.
Lonely place. Food and care was fine. But the pdocs were not great...average garden variety. There were ECT advertisement signs in the halls. Smart marketing. Talk about taking advantage. Wow. Anyway. I ended up doing that. It failed. 12 of them. Failed.
So it had been a week. I was even worse than I was when I went in. A nurse found me in a corner of a hallway, on my knees, sobbing like a baby. She was there to inform me my stay was over and they were letting me out. They needed my bed for someone worse than me. How it could be worse than me, I have no clue.
When I hit the street, that was about the time I finally realized, the medical world really doesn't have much in its toolbox to help people with depression. And so I set out on my own to figure out what had gone wrong in my life. Long story, but the journey led to a 25 year old diagnosis of Lyme disease which had been missed the entire time. Antibiotics were the answer to my depression, not any of the psych drugs.
Lonely. That's the only word that really pops into my head when I think of the psych ward.
It was a feeling of hope when I went in. But that quickly fades when you realize it is not their job or their intention to get you better.
Their job is merely to "stabilize" the patient or stabilize the situation. As soon as you say you might not kill yourself, you are all better in their eyes and fit to hit the street again.
Posted by baseball55 on October 2, 2015, at 20:01:03
In reply to Re: experiences in a psych ward, posted by bleauberry on October 2, 2015, at 13:45:05
>
> Lonely. That's the only word that really pops into my head when I think of the psych ward.
>
> It was a feeling of hope when I went in. But that quickly fades when you realize it is not their job or their intention to get you better.
>
> Their job is merely to "stabilize" the patient or stabilize the situation. As soon as you say you might not kill yourself, you are all better in their eyes and fit to hit the street again.I don't know what kind of hospital you were in that had advertisements for ECT. For-profit hospitals suck, in my experience. No non-profit or teaching hospital would do that.
As far as letting you go, it's not the hospital, in my experience, that throws you out once they feel you're past the suicidal crisis. It's the insurance companies. Twice, I had p-docs at hospitals tell the hospital that if the insurance company wouldn't pay, they would commit me and force the hospital to eat the cost. I never felt thrown out or not listened to.
But, as I said, I live in an area filled with major teaching hospitals and probably some of the best doctors, including p-docs, in the country. I consider myself very lucky.
This is the end of the thread.
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