Medical Ptsd From Psych Ward

[lia]

Hey all,
I was wondering if it's possible to have PTSD from an admission at a Psych Ward.
Long story short, I'm 16, and I was taken to the hospital by the police and ambulance because I had taken pills. They immediately took all of my things away and locked me in the psych ward. I was in there for 4 days, and those 4 days was a living hell. I was locked inside a tiny room (almost the size of a closet). I couldn't sleep because I knew they were watching me with the camera in my room. I didn't see any sunlight for 4 days. My small room and a small "living space" and other patients' rooms were all I saw during those days. I was treated with discrimination. The doctors said racist things about my parents. Doctors lied to me and my parents. There were children crying and screaming in the middle of the night. The nurses treated me like I was stupid. No one told me anything about if I'd be discharged or not. Some doctors told me there were plans to ship me off to a long term mental health institute. My parents were trying to find out what was going to happen to me but the doctors were racist and treated us with condescending tones.

It may not sound so traumatic. But since then, I've been getting panic attacks when I'm in small spaces or in a place that reminds me of the psych ward. If someone mentions anything about mental health, I'm usually open to talk about it, but now it just bothers me and I never want to talk about anything regarding suicide and mental health and depression, etc. I also developed a hatred for doctors, since those at the psych ward lied to me and tried to twist my words to make it sound like i was EXTREMELY suicidal and like I couldn't function normally. Many doctors cleared me to discharge me but somehow the other doctors that saw me claimed there were no records of that.
Whenever I have those panic attacks, I also have these moments when I just hAVE to remember all of the details I remember from the psych ward, and it overwhelms me. It makes me dizzy, and my breathing gets extremely shallow, and I feel like crying again. Usually I just end up spacing out and just kind of not be able to think about anything else but the event and breathe really fast. Or, if it gets bad, I breathe uncontrollably and cry a lot and just hyperventilate. It's horrible.
I'm seeing a therapist about this and I'm trying to work on it, but I just feel like it'd be so stupid to have PTSD from this.

 

[Friday]

From what you've written PTSD sounds extremely unlikely.

There are a lot of disorders that include panic attacks, anxiety attacks, nightmares, fears or phobias, ruminations. Including none-at-all, it's very common to react badly to a situation for a short period of time, and then move on with no long term effect, whatsoever, except some bad memories.

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

to make it sound like i was EXTREMELY suicidal and like I couldn't function normally.

Taking pills and being and having to be rushed to the hospital sounds pretty suicidal to me. It's hard in situations when you're already struggling and others don't respond in the way that would most help you. I am sorry that you had such an awful experience. I don't think it's PTSD, just a bad situation, but I can't really diagnose you. You would need to seek out a professional to help you with that.

 

[Muted]

I was wondering if it's possible to have PTSD from an admission at a Psych Ward.

Personally, yes I think it is absolutely possible. Especially if you were undergoing trauma prior to being hospitalized.

That's just it, it is a rippling effect. One trauma makes people vulnerable to additional traumas. It feels like a living hell being in this cycle, screaming for help and without a voice.

 

[joeylittle]

Long story short, I'm 16, and I was taken to the hospital by the police and ambulance because I had taken pills.

Can you write a little more about this?

 

[lia]

Can you write a little more about this?

I didn't want to die, I'm terrified of death. I knew I wouldn't die from what I've taken, for sure. It was an impulsive thing. I was clean from self harm and I didn't want to self harm again so I did something impulsive, like take pills, instead. Then I got scared and told someone, who reported me and then the ambulance and police took me away.

 

[lia]

Taking pills and being and having to be rushed to the hospital sounds pretty suicidal to m...

I talked with my therapist and she said it sounds like ptsd but she will have to talk to me more about my symptoms during the next session

 

[joeylittle]

I was clean from self harm and I didn't want to self harm again so I did something impulsive, like take pills, instead.

The self harm - do you know what it was related to, mental-health wise? And congratulations on getting clean from it, that's hard. Did you do that with any help (therapist, psych, group, etc) or on your own?

 

[lux.]

My first visit to the psych ward was terrifying, too. I sat on the windowsill in my room and wouldn't leave the whole time. It was in inner-city Baltimore, and there was a homeless guy walking the halls talking to himself who I used to see walking the streets talking to himself. I was only there for three days, and I think I finally left my room to eat on the third day. People were intensely psychotic. It was scary.

But the symptoms I experienced after that were not really the result of those three days; they were the symptoms of the same illnesses I had been suffering from before I went in, just probably a little exacerbated from the fear invoked by that place. I'm sorry that you had such a terrible experience, and I think you should lodge a complaint through the hospital's patient advocate about the discrimination you endured--that is never okay. But, like @Friday said, your symptoms could also be explained by a lot of other disorders. If you were having panic attacks in small rooms as a result of having been in a psych ward, that would really only happen if something really bad happened in the small room it's reminding you of, like a violent attack. Maybe the panic attacks are just a generalized anxiety disorder and you are also experiencing a lot of anger, sadness, and other emotions about how you were treated in your recent hospitalization.

In order to qualify for a PTSD diagnosis in the DSM-5, you have to have experienced, either directly or indirectly, "death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence." However, you could be experiencing Adjustment Disorder, which is in the Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders section of the DSM along with PTSD. It's basically having a PTSD reaction to a stressor which does not meet the full criteria for PTSD.

Either way, the diagnosis isn't the important thing. What's important is that you deal with your feelings and try to resolve them before they do get out of hand. This was a brief incident, so you should be able to work through your feelings about it in therapy in a fairly short amount of time. You're not going to experience years of PTSD from this.

 

[lia]

The self harm - do you know what it was related to, mental-health wise? And congratulations on get...

nope, i never got to any kind of doctors or help with my issues including self harm, just friends. I don't know how I stopped on my own, honestly. Part of me thinks I moved onto more risky forms of selfharm, like taking those pills

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

all psych wards are scary except trauma units from my point of view.

I was just D/C friday for a two week hospitalization for S/I, and the first week was hell, some guy who was psychotic and violent, threatening everyone verbally and shouting, and eventually he assaulted another patient. This for me was really triggering, and it threw me over the edge leading to S/H to get relief. They had a trauma unit on same floor, but no beds and a waiting list.

 

[lisse1980]

Hey all,
I was wondering if it's possible to have PTSD from an admission at a Psych Ward.
Long story short...

I understand what you are describing.

I am much older thsn you. My being put in a psych ward was very different, believe it or not worse,

But being in a small place, not having any control over anything, being racially harrassed,
things which are senseless I believe thst causes PTSD. I am not surprised by what you write. I have similar memories that come back.