Thanks For The Good Energy! I'm Back From The Hospital.

[WildMermaid]

I'm a lil' embarrassed to admit this :shy: but I'm a bit of a survivalist buff and used to have a Bug Out Bag in case I needed to make a break for it. Something about almost 16 years of marriage, two kids, and going from walking to being on wheels has soothed that a touch, but I still go camping and try to learn survivalist skills. These days I collect that stuff here... https://www.pinterest.com/ms_rebecca/zombie-apocalypse-first-aid/

Oh yes your writing was very engaging and I could see it as a movie script! It was powerful, poignant, and important, and reflected YOU very well! :hug:

 

[Ronin]

I always tend to be ready for terrible hospital stories because experience bias and I'm really happy to see you're back and talking about things and apparently having enough of a grasp on everything and just yass, glad to see you, Hope.

 

[VioletButterfly]

I don't know quite what to say. I'm so glad that you are now safe. I'm so glad you are no longer there and that you have learned and grown from the experience. Most of all, I guess I just want to offer a lot of these: :hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug:

 

[joeylittle]

"Safe" for who? Obviously the primary purpose of such places is to keep everyone else safe from the people in them. :(:cry: The focus is most obviously not on making it safe for the patients, except if it impacts the safety of the people running the show.

Yes and no. I think what we are all getting at is the crevasse between the spectrum of people who are functioning with their illness, and the spectrum of people who are not (whether that's temporary or permanent). Everyone goes pretty much to the same place. I've been in a few situations where I was very grateful for the things that took the edge off of the more psychotic ones in the room. And I've had family be the more psychotic ones. The times my brother was sectioned, he was treated the way a drug addict presenting with psychosis would be treated - and that's rough. But he will still talk about how he was glad to be medicated and be able to be around other people, as opposed to the times he had to be kept isolated.

God knows there needs to be so much mental health care reform. I'm not trying to defend the practices. it's just a one-shoe-fits-all system, and it is geared basically towards keeping people alive, but in a lowest-common denominator way.

Not trying to hijack - just sharing a different perspective. The system is broken, but it's broken from the very root, which is the lack of knowledge about the brain.

 

[Eleanor]

I want to add my vote to the "you're a great writer and should share your stories more widely..." effort! You write very well and clearly and your perspective is extremely valuable. Yours is a voice I would have more people hear.

The system is broken, but it's broken from the very root, which is the lack of knowledge about the brain.

YES and, there is also a lack of compassion - the result, perhaps of the fear engendered by lack of good understanding....

 

[shell]

Hope, I thought a lot about this post, it makes really angry that in this enlightened age this still continues to happen and it is a reflection of the stigma relating to mental health. That was really disgusting that ever happened to you, it wasn't supportive or helpful. It's no wonder that people are afraid to talk up when they desparately need help.

I must say I am not surprised, a person I know who was doing training in a mental health facility as a nurse, commented on exactly this, that the staff ignored the needs of the patients and were rude and spent most of there time locked away in their office playing cards. It was so bad she decided to change from wanting to be a mental health nurse as she couldn't handle the attitude of the staff, not the patients.

I hope that you are now getting the support you need, and it says a lot about you that you can think of others when you are in such a bad place.