I think that is because hospitalisation is often used as a way to keep a person safe/alive, perhaps while working on some issues, so it's more likely to happen if a person is viewed as in physical danger. I've also heard of it being used when a person has some particularly destressing therapy (i.e. abuse memories) to do, but once again to keep the person safe/alive physically dueing the destress rather than to increase the psychological treatment
i know most admissions are for severe selfharm or eating disorders but i do know some people who were admitted for some of those reasons you mentioned. not many though. i think that doctors find it hard to notice extreme emotional despair without physical symptoms such as selfharm and/or eating disorders which is why so many people go unnoticed.
Like when i go to my therapist, even when im feeling so desperate, she doesnt notice because physically i appear ok.
I hope you feel better and im glad work helps you *hugs*
xxx
Through the dark, a strand of light, the light continued to get bright, with it came the strength to fight (Gem)
I'm wondering if this doesn't reflect the bias towards the more physical types of abuse being more severe than more emotional/psychological abuse with minimal physical self harm?
I get about being in physical danger to self or others needing inpatient care.
Being unsafe v. 'only' feeling unsafe due to being unsafe in the past.
I recognise how hospital is inappropriate for the latter in most cases, as medical care isn't necessary really. The level of supervision just isn't needed and it would be a waste of money and resources etc. However the level of emotional distress and need for reassurance of safety might not be all that different.
I know I have a good support network. But for those with similar struggles to my own - like I get on very bad days. What options are there? Is this really a case for more widely available respite type houses, where there's privacy, safe companionship if wanted, and available support parts of the day? Even just to stay in overnight, like a kind of supportive b and b?!
I think that particular bias is more a culturally engrained one than actually being part of the "system" as it were... I think people can understand and relate to damge that they can see better than damage that they can not
I would just like to point out that the most rescent research into DID shows that sexual abuse is not as important as previously thought. There is now a list of 10 things that most with DID have in common and only one of them is remotely sexual. On top of that 2% of people with DID suffered no abuse at all
there have been many reported cases of people suffering all the symptoms of PTSD from birth trauma. There was also a case not long ago of a woman who's first alter deveoloped noenatally!
Also, emotional abuse is serious, it's just as serious as other forms of abuse. I have been through emotional, sexual and physical abuse, and I often think that the emotional did the most damage
Last edited by typsee : 22-01-2010 at 01:20 AM.
Reason: edited to remove refenence to a deleted post
they generally don't like hospitalsing self-hamers fOr two reason. Firstly in Australia (in particuly South Australia) the Mental Health system is under funded. Secondly hospitalising self-harmers generally doesn't help ; and if you have B.P.D insutuionlising someone is generally considered Damaging - they dont like rewarding people for self-harm. i used to spend alotof time in hospital, untill i turned 18. Now im a adult they dont put me in psych wards anymore. They just treat me mediclly and send me home. Usully with no follow up.
Oh yeah finally , being in hospital only made me worse not better.
one other thing to E_pluribus_unum; your post seems to imply that anyone who has not been hospitalised is automaticatally not as bad off as someone who has been hospitalised.
I don't think that is right. People can go through EXACTLY the same experiances or EXACTLY the same diagnosis and deal with it differently.
This whole post makes me feel a little insecure, angry? Something, I'm not quite sure what. But I can see why that is and why it is tainted by my own experiences. I don't know where I count myself. I see myself as the one in the middle. I spent my teenage years in and out of units quite severely (but I don't know if I ever believed I was ill 'enough') and it has really messed me up. It's probably the number 1 thing on my mind a lot of the time even though I was discharged last in the summer, so this thread stirs up a lot of emotion. I think you said jealous wasn't the right word? But I feel like I have not 'made' myself, but that hospital has affected so much of my life that it has in effect 'made' a lot of me. I'm angry at that. At the hospital and at myself for letting myself go through that. But confused too - as I have genuinely had some of the best times of my life their which is really confusing and... wrong? :(
Just like, I expect, you have experienced personal positive parts of you, Katie, through your therapy which I must admit I am in a way jealous of.
I think, Katie, nobody can say your feelings aren't valid. And nobody can say you don't feel what you feel, or don't experience what you experience. And I don't mean this in a wishy-washy sense, I just can't get my words out right today it seems.
Quote:
However the level of emotional distress and need for reassurance of safety might not be all that different.
I just wanted to point this out as I think it is true. Though I hate, just me, that in this world there has to be 'levels' of illness. It causes so much trouble.
I might come back to this. And I hope your work went ok today, Katie, I admire your strength for going in, well done!
x
The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
Wind in the Willows.
I've never said I have DID. That I'm on the continuum, sure, as many people are who've had troubled pasts in one form or another. I freely admit that I am diagnosed with depression, and other complexities as a result of my past.
I'm simply trying to understand all aspects, and relate them in a way that is compassionate to myself and others.
I just, well, what can I say?
