How being IP works?

When I was IP I talked to my psychiatrist 5 times a week, 5-10 minutes.

Then nothing, for 10 days. They weren't any kind of group therapy or activities.

When I was discharged after 10 days I was more suicidal, paranoid, homicidal, afraid of hospital... than before.

how is this supposed to help someone?

Hello Nocter: Well... I've been an in-patient on 2 different psych wards. My recollection is that I saw the psychiatrist (not my pdoc... but the one that was on staff at the hospital) every 2 or 3 days... sometimes for longer meetings... sometimes more briefly. On both psych wards there were groups to attend. Most of it was absolutely ridiculous... in my humble opinion!

I'd have to say, personally, my opinion is that being on a psych ward does not contribute to healing. It's simply a place to go (or to be put) if you're not safe on your own. It's basically a warehouse. And, sometimes, that's important. But it's not therapeutic. My personal opinion (again) is that what's important is to have additional services (such as a partial hospital program) lined up for when you get out of the hospital. To the extent that there is healing available, that is where it will happen.

I think different hospitals work differently.

In the hospital I use, every patient sees their pdoc each and every day for the entirety of their stay. If the pdoc has a day off, another doctor sees you, but you never go a day without seeing the psychiatrist. Each day there were around 6 groups or classes you could attend; they were not mandatory. They varied from process groups (which were sort of group-therapy like) to skills classes to art and even pet therapy, etc.) Individual therapy was not provided, but this was a short-term acute care facility, not a long-term facility.

I found some of the groups actually really helpful (usually the more skills-based or psychoeducational ones were most helpful to me -- the process groups tended to be pretty useless). Some groups I didn't bother to attend because I was simply not interested in their content.

Most short-term inpatient stays are meant for crisis stabilization with the intent to get patients safe and ready to discharge into out-patient care with a private psychiatrist and a private therapist (appointments set up with both are required before discharge from the hospital I use).

I think it depends on the hospital, location, and funding.

I've been in two. In the first I was in the hospital for 4 days and saw a psychiatrist for a single 5 min session where it turned out to be I was misdiagnosed. I was followed around the remainder of the time by students. As for activities, this hospital not only had them I was required to attend a minimum of two a day. In addition I had to attend various information sessions - like a lecture from a pharmacist. I was discharged with no follow-up care.

Hospital (2) I saw a psychiatrist and students daily. In addition I regularly met with the 4 of them to discuss what was happening to me. Thus they included me in the decision of my care plan, etc. What this hospital lacked was any kind of activities. They had one activity every other day. It was usually a walk or the opening of a pretty sadly stocked art room. There was no therapy. On a positive note my discharge plan was well communicated. It included follow-up care weekly for 3 months.

When I was IP it was on a trauma ward, on a whole different wing from the regular psych ward. It was quite different from what I have read about IP. We had groups all day long, art and music therapy, physical stuff-yoga and relaxation, group processing, educational, skill building. Daily appts with the psychiatrist who worked there. Individual therapy 3 times per week. All groups were mandatory. We were locked out of our rooms all day, although we would be let in if we asked to use the restroom. After supper there was some free time. We could shower (if we asked to be let into our room to do so), or hang out in one of two areas. But we were pretty much expected to "work" during those times. Journalling, filling out DBT/CBT worksheets, reading stuff about our condition. And they did extensive psych testing if they thought it was warranted. We were allowed outside in a fenced area 4 times a day. It was there for smokers,but I was allowed to go outside with them even though I don't smoke. No cell phones, no computers. We were allowed to make phone calls at certain times of day, but there was no privacy for that.

Another point, If I were you, I would like to see an itemized statement of what they charged you (or your insurance.) Wonder, did they charge you for Pdoc visits for each of the fifteen days even though he only saw you 5 times? What else did they charge you for?

I would raise holy hell if they charged you for doc visits, groups, ot, pt, or other items that you did not receive. It happens more commonly than people realize.

When I was inpatient (several times) I saw a Pdoc every day, groups every day, and my therapist one on one several times a week.

Here we have a public health system, you can pay an insurance if you want, but I cannot.

I did't pay anything, I barely have money to buy food.

What made me angry was the psychiatrst, who was always the same, he was mad, threated me, told me he would lock me up in my room with only the mattresss of the bed, forced me to take a medication that I did before and caused me side effects. I went there because of depresion and he tottaly ignored that and diagnosed me with Pervasive developmental disorder with short psychotic episodes (WTF!?). If I had to pay for this sh*it i would

*trigger* kill him with a knife *trigger*

More trigger.

It was traumatized by this experience in the psych ward. I am already traumatized becauuse I was born in an abusive and neglect family i had to run away with literally nothing when I became 18, and they at the hospital treated me like a pice of trash. They don't know how much I had to work to be at college and don't get in troubles since it's the only thing my parents taught me to do. I went there because i wanted to talk with someone since I felt suicidal, I wanted some help not this. Actually if someone at the ER had talked enough with me and tell me to do something the next day to be busy, it' wouldn't have been necessary to IP me. I need kind and warm people, that's it....I can do the rest by my own, I alwyas had done it since my parents did nothing for me, even buying food.

When it comes to inpatient psych units (at least at the hospital I work at) billing is totally different than for medical units. There is an agreed amount of days that are covered that is paid regardless of the actual length of stay. With most insrances pay for 3 days. So if one is inpatient for 2 days the hospital makes out. If the person is there 10 days oh well ththey still get paid for 3. Also, the insurance pays a certain amount regardless of the services offered or received. If medical treats are some for other issues, if the patient receives, ect, attends 5 groups or 50 the facility gets paid the same. The one area where it is different is seeilng the psych np or psychiatrist. They have to submit a bill for each visit. From there they bill bassed on length of visit. A person sind a doctor for 5 or 10 minutes would probably be billed at a low compenation rate.

