Inpatient Treatment For Ptsd

[FauxLiz]

I am considering entering an inpatient treatment program for complex ptsd. To be honest I am terrified of the idea but have reached the point where I can't focus or do my job at work. My therapist believes that if I am willing and ready to consider this step it is a good thing but that I am letting the what ifs prevent me from taking the necessary step to do this. I keep questioning what happens if I do this and get fired? As a single parent that has spent her life isolating to protect and do not have a close relationship with my family so I don't have a lot of support for taking care of my child and I am torn. My therapist says that when I am ready when I reach my decision "providence" will take care of the rest but I don' have much faith left considering everything I have endured in my life.

So I guess my question here is how did you know that you had reached the breaking point and it didn't matter if it cost you your job, career, everything you had spent your life working to build to push the trauma down so that you didn't have to deal with it before you realized that it was time to try something new, more intense, and let go of the extreme control that you have always tried to maintain that you know is failing?

 

[EveHarrington]

Imho it's best to make these decisions when you actually have a choice and not when it's the only path left or you legally have no choice.

 

[FauxLiz]

so what you are saying Eve is that it is better to go inpatient voluntarily than wait and totally decompensate to the point where my therapist or psychiatrist forces the issue.

 

[ShodokanJenn]

@EveHarrington is right - it's far better to go inpatient voluntarily than to be forced into it. If you are voluntary and you find that it's really not helping, you can sign yourself out. If you're involuntary, you have no legal options other than to do what is court-mandated. Going inpatient five years ago saved my life, I can say that without a doubt. Do you have a specific program you are looking at getting into?

 

[EveHarrington]

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

 

[FauxLiz]

I am looking a programs at local hospitals, I live in a major metro area that has several public as well as private, my therapist thinks it would be irresponsible to guess how long I would be in treatment but when we first talked about it mentioned 30 days which to be honest scared me to be be disconnected from the world that long but scares me more that I am not sure that would be long enough.

 

[Friday]

So I guess my question here is how did you know that you had reached the breaking point and it didn't matter if it cost you your job, career, everything you had spent your life working to build to push the trauma down so that you didn't have to deal with it before you realized that it was time to try something new, more intense, and let go of the extreme control that you have always tried to maintain that you know is failing?

I didn't. Ended up doing the homeless thing for a few years, instead. Still lost everything. Just no help in either saving it (like reaching out for help before I lost everything), or in rebuilding.

 

[desiderata310]

Depending on where you work this should be something that is covered by medical leave. When I considered this I went to talk to HR first. Basically I would go through all my sick leave, then vacation and then catastrophic leave and I would only get a portion of my income But my job would be safe. You should also talk to your therapist about working with HR and whoever else might need to know and have this noted as a disability (cuz let's face it, if it's interfering with one or more life activity... We'll, if it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck...know what? it's a disability. ) treatment for disability comes under a different heading altogether and could create issues for your employer if you were to be fired while on leave for treatment.
I guess what I am saying is that this is, in a very real way, no different than if you had cancer. I mean, would you debate about missing work for radiation treatment? NO
If it's come to the place where you can and want to work on this intensively, line your ducks up in a row, get everything sorted so that you have a legal leg to stand on and figure it out from there. Have your therapist do some of the leg work too. Thing is, that the intensive stuff is just like being in the hospital for something acute you will still have to come back to your therapist after and it be hooves him/her for you to have the support network and a job, etc in place for when you return.

Finally, know that there are out-patient programs that would be very intensive as well. Not sure if you've already been through those or not but that's a possibility. You'd miss SOME work but not whole days.

I have no idea if this helps or not.

 

[stressedbeyondbelief]

Edit: Re-read the thread.

 

[sun seeker]

how did you know that you had reached the breaking point and it didn't matter if it cost you your job, career, everything you had spent your life working to build to push the trauma down so that you didn't have to deal with it before you realized that it was time to try something new, more intense, and let go of the extreme control that you have always tried to maintain that you know is failing?

For me, it was when I literally could not go on. It wasn't a choice.

 

[EveHarrington]

@stressedbeyondbelief

I fully disagree with your assessment of hospitalization. Yes, your knowledge of hospitalization is indeed correct------if we're talking about your local-yokel generalist psychiatric unit that exists merely because every hospital has to have a psychiatric unit. Those places are not geared to treating trauma.

There are indeed quite a few hospitals that take on trauma patients and treat them in trauma specific units where you're with a lot of other people who have PTSD. Many of these places have experts in the field of trauma who only treat trauma patients. That is, they know their stuff and it's not just about shoving pills down your throat.

I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience with hospitalization but i hope you do your research so that if you ever need to go inpatient again, you can find a trauma specific treatment facility.

I haven't met a lot of people with PTSD, but long term hospitalization does indeed happen. (I knew others who were in the hospital for up to a year----no, not standard, but she was able to get the long term care she needed.) There are also longer term treatment centers where you can have a little bit more freedom than in a hospital.

OP, a month may not be enough, or it may even be too much. It's almost impossible to determine how long you'll be in there as sometimes you can move through treatment quicker and other times you may hit upon stuff that requires a longer treatment period.

I know it's hard to think about all of this stuff, but the alternative to hospitalization when you need hospitalization-----it's not all that pretty. Much better to be proactive IMHO.

 

[Sideways]

Big difference between going inpatient to do a course for a fixed period of time and just going into hospital because that's what it's come to.

Highly recommend the first option: a structured an intensive, safe environment among peers with the same issue, and the discharge date is basically guaranteed. My experience is people get a LOT out of those programs and, from a practical perspective, you can plan ahead realistically for things like kids and work.

Inpatient stays because you've got that sick it's become essential are a last resort. Over the past 7 years, I'm averaging about 25% of my life as an inpatient (still), both voluntary and involuntary (the absolute worst option). Hospital is a safe environment, but rarely a good option for ptsd if you can stay in the community.

And a word to the wise: maybe it's just Australia, but I've had "voluntary" admissions which haven't really been voluntary once you get in the door, at various different hospitals (public and private). Once you're in and have a bed, your doctor is going to strongly encourage you to stay until you get to a certain point of health. There is no saying how long that will take, and deciding "I'm over this and want to go home" may be an option in theory, but if your doc doesn't think it's a great idea, all they have to do is tick the box and you're involuntary before you know it. It's too easy for your doc to essentially require you to stay once they have you in and with a bed - so always (always) take the whole "voluntary" status thing with a grain of salt.

But after all that doom and gloom, sometimes it is essential (even just to ward off absolute crisis where you end up in ICU on a ventilator). And I would absolutely give serious thought to admission under a fixed program for ptsd if it was on offer, because it's very different to your standard admission:)