Ah, it's been at least 10 years since I have been in the psych hospital.....but remembering back a few years.....I still have the migraines that I had then & am still on pain medication because nothing else touched them. In those years.....my neurologist had me on stadol (an interesting drug that was sprayed into the nose).....& would end up with demoral shots when the migraine got too horrible that would knock me out for at least 12 hours. Horrible to need that treatment while in the psych hospital because narcotics of any kind are not looked kindly at & they aren't into providing those kinds of meds to patients in the psych ward.

I made arrangements with my pdoc before going into the hospital....I made sure he wrote up the orders or had those orders written up by the med Dr....& always took in my prescription so that they had the med already there for me to take & usually took it right before going into the hospital....which at the end was a private psych hospital. When part of a medical hospital, it was easier to get the med from the pharmacy, but a bit harder to get it ordered.

I had the migraine problem even when I was involuntary & then it was even harder to get the meds that I needed for the migraine....& the worse problem was that the migraines really NEVER go away. The misery of not having the meds when I needed them as I had normally at home was really a problem. Going to the nurses station to get the meds I needed at the time I needed them was always a hassle but it was the only way I could function without a horrible headache......& many times I remember just laying in my bed because I was too sick from the migraine pain to even function in any sort of therapy.

It's important to have all the meds you need along with the prescription for them so that they can't deny that you are taking the med...it also gets the order through more quickly.

I can't remember actually how many times I was in the psych hospital.....think I lost count around 25+ in almost every psych hospital in Los Angeles California. One of the first was at UCLA before it was rebuilt after the 1994 earthquake.....I was in there just after 1994....& it was just like the pictures of the old time psych wards. My depression started just after that earthquake when I lost my career & my pdoc was at a loss to determine a DX....my insurance was demanding a DX, so they required me to go into the UCLA psych hospital for evaluation. It was the first time in any psych hospital & really freaked me out. I ended up sleeping in the social room which they locked up at night....I was too afraid to sleep in my room & they were nice enough to lock me up alone to sleep on the sofa in the social gathering area. The "know it all" idiot pdoc/resident there decided to try a med that made me pass out because it lowered my blood pressure so much. I don't remember actually how many days I was there....but it seemed like at least a week or more. I finally got to the point where they ended up taking a group of us out into Westwood to walk around the town.....I knew it well because my first job out of college was in Westwood....so that brought back some good memories.....they made us hide our wrist bands up our sleeves so that the people in the town wouldn't know we were from the psych ward...lol......that was the only good part of the experience I can remember....the rest felt like a nightmare.

After my first OD, I ended up at the local private psych hospital. Spent a month there several times....& a lot of out patient time there also. They had the ropes course there that was an interesting experience. After living with the others there at the hospital for so long, it almost felt like a family of sorts....lots of caring people & my pdoc was on staff there.....but I wasn't at a point where anything helped me.....think that sometimes help only happens when we are really ready & nothing can really be forced to happen before that no matter how much good therapy practices they throw at us.

I remember one hospital they kept taking me to because of my insurance.....required a long ambulance ride to get there....but they had a pet therapy & brought in dogs.....that was the only thing that touched me there.....Think so much of me was fighting the whole system, the insurance & everything that it just added to the anger that I was experiencing & made the depression worse....but that's looking back at it with 20/20 hind sight.

Enjoy the critters & the fun things you can find to do while in the hospital to pass the time while they try to find a med that helps get you in a better place or just pass the time & let the horrible feeling pass by changing the environment you are in....sometimes it will break a bad feeling that we can't seem to shake otherwise.

I think most of my experiences I have blocked out of my mind as I can't really think back to many specific things & have virtually no memory of much of the times I was in the hospital.

Don't try to call 911 from the hospital:
One thing I do remember was when I was in the medical part of the hospital after an OD, a friend called me at the hospital telling me that she had just OD'ed.....like I could do anything about it???? I tried calling 911.....but the hospital switchboard wouldn't allow me to call 911 because I was in the hospital & shouldn't NEED TO CALL 911. I had to explain what was happening & where they needed to send the ambulance. Definitely a good reason not to become friendly with anyone from in the psych hospital....she had the same pdoc as I did & think expected me to look after her or maybe didn't like thinking that I was in the hospital getting the attention she wanted...nothing like competition OD's........who knows....but they got to her in time & she ended up in the same local hospital as I was in.