Many facilities are short term stabilization units without much time for one on one therapy because of the short stay.

Psychiatric hospitalization should be avoided. It is only useful for certain conditions and medication management. It doesn't do much for adjustment problems and chronic suicidal ideation.

Reaching out to psychiatry at the age of 16 is my biggest regret in life. My hospitalization was 8 weeks of hell. It was a new world, one filled with chaos and self harm. I've never seen that before. All the patients were cutting themselves and teaching new admissions how to do it. I had the lecture from a 13 year old the first morning I was there. How was this supposed to help me or any other patient get better? The place didn't promote recovery at all. Staff would threaten patients. The psychiatrist was useless. She was old and had the pure psychoanalytical approach. Her clinical skills were poor. She didn't talk which made therapy sessions with her useless. Meeting her lead me into psychiatric hell and misdiagnosis.

Outpatient therapy and an autism assessment would have helped me a lot more than an Axis II diagnosis, that came with all kinds of assumptions.

The last time I got severely depressed I kept my dark thoughts from my psychiatrist. There was no way I was going to tell her I was suicidal. I struggled for three days with the intense thoughts. My mother helped me through them. I knew if I ended up in the hospital I would get misdiagnosed again, since they had my records from 16 years earlier. A lot of psychiatrists rely on old records and don't question them even if they are wrong.

I am sorry you have that horrible experience...
This is true and was the main reason why I was diagnosed with PDD-nos. I had an autism diagnosis from when I was 14 and they looked at that.

When I was IP before because a suicide attempt they just diagnosed me with Borderline...
I thought I was going homeless, that's why I tried to kill myself.

Do you agree with your ASD diagnosis?


I got the BPD diagnosis too. They also labeled me with dependent and histrionic PD when I was a teenager. At the time I was severely bullied, and felt alienated and livid. It is common for people with ASD to get personality disorder diagnoses. It can cause a lot of harm, because the treatment isn't appropriate, and clinicians tend to judge people with a PD label.

Unless you have are in an acute psychotic state or have a major depressive episode I wouldn't go near a hospital for life's adversities. Suicide attempts/ideation due to an interpersonal reason or life situation usually cause a psychiatrist to diagnose a PD.

I"ve had different experiences in different psych hospitals. My first 2 stays were at a private psych hospital that my insurance didn't cover. I was there for 1 month each time.....both times were basically after OD's also & my own pdoc was one of the pdoc's that had priviledges at the hospital which was why he sent me there in the first place rather than the local psych ward at the local medical hospital. I wasn't at a good place at the time (didn't really understand why like I do 20 years later) so it didn't do the good that it really should have done. They had a ropes course & all kinds of outside activities after one got well enough after the OD to participate in those kinds of activities. Group therapy all day & psychologist & pdoc meetings every day of the week.

Sadly, this hospital closed after going bankrupt & the only psych hospital available was the one at the local hospital which again, my insurance didn't cover (until I finally got on disability & on medicare) so they would ship me by ambulance to a hospital almost 100 miles away that the insurance would cover. That situation only made me angry which didn't help my situation as most of the time I was in the psych wards after having OD'ed & finally been released from the medical floor. I was messed up & so was the system. Most of the time those hospital stays were short term, & there to deal with crisis mode or later on, when after finally getting onto medicare, my pdoc would put me into the local hospital's psych ward for any med change because of my horrible side effect reactions I had to almost everything he tried......which made me feel like even more of a guinea pig & irritated me even more.

Years passed & I ended up with a different pdoc after finding another private psych hospital again that was much better & had better care & groups but still I didn't understand what was really causing my problems at the time so I really never got the help I needed because no one really knew what the underlying issues were that I was dealing with, not even myself. The thing was that many times just getting me out of where I was at home would break the cycle of the emotions I didn't realize at the time were causing the problems & I would be fine for a while.

I honestly have no idea how many times I was hospitalized between 1994 & 2004. I'm sure it was at least 20 but could have been way more than that as it seemed like I was in the hospital more than I was out during those years but it was a black hole period of my life that I don't remember many of the details of.

For me though it felt like it got to the point where it would get me medically through an OD & then break the cycle for a little while until it built back up again.

Looking back, I understand now that it was from feeling totally trapped financially in a bad marriage (long story) where they was no emotional connection which was nothing more than a follow on from my growing up years with parents that had no ability for having emotional connection with anyone.....but until I was finally able to get totally away from all that dysfunction, I thought it was normal so I guess that's why no one really understood what was REALLY happening because I was incapable of expressing what was really happening & we all blamed it on my overreacting to the loss of my computer engineering career.

Hospital stays weren't for finding the problem or a solution, they were there to basically stabilize a crisis.....even the long term hospital stays seemed to be focused on that though I'm sure if I had been at a different place, it would have been more valuable outcome for me.

No, I have a psychotic disorder but since I didn't talk about positive symptoms they just saw negative ones and thought I was autistic. I was 14 years old...

After reading threads like this, I am thankful I have withheld information from the therapist at my first visit. I'm going back next week, and I really do need help, but I am scared to tell them everything now for fear it will happen to me too, that I'll be locked up and receive no help. That would probably finish me off.

They probably won't hospitalize you unless you tell them that you intend to commit suicide and that you have a plan that will work. But it is still wise to make sure your therapist is trustworthy.