[franz kafka]

Back from a short stint in IP. I went to a different facility than I've been to in the past and it was much cleaner and calmer, which was nice. The docs there dropped two of my meds, though, which scares me. So far so good but still, it worries me. I've been on seroquel for ages and now it's just zyprexa.

In one of the groups, the mental health worker was complaining about "professional patients" who keep coming back every 3-6 months. Like me. Seriously, mental health workers shouldn't be allowed to run groups. In my experience they always suck and are at worst very offensive. I don't choose to have life threatening psychosis every 4-5 months or so. I'm not doing anything wrong. It just happens.

[Fuzzybear]

Some of the terms used are very offensive. This is part of the reason I’ve given up on “Professionals” for the most part... their lack of professionalism Maybe they are simply ignorant, I don’t know

I don’t know of anyone who “chooses” to have life threatening symptoms, severe SU ideation etc.

[HALLIEBETH87]

No
You didn't choose and I'm
Proud of you for getting help!

If they want to call patients "professionals", then they should stop charging the patients' insurance and start paying the patients to be in the psych hospital. That would have helped my financial situation greatly over the years.

I've encountered some really nice pdocs and nurses at the psych hospital, and others not so nice.

Once I was in a diner eating lunch and a man and I witnessed the manager treating a customer (an elderly African American woman) very poorly when the customer rightly complained about the food. The customer was talking to me upset about it, and she deserved to be upset and should not have had to pay for the crap. She ended up leaving paying for the lousy meal because the manager was an A-hole, and then that guy behind me comes up to me and starts saying something like "What a loony she was! I worked in the psychiatric ward at X psychiatric hospital and had to deal with those types all of the time."

The horrible man that said that to me had no idea that I had been a psychiatric patient at that hospital he referenced. I was in too much shock to say a word in response, and honestly, it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference if I had - to him. The thing that was ridiculous was that the elderly African American woman didn't act mentally ill in any way at all. I believe the guy was guilty on two counts. One of maybe being a racist. Another for stigmatizing the mentally ill despite having worked around them.

It was a real learning experience for me. I live in a state that is not known for having many racists, and my town generally has pretty socially liberal minded people. Well, others still exist. Everywhere.

[piano97]

Sorry to hear that happened to you today. Not nice.

Glad to hear you are doing OK on the Zyprexa. Are you getting plenty of sleep? Take PRN if not, you had some big changes all at once and sleep sometimes is the best medicine. It goes fine a lot of the time when making changes, but can have you feeling off-balance sometimes.

It sounds like you cycle frequently. Hopefully this change will be a good thing and you can get some longer and better 'well' periods. Cycling is very challenging, hang in there and keep going forward.

[Pookyl]

The term "frequent flyers" is used here to describe patients who are in and out of the same hospital. I'm not sure if it's offensive though because we patients use it to describe ourselves also?

[HALLIEBETH87]

i am lucky that the therapists i work havent said anything close to that stuff to me. maybe they do to each other? idk. most i work with are really very kind.

[*Laurie*]

That person is ignorant and most likely suffers from burn-out. I commend you for getting help when and where you needed it.

[Unrigged64072835]

I was like that for a few years until I had a med combo that works. It's not anyone's fault for being in the hospital repeatedly. If someone kept getting cancer they wouldn't be treated like that.