[SunAngel]

A member I have been pming with got me thinking about this.

During my life, I have been hospitalized 14 times, and my husband figured out that we have spent 4-1/2 months apart. BUMMER!!!

[BNLsMOM]

I can't remember if it was 6 or 7, but it was all in the last 2.5 years since diagnosis.

only once, would be twice but I ran away the first time from the hospital

[SunAngel]

Originally Posted by Anika

only once, would be twice but I ran away the first time from the hospital

Anika, did they try to find you, or did you just go against medical advice.

I was a homeless youth, I left in my hospital attire and hitchhiked to the next city. Smart on my part, no but I was scared. I think I would have been in more times but I am always resistant. :-( I'm working on that.

[Cnytroxy1973]

twice since my Dx in 2007.

[GreenIvy]

Twice since I was diagnosed in 2002.

[~Christina]

Once about 15 years ago ( when they just thought i was " depressed"
and Twice this year once in last days of Feb and then again in the last days of june .

I feel so unstable right now I honestly think I would be helped alopt more if i went back in for a few days ,BUT i know if i do that will be the end of my marriage ,, My husband cant / wont /refuses to deal with my illness ..

I see my therapist today so im very hopeful he can calm me down and help me out ( he usally does )

Wishing you all Peace and love ~

[greylove]

I've been hospitalized three times in the last year and a half. The first time for an out of control mania. The second for the depression that followed. And the third for psychiatric evaluation and recovery from life-altering injuries that followed a suicide attempt. At that point I was paranoid psychotic. I was convinced I was about to be committed to an insane asylum for life.

[ddizzy]

I was diagnosed in 2001 and I've been hospitalized 7 times. Time varied from weeks to months spent in multiple different hospitals in different cities and states.

12 times in the last six years. All voluntary admissions due to extreme difficulty getting me on the right meds -- they kept petering out after a few months. Very frustrating. It has been almost a year now since my last admission. Hopefully I'm finally through that miserable stage of my illness now that meds are fairly stable.

[popeye]

Never except for alcohol detox.

[onlymedid]

Once about 8 years ago. Hated it and do everything in my power to avoid it, even lying to my T and Pdoc.

[wing]

Four times, and never again. I lie, too.

[widgets]

Once, because i actually tried to kill myself.
But i told them everything was fine and they just let me go, i only said that because i was fed up i had failed so i wanted to try again.
Thing is though, if i get to the point where i actually want to do it, i'm hardly going to tell the people who are the ones who have the power to stop me?
Hopefully it wont get that bad again, for any of us.

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. I have never been hospitalized but I should have been. I once drove my car into a tree & luckily wasn't seriously injured. I went to the emergency room & was give 6 xanax & sent home. I continued taking anti-dep which were making me worse. It was another 10 years before I was diagnosed with BP II.

[Martek]

Once when I was suicidal, My sister talked me down and went with me to the hospital. While I was in my wife decided to divorce me. Probably the worst six days of my life and that is saying a lot. I have been close to checking myself in but I don't think I could do it even if I really needed it.

[charlene323]

I have only been once for a week, I attempted suicide last month, and that is when they discovered I was BP my Gdoc was treating me for depression and they believe that is what caused the trigger. I hated being there but it did help me to understand that I am not the only person in the world who feels like I do.

[kaliope]

twice.....the first time was against my will when i went to a psychiatrist for a consult. she said i was manic and could not care for myself. it was a friday and the pdoc at the hospital agreed with me that it wasnt really necessary but since it was the weekend he couldnt do anything about it. come monday morn the evaluating T let me go.

the second time my T felt my mania was out of control and that i should be admitted to get my meds straightened out. as i highly respected T, i went and stayed for a week. it wasnt so bad going in voluntarily.

my current T said I needed to be hospitalized once during a mania that went on for over a month but he doesnt like to hospitalized people so he worked with pdoc to get me several appts to manage it outside of hospital. this worked so well we finally found med that made me stable.

[manicminer]

Just once and its been my #1 treatment goal to never return. Been blessed so far

[advena]

twicel once after my doctor put me on prozac which made me manic to the point of psychosis and once after an ECT which didn't go well.

I have been in day treatment 4 or 5 times which I found to be very helpful. In day treatment, I would go to the hospital and spend all day in groups then go home for the evening.

[zbmom]

Once in July of this year due to a med reaction that made me extremely suicidal. My T put me in, I got out the next day. Worst experience of my life hands down. I will NEVER go inpatient again. I would lie through my teeth to avoid it without hesitation.

I've only been "officially" diagnosed for about a month now with bp II but my pdoc has been treating me as one since that experience.

[Yoda]

I think I have been in hospital ten times since 2000. The first time I stayed for five weeks; that was after I shot my BF. All other stays were about ten days duration each. I have not been in since 2009 when I was admitted to evaluate my episodic aphasia so technically that was neuro not psych.

[Sophia57]

Twice back in 1976, post partum. The first time was voluntary, but I never got a diagnosis and the pdoc saw me once and put me on something that made me stupid. A drug that is never used anymore.

I was not stable enough to go home, but I had a 1 year old and an insane husband, winter was coming and we had no heat. I could not even build a fire in the remaining stove. After that, things get very foggy, with my ex calling a sheriff to take me to a nearby mental ward. They handcuffed me, and would not tell me why they were not going to the city with the mental ward. By the time I got to the other hospital, I was completely freaking out, and what I went through was nightmare from hell.

The pdoc was insane, gave everyone ECT, including himself for fun. I was starting to recover on huge doses of Chlorapromazine (Thorazine), although drooling a lot. Then he decided I needed more ECT. It took about a week to recover, and I phoned my parents and begged them to come and get me. They drove 12 hours straight, and got me an my young son, and I lived with them for 8 months before recovering. I cut the Thorazine in half the first day, then gradually cut it down, with no pdoc.

It was the WORST experience of my life, for sure, and I made sure I stayed sane enough to never be committed. Hubby tried to commit me about 8 years ago, when I attacked him for trying to sleep with my ex best friend. I talked to 911 and told them wouldn't you be angry if your husband was taking out you best friend and they cancelled the ambulance. It took a long time to realize at that point, he was suffering from major depression with psychotic features, and about 3 more years to get him on the right meds.

Never... But I'm not sure whether I belonged there or not. I've been doing a spot-on job keeping myself in line! I get scared a lot due to some of the things I deal with, but I've never been suicidal & never gotten caught by the cops for the things I've done, so... I'm not sure whether I should have been & didn't realize it at the time. I am kind of a survivalist & a poor one at that so "hospital" spells last resort for me, & I can't name something I haven't lived through, even if it was traumatic. : /