I am listening, but I don't have to agree with everything.
I don't have a lot of ego strength. Meditation practices brought on psychosis. I am stronger now than I was several years ago. Because of therapy. Yes, I am open and honest with all my treatment team. But I never used to be this vocal, I was virtually mute until my late teens. I am more vocal online than I am in person, and find being in public torturous.
Life isn't about extremes or comparison.
And bear in mind that, although not all may believe I have split off selves, I do have inner conflicts, and my thinking in this thread doesn't all necessarily come from my adult compassionate self, who does have empathy. Even if part of me does not.
It's natural to make generalisations as one tries to understand, that's all. It's not an attack on anyone. I mean no harm. I do have a heart, although some may not think so.
you are right. No one on here should ever try to diagnose anyone, nor reject someones diagnosis. The professions with whom you work are the only ones who can/should do that
I'm scared to say anything here now.
So forgive me if I'm quiet on this thread and don't reply to everyone as yet.
I've learned a lot from posting and people's replies.
I've learned how I do appreciate what I have, and that others can be jealous of that, and that may make them respond in certain ways. I've learned to accept my vulnerability - this is something my therapist has also clearly identified. I've learned that others may have had more extreme experiences, but that we cannot generalise or assume about the effects on someone's psyche, whether the experience was more extreme or more 'mundane'.
Everyone is an individual.
I've also learned that it is still really hard for me to protect my self esteem and sense of self when it feels undermined.
Please dont be scared to say anything. I love reading your posts as they are so well written and really make me think and i can have a good discussion with you and others. dont let that person make you feel down. Im always here if you need anything xxx
Through the dark, a strand of light, the light continued to get bright, with it came the strength to fight (Gem)
i haven't replied since the first page of this thread, but have been reading - i think you raised an interesting point. i wanted to say that you still have my respect Stellata, and i don't even know you very well.
Everyone feels hurt from things that happen and if the problem is not addressed as such is becomes more internal and harder to defeat.
I was in hospital once due to an overdose and, dare I say it, the reason I was was largely due to the competitive nature of those surrounding me and being continually rejected help-wise by people I thought I could trust. I would never imagine myself to be any worse/better than anybody else suffering, ever. I can understand that hospital seems to mean you deserve to be treated but I disagree if it causes a detriment to others. Everyone deserves to be treated.
And Katie, I'm really glad that you can finally be open and honest with your treatment team. I hope to do that someday, (if this has already been asked then apologies) have you spoken to them about your views in this thread about the severity of what you feel?
Last edited by typsee : 20-01-2010 at 10:35 PM.
Reason: edited to remove reference to a post that has now been deleted
I think part of the issue is that everyone has validation issues, everyone weither they are ill or not. And what happens is you end up with 2 types of people; those who constantly think they are not "bad enough" their reasons are not "good enough" etc. And the ones who appear to think that their issues are the biggest issues anyone ever has been through, but in reality this is often a cover up for their own validation issues, sort of they are trying to convinse everyone (including theirselves) that they ARE bad enough, ill enough, etc
And this makes what is already a complex subjective topic even more complicated.
But really comparing siturations, disorders, experiances, etc. will get noone anywhere. It's like comparing apples and oranges half the time as no 2 siturations are the same and no 2 people are the same
I think that is it, people want recognition that they are hurting, that something is wrong. Mental illness is described as an "invisible disability", I guess some could see hospital as hard evidence "I am really ill - I was in hospital"
And it shouldn't really be like that. This is a support community, we're all meant to be in this together, there shouldn't be a competition of who is "more ill" as everyone is in need of and deserving of support.
That said, there are of course differing levels of severity (in the sense there are clinical definitions of this) and some people's lives will be more severely impacted than others.
Some people have said that's not really the case, but even in the course of my own illness I can see there have times when I have been more ill than at other times.
I don't know if it's a point worth arguing... does knowing that someone else is clinically more severely ill than you, make you less distressed? in less pain? No, it doesn't. My initial diagnosis was for moderate depression, I remember thinking "there is nothing moderate about this!!"
I think I said in an earlier post there is a lot that lies between being fine and being severely ill, and people need and deserve support right the way through.
This whole thread has played on my mind a fair bit recently... and I've been hesitant to contribute because I don't want to upset anyone unintentionally. I do think that some people become more severely unwell, and require hospitalisation, and I don't see this as being a personal weakness or lacking maturity, sometimes people just are that unwell.
My own experiences of hospital are not fond memories. It was suggested that a lot of people are admitted for severe self-harming, while I was self harming a fair bit at the time of my admission, that was not the reason I was admitted, it was for everything else that seems to come along with depression.
But that doesn't earn me any points or make me more or less deserving of help than someone who hasn't been in hospital, and I fully recognise that someone can be in an extreme amount of distress and pain and never see the inside of a psych hospital.
I don't even know if my ramblings make any sense, I suspect I've not really explained what I meant to...
