I hope I'm posting this in the right section. It's long, so forgive me.

In 2011, after several years of dealing with depression and anxiety, it came to a peak and I was involuntarily committed by the ER to their psych ward after threatening to attempt suicide. I was against staying at the hospital, and actually took off from the hospital (I managed to make it all the way home in a taxi, but when they threatened to have police come and get me to bring me back, I went back voluntarily.) Initially I and my family were told that I would only remain in-hospital for 24 hours while they got my medications regulated (I hadn't been taking anything to deal with my depression or anxiety at that time.) 24 hours turned to 2 weeks, and it wound up being the most traumatic experience of my life - far worse than the depression and anxiety I was already dealing with.

This specific psychiatric ward was co-ed; there were probably 25 to 30 patients in there at a time, dealing with everything from depression, drug addiction, postpartum depression, to the more severe side of things such as schizophrenia. One guy in there was even a rapist who threatened myself and another female patient. When we told the staff, they did nothing but assure us that they "told him" not to bother us. There was absolutely no sense of security.

The psychiatrist I assigned was young, asian, and probably no older than his mid to late 30s. I was relieved to have someone closer to my age because I thought he'd maybe be more understanding. We would have one-on-one appointments every day throughout the 2 weeks I was there. He was nice at first, but as I got more comfortable with him he started to ask me extremely inappropriate questions. Now, I totally get that asking a patient about their relationships/relationship status is of the norm when dealing with mental health, but he went beyond his expertise as a physician and would ask me things like, "Don't you want to be ravaged in bed by a guy?" I told him I was uncomfortable with the line of questioning and he said, "You better start getting comfortable or I'm going to keep you here through Christmas." He would taunt me, essentially.

Following my discharge, I tried to put the entire ordeal behind me and move on with my life, but there wasn't a single day that went by where I wasn't having some sort of anxiety over it or having flashbacks. Finally, in 2014, I filed a formal complaint against the hospital, and after seeking other outside legal advice I then filed a sexual harassment complaint against my former psychiatrist with the RCMP, which is still being investigated to this day. They have told me that there won't necessarily be charged against him, but that it will remain and open file. I've also since found out that there have been many other complaints lodged against this psychiatrist, and he is even being investigated in relation to the death of a patient who was under his care. Meanwhile, he's STILL allowed to practice while all of this is going on.

I've been to therapy to try and get me through the ordeal and talk about what I experienced, but it hasn't been helpful. I'm starting to wonder if it's ever something I'll truly be "over" or of it's forever a part of me. That being said, I do feel like a much stronger person because of what I went through.