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Still, my pdoc wants me to go to hospital.
I think that would be a bad idea because
a) there are a lot of people who would make me feel nervous (been there once as a patient, several other times as a guest)
b) they would screw my medication up
c) if I hallucinate and panic, they would just inject diazepam or something else into my arm instead of calming me down.
d) it is an environment where I would hallucinate more since there's nothing to do.
e) my roommate might be there.
The thing is, my pdoc won't believe that considering that I am "psychotic", I can function pretty well in my home environment. I can do chores, do stuff on my own, I'm even here on the computer, able to write a post.
I'm guessing that the doctor is motivated by three concerns:
1: That you might hurt yourself
2: That you might hurt someone else
3: That if either of the above happens, he/she will be held accountable for not hospitalizing you.
It seems to me that the difficulty will be convincing your doctor that you're capable of staying home. Therefore the critical questions are:
1: How do you know that you are?
2: If you know that you'll be capable of dealing with anything that comes up, how can you reassure your doctor's fears/concerns?
I do know of one individual who had opted to fully experience his psychosis -- at a certain point he actually hired a college student to come and hang out in his apartment just in case he got it into his head that he'd be capable of flying or something. I thought it was ingenious and demonstrated remarkable insight into self-care. Meantime, he never did want to fly and the student was happy to get paid to study.
I suspect that if you want to change your doctor's mind you're going to need to convince him/her that you're capable of taking care of yourself and that might mean assuring your doc that you'll be with someone who will be capable of recognizing when you're in a different plane of reality than they are.
You might have a friend or family member who could fulfil this role. Alternatively, you might have a place to go that could serve in this capacity. Are there any alternatives to hospitals in your area? Some cities/communities have the equivalent of halfway houses. You could also check with local support groups -- sometimes members will open up their homes to individuals who are temporarily going through a crisis. It's also possible that if you're living away from home you could temporarily return there.
Something else that might be helpful is to develop a plan in case things do escalate. Plan A might mean bringing in a friend to keep you company; Plan B might mean transferring to a different location such as your family home or a residential care facility; as a last resort, you might have Plan C -- going to a hospital.
Along with that plan it might be helpful to develop some guidelines as to when you'll do what. For example, if you're feeling a bit spacey but okay, maybe that's the time to call a friend. If you're feeling frightened (and so is the friend) maybe that's the time to go to the secondary location. If you want to jump off a bridge, maybe that's the time to go to the hospital.
You made your post this morning and it's now evening. I don't know how your day has progressed -- maybe you're at the hospital already. But if you're not, and if you're still feeling okay, maybe now is a good time to come up with a plan that you're comfortable with. You could then share it with your doctor as well as the concerns you cited above, and hopefully your doc would be comfortable with your plan too.
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~ Kindness is cheap. It's unkindness that always demands the highest price.
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