What's your though's about psych ward's

I went to one two weeks ago. The place was not safe. Men women all together in there for so many things. I met a guy there he said to me i got in here because i assaulted my mother. I often think to hurt people. I said well i never do that i hurt myself instead. So days went on his temper was so bad. He demanded things. Well my issue with him started with him wanting to buy my pain pills with a pack of cigs and two dollars I said really. Went to the nurses told them about it. They told me to comfort him in front of everyone. So i did and the threats were coming at me. I told the nursed after i do that will you get him out of here. They were slow getting him out that he got the chance to slap my room mate through her against the wall. And still he was there to say i will find you and do the unthinkable to you shot the finger at me. I just waved to him when he did that. also while i there there there were so many unsafe things going on. I got worse going out than i did going in. My question to pc what are my rights, Guys kissed on me came in my room the list goes on and on. This is how i felt
and your thought's about psych ward's and how they treat us.

Good grief~ The psych ward/hospital I was in was nothing like that at all! The people who were deemed dangerous were not put with us, but in another ward. We were plenty safe, and actually had quite a good time! LOL

Yes, I was sick - and had my daily psych session with my psychiatrist, and also had group. The rest of the day was spent mingling with other patients as we weren't allowed to take naps.

They'd take us for "walks" around the hospital and it was SO funny, cause people driving past would almost break their necks straining to see all the WHACKOS out for their daily constitutional! LOL We'd make funny faces at them, to make them think we were REALLY "out there." We had a ball. All in all it was a very positive experience, and I got the help I truly needed. My shrink was the BEST -- and she helped me get thru some very difficult issues.
I'm so glad I signed myself in and stayed!!!

I'm sorry your experience was so negative. It's terrible you had to experience that kind of 'abuse' while the nurses just passed it off as a "joke." I don't see it as anything funny at all. I wonder how the nurses would feel if they had to be treated like that.

Please take care of yourself -- God bless you and keep posting. We'll be here. Hugs, Lee

Wow that sounds terrible, not quite like the one I was in for 5 days. For one it was quite a bit more supervised, there is no way that sort of thing could have gone one there. Some of the staff seemed a bit in-experianced as to proper approaches to use with people but at the same time it appeared most of them worked very long hours and probably were facing quite a bit of stress themselves.

I went there because I was suicidal and didn't think I could trust myself, but once the immediate suicidal feelings kind of diminished I ended up feeling the need to get out as soon as I could which was easy due to being voluntary...but yeah they kept insisting on anti-histamines to help with my anxiety and to get to sleep but I continued persisting that they don't help and make me feel worse which they do they cause worse disassociation feelings which makes me anxious maybe I don't physically react much to the anxiety but that is even worse because then its totally contained in my head. So then they gave me trazodone which was better....it was kind of hard expressing concernes/needs but I have trouble with that anyways.

It wasn't exactly a positive experiance, but it probably saved me from doing anything stupid....and I am pretty sure it's not the last time I'll be in one, obviously some are pretty terrible so I would hope not to end up stuck in one of them. Anyways maybe its worth looking into filing a complaint or something as that almost sounds like criminal negligence on the part of whoever was running the psych ward...but more importantly if its worsened your mental health or is difficult to deal with maybe talk to a therapist or whatever you need to do to take care of yourself.

You basically have no rights. I was on a locked unit. I woke up at night, because a guy was kissing me on the lips. I told him to leave. He did. I could not fall back to sleep. Then a nurse came and stood in the doorway, making rounds. I told her what had happened and asked for a sleeping pill. She refused - it was past 3AM, which is the cut-off time for sleep medicine. She did not believe my report. She said there was nobody by that name. I called him Buzz which is how everybody called him. Then I recalled that his real name was John. Then she said that she would talk to him AND THAT WAS ALL.

For the morning meeting, I wrote up the story and handed it to the nurse who led the morning meeting to read out loud. She read it. John said that he must have been disoriented and apologized. I DID NOT NEED HIS APOLOGY, HELLO! I do not care for apologies from disoriented psych patients!!! I needed apologies form the nursing administration. For not believing my report, for not bending their rules to give me sleep medicine, for allowing a disoriented psych patient to wander around at NIGHT on a LOCKED unit.

I was then married and when my H came to visit, he asked for a police officer. The guy took a report. Asked me about what happened. Well, I know what was happening when I woke up, not before it, and I was on SEROQUEL, not benadryl, who knows what had been going on before I finally woke up. I did have the blanket on top of me, so hopefully, nothing seriously bad.

Then the police officer asked whether I wanted to press assault charges. That basically meant more trouble for the disoriented psych patient whose life clearly was not wonderful to begin with. Of course, I said "no". Why would I give more trouble to the poor guy? The fault was that of the nursing staff. THe police officer said that he could not do anything to help me complain about the misbehavior of the nursing staff. OK, so basically the half an hour I spent giving the details to the police officer was wasted.

As a result, my then H took me home AMA.

His friend, who is a clinical social worker, said that she, in my situation, would have had the whole nursing management woken up from their sleep and lined up in my room with apologies at 4AM. But I am not as assertive, which is clearly a problem.

And, I was not able to fall asleep after that incident.

Hi,

I left Charter AMA beause day activities were mixed with some violent men. This was a very expensive, private psych ward. During activities a guy was losing at a game of basketball. This really ticked him off, so he jumped on another guy and broke his ankle. Another patient proclaimed to be Jesus Christ, and the girls unit I was on felt very negative and depressing.

I was also in a cheap rehab where my counselor got me high abd drunk after I had 8 months clean living in a half-way house. She also got her 5 yr AA chip and gave a bogus speech to a huge crowd of addicts.

TnT

I'm currently in a psych hospital, and there are good and bad units, although neither I've been in, are anywhere near as bad as you describe.

When I was first admitted, I was put on the general psych unit, which was a co-ed unit. fortunately because I was voluntary, I had priviledges to leave. It was basicaly a holding pen. Lots of people involuntary,lots of people delusional,2 women who held competing monologues and would not shut up, strangers coming into my room, no therapy.

then I got admitted to the women's Inpatient Unit. way better. Women only, lots of group therapy during the day, see my pdoc 3 x a week, work with the nurses very closely. for a psych ward it's about as good as it gets. If I have to be in the hospital, I'm glad I'm in here.

splitimage

I was in a psych ward for 2 weeks. It was horrible. There was one patient who would sexually abuse nurses and patients including myself. He was so delirious. He would come up to me and put his arms around me and block me from the door. I felt very uncomfortable around him, but the nurses didnt do anything despite his behavior. I now hate those places and feel just the same as you do about them. They are unsafe and scary. The people who came out of ECT treatment scared me too because they couldnt remember their own name for a while. The nurses threatened to force ECT on me after I was having horrible depression and hallucinations. I had a panic attack and they put me in a solitary room for hours. The experience was overall horrible and borderline traumatic. I'm sorry yours wasnt any better. Just try and NOT end up in there again... I know I'll refuse to