What's an involuntary hold do?

[BlacKat]

This is something I've always been terrified of, and I've had it threatened before based on nothing more than the practitioner's personal biases/power trip. For starters, the idea of being held somewhere against my will, no matter what's going on in my life that I need to get to, no matter what I've done, terrifies me to begin with.

Beyond that...I know that several meds that can make me have mental illness symptoms that I didn't have before, as well as multiple practitioners who didn't want to believe that. I can't take SSRI's, I will go suicidal even if I wasn't anywhere near there before. I know I got stuck in that trap as a kid, where they kept feeding me more and more of the meds that were making me sick. And I'm terrified that they would do that again, and that it would be a reason to keep me locked up because my mental health would get worse.

It's basically keeping me from being able to really work with the mental health system. Because no matter how good a professional is, I'm not going to trust anyone but my very closest friends with that sort of power. I really do want help, but...after the experiences I've had with the mental health system, I don't feel like I can ever have the sort of relationship I'd need to develop the trust to let someone do that.

[long road]

Have you got a crisis plan?
Because within one you can fill out a section saying which treatments you feel have worked in the past and which you feel have not. This gives professionals a guide to your wishes when you are well and if you end up admitted under a section they will often act on it especially if there is a clear reason against a certain treatment i.e. you took x before and it gave you this side effect.

I'm very sorry to hear you feel you have been mistreated in the past and have had involuntary treatment used as a threat. Like i said before sectioning is rare but if you were ever sectioned there are advocacy services avaliable to help you get your voice heard about treatment and whether you should be in hospital or not.

If you have a worker I'd suggest talking through your fears with them about the possibility of being detained and your experiences as a child. They should be able to give you a clear framework of the circumstances in which you would be detained involuntarily which generally include two doctors or approved mental health proffessionals agreeing that you are suffering from “a mental disorder of a nature or degree that warrants detention in hospital for assessment or medical treatment” and that you ought to be detained in the interests of your own health or safety, or with a view to the protection of others.

More details can be found on the mental health charity Mind 's website www.mind.org.uk. But obviously only applies to the uk hope this helped in some way and sorry to ramble,
Jen

[BlacKat]

I've never really felt safe enough to discuss such a thing as "crisis plan" with a mental health professional. I've never even come close to actually needing to be inpatient, unless it were the result of outside medications. So it's an issue I don't feel safe broaching, because I don't feel like most mental health people want to accept that the other guy, the one who threatened me with it, was just plain narrow-minded. The sense I got from him was that I was different, I didn't do things the way he wanted or expected, therefore I was a danger - even though I was just a kid in black clothes who didn't want to talk to certain people.

I figured doctors would believe him over me, like everyone else did. He was very good at making people sound way worse than they were without ever saying something that could be proved untrue. I was a depressed kid with some minor struggles with self-harm, but to listen to him I was paranoid delusional psychotic and liable to jump on the train tracks at any moment.

I'm too wary of bringing up a crisis plan or anything like it because it might give the wrong idea to a treating professional. After all it's not like they really believe you that someone else in the profession could have put the "suicidal" label on someone for no reason, or for spurious reasons.