Hospital?

[I'mJustMe]

Hey.
Just wondering about people's experiances in a hospital. Has anyone here ever been hospitalized due to depression, if so, what's it like there? How were you treated? How did it feel?
I am doing this as research for my writing, so any help would be greatfully accepted.
:)

[MrsCoulter]

I briefly worked in a hospital if that's any help to you..

[musicmad123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by I'mJustMe

Hey.
Just wondering about people's experiances in a hospital. Has anyone here ever been hospitalized due to depression, if so, what's it like there? How were you treated? How did it feel?
I am doing this as research for my writing, so any help would be greatfully accepted.
:)

.Hospitalised due to suicide attempts once in psych ward twice in childrne's ward
.Psych ward, full of absolute psychos and a few more "normal" people :) umm don't relaly know what specifics you want, could go into a lot of detail but im tired, iif you wana know detail just ask
. Psych ward, felt like a crazy person and it didn't really imporve my mood were some good times though
.Children's ward guilty cause no one else was crazy and self inflicted

[Buttercup.]

I have lots of stories in my journal & if you have ANY questions, I'd love to answer them.
I've been hospitalized SEVERAL times for suicide attempts, eating disorder, and for violating my outpatient treatment order.
I was sent on an involuntary emergency admission to the state hospital.
It's not that bad there, but definitely not a place anybody would choose to spend their time.
Everybody starts out on a Level 2, which means no bathroom privacy, you sleep in a camera room, and must always be in view of a camera or with a staff member.
Once your team meets (psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse, social worker, mental health workers, occupational therapist, and a few others), they evaluate your safety and if they feel you can be safe on the unit, they will take you off your level and give you escort to groups. If they feel you are unsafe, they will either keep you on a level 2, or put you on a level 1 which means that you must be in arms reach of your staff member at all times.
In the morning, everybody stops by the nurses' station for medications.
After breakfast, groups start.
There are different groups which your team assigns you to.
Some examples are sensory awareness, empowerment, stress management, gym, rec room, library, current events, anger management, etc.
If you have escort to groups, you spend the day going to groups.
If you are on a level, you must stay on the unit.
There are different things to do such as watching tv, using the exercise machine, arts and crafts, reading, etc.
Every fifteen minutes, one of the mental health workers does safety checks and walks the entire unit to see each person.
Also during the day members of your treatment team may meet with you for testing, or to discuss your treatment or discharge.
There are cameras all over the unit, and in most of the bedrooms.
There is a "level" person who sits behind the camera screen and watches everybody.
There is a timeout room that can be used voluntarily if you need a place to calm down or be alone. Or if you are being unsafe, staff may place you in there and lock it, which is called seclusion. It is a small room with dim lights and walls that are slightly padded, and a mattress on the floor.
There is also the four point room where if you are out of control and cannot stay safe in seclusion, you can be put in restraints. Not fun. They can keep you there for a LONG time. Every two hours they are required to do range of motion with you.

For the most part, I was treated well.
There were a few workers who were very rude and judgmental, but most people were respectful and wanted to help you.
You do feel pretty helpless though.
You are constantly being checked on and told what to do.
Sometimes you do feel like the staff members are patronizing you.
You don't have many options.
You have to listen to them,
And they are always right.
And they always win.
You are never in control.

There were a big variety of people there.
As one of my nurses put it, there are the psychotic people and the sad people.
In other words, there were people who weren't always aware of reality or able to control themselves in the community,
And the people who were in there because of suicide attempts, being who hurt themselves.

[samshine]

I was sectioned when I was 14 in the US to a teenage psychiatric hospital for self harm, suicide attempts, depression and substance abuse. I was in hospital until I was 17, transferred to 7 different facilities in 3 states so I have a lot of experiences I can share.
I came out of hospital with PTSD after years of mechanical restraints, involuntary injections, being over medicated to the point of drooling on myself, and physical abuse. I think it is disgusting the way I was treated and now 6 years later memories still haunt me. One of the hospitals I was in has since been under investigation after broken bones and even deaths from improper restraints, physical and sexual abuse. A lot of staff have lost there jobs and I hope that now things will start to change there.

PM me if you want to ask any questions.

[PaleMoon]

I was hospitalized 3 times on a general adolescent psychiatric unit for depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and an eating disorder. It usually took 3-4 hours to get admitted (I never knew why it took so long), then they'd strip-search you (so humiliating), take your vital signs, and ask you some general health questions.

