Hi Chopin,
Thank you for being so honest about your past. You're right, I'm relatively new here, and did not know any of this. Sounds like your teen years and before you found the right meds and other support were really hard for you. You seem to have come a long way since then.
Personally, I'm glad your friend was there for you that night, since clearly you were very unsafe to yourself.
About the head banging, sort of related... at the facility I live in the primary diagnosis for being there is blindness. But many people have other stuff going on too, usually mild devlopmental disabilitys or mental illness or both. Unfortunately these other issues than blindness often aren't handled so well by the staff. There's this older woman who one of my friends, and also the president of the residents, found out bangs her head against the wall. I asked if the staff knew anything about restraining residents if necessary. He says no, they just let her bang her head against the wall, and she has this bruise, and maybe a CNA will brush her hair in a way to hide it or something, but that's really it. One day I guess a CNA came in and found her doing it and she burst into tears and said not to tell anyone or she'd get transfered somewhere else. Poor lady!
Sorry if that was off topic. Things were running smoother before I came when they had a psychologist here for ten years. Then they fired her shortly before I arrived. We so need her back!