"I have never been able to be admitted voluntarily because the loss of control on the ward triggers my PTSD."

Yes Merlin, I hear you. Some of my restraints were necessary, because I was hurting myself, because of the loss of control. But others were just ridiculously not. And those are the ones I fear most. Also the ones that were necessary were usually brought on my staff members not knowing how to deescalate from the very beginning.

splitimage

advocating is one of my favorite things to do! It's something I progressed a lot on.

In my very last hospitalization I had a staff member tell me "NO you can't have a lysol wipe, if you ask again I'm going to call the doctor and he'll 302 you here got it?" Instead of freaking out. I looked her straight in her thick eyeliner caked eyes and said "I'm not stupid you know. A doctor can't 302 me for asking for a lysol wipe. Secondly if you called that doctor at midnight to tell him I asked for a lysol wipe, you'd be 302ed here. And another thing, don't try and manipulate me, because I swear to god I will personally see to it that you never walk through those doors again." She just hmphed and I walked away. The next day I was up on a medical floor.

The hard part is doing it when my small ones are present.