When you first got there, you were on Unit Restriction (UR). That meant you couldn't leave the unit and your whole world shrunk to the single hallway that comprised the locked unit. You also began on Level 1 (white bracelet). Level 2's has purple bracelets and Level 3's had blue. Each level gave you certain privileges which become very valuable on a place like that. If you were on UR you had to wear flimsy paper scrubs, but Levels 2 and 3 could wear normal clothes without strings.

Life on UR was VERY boring. Your schedule went like this:

-Get up around 6:00, do hygiene stuff
-Breakfast, meds
-A couple of morning groups
-Non-UR patients leave for off-unit activities
-Sit around, read
-Sit around, watch TV
-Lunch
-Sit around
-Sit around
-Non-UR patients return, a couple of afternoon groups
-Dinner
-Movie, meds
-Shower, hygiene
-Bed

As you can imagine, there is plenty of incentive for getting off of UR. All you had to do was say "yes" when they asked if you were safe twice in a row and "demonstrate that you are cooperative" (in other words, be good).

Once you get off of UR, you line up to leave to eat breakfast in the cafeteria, come back for morning group, then leave again for gym, lunch in the cafeteria, and art time. Then you return. Trust me, it's bunches of fun compared to sitting around.

Unfortunately, none of my stays really helped. The hospital didn't know how to help me except throw meds at me and tell me I was ruining my life (which is what they told everybody). If you'd like specifics feel free to message me.

[*..life in pain..*]

i have been hospitalized many many times. if you want, ask me anything.

[I'mJustMe]

Thanks everyone who replied, you have been a great help!
:)

[Sunshine]

ive been in both adolecent and adult mental health hospitals both on section and volentary and both inpatient and day paitent, so if you want any information feel free to pm me.

good luck with your research
x

[bleeding black]

I've been hospitalized more times than i can count on my fingers and toes.
(feel free to PM)

I was involuntarily admitted when I was 12 after a suicide attempt and kept in HD (high dependency) which was in the middle of the building as the general adolescent psych, and the other rooms were around HD. HD was like the core of the unit. The chairs where completely cushioned, no wooden/steel legs, the tv was mounted on the wall and protected by perspex. There was a seperate nurses station in HD with windowed walls.
The rest of the unit was around HD and had lots of bedrooms, and seperate female and male bathrooms with showers/toilets that were shared with the rest of the patients.
One of the groups was held in a little room that had the feel of an interrogation room, a one way window where a person (or people, we never knew) could watch the group, a camera/microphone in the corner, and was held by the lead psychiatrist. These groups were the worst.

Another hospital (also involuntary) was laid out a bit different and there were fewer groups, the staff were much less friendly/supportive and the quite unwell boy i shared a bathroom with (the layout was bedroom bathroom bedrom bathroom etc, so you shared a bathroom one one other person) urinated on the floor in front of the sink and did number two's in the shower). Some (few) patients seemed to be more intellectually ill than MH issues. Only allowed 3 cigarettes a day (huge downer for us smokers)
.
Another unit I've been to, and have been to many times was an open ward, and is completely voluntary and you can discharge yourself anytime, though if you self-harm (3 strikes and out) or you are a real danger to yourself and can't be contained on the unit, you will be transferred to an involuntary ward). The groups are very helpful, 2 different group-therapists, each come in twice a week, and other groups run by nursing staff (writing groups, art therapy, mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, to name a few kinds of groups). The meals are better (though far from fantastic as expected), the staff are mostly brilliant and supportive, sport outings, kitchen facilities, comfortable rooms etc.

Different units have.... different levels of security (for want of a better word), varied programs (or lack of), severity of illness of other patients etc, supportive/unsupportive staff, degree of resources, private/public facility, amount of support from clinicians, so it really depends on where you are, and in your case what you want to convey to the reader - is it a helpful, healing experience and a turning point for the character, is it quite unpleasant, is the story set there for the majority of the writing etc.

Hope this helps, would like to read some of your writing :)

[x-dying-inside-x]

I've been in hospital three times in two different hospitals one was nhs and the other was private.
If you wanna ask any questions your more than welcome to pm me!
xx

[sherlock holmes]

I've had lots of admissions, voluntary ones to acute psych wards, section on a secure unit, specialist self harm unit admission. PM me if you want any info.

[I'mJustMe]

Thanks people. Varied experiances there, I'll take a little of each, use google, a book I'm reading, and my own imagination. At least no one can tell me I didn't do my research!