- Joined
- Mar 7, 2011
- Messages
- 20,475
I've been to numerous. None of them were really that bad, unless your shame is still completely intact, which of course mine hasn't been for years. I couldn't care less about judgemental doctors or shitty nurses, at this point, that has just been my life, so whatever. No one pushed meds on me. All I had to do was say no, or say what I am prescribed or have been prescribed, and they just continue it in the short term.
A problem though, is that, in a lot of places they pretty much fling all the mental health patients and detox patients in together and just call it a "co occuring disorders" unit. Which is bs, because these are very different people in most cases. You get everything from some young girl that just had a meltdown, to a junkie trying to get clean, to a lifelong criminal jumping from program to program, and to several different varieties of people that are so mentally ill that they can't take care of themselves or interact with other people. This does not create any kind of environment that is worthwhile, ime...
It is still better than jail. Or being homeless. That said, you will see some really weird shit. Last place I was at there was this 40+ year old woman, with no teeth, that basically kept telling everyone she was a lesbian and flashing her tits at people. After her showers, she would scream down the hallway for a nurse for a towel. If one didn't come right away, she would just start traipsing down the hallway ass naked.
And yeah, like ions said, the boredom is the worst part. That, and the time sitting and digesting whatever dumb shit you did to wind up there in the first place. I've been in there before with injuries, or freshly sober, and that doesn't help. That said, at least where I'm at, they're not the hellish early 20th century wards that people make them out to be.
A problem though, is that, in a lot of places they pretty much fling all the mental health patients and detox patients in together and just call it a "co occuring disorders" unit. Which is bs, because these are very different people in most cases. You get everything from some young girl that just had a meltdown, to a junkie trying to get clean, to a lifelong criminal jumping from program to program, and to several different varieties of people that are so mentally ill that they can't take care of themselves or interact with other people. This does not create any kind of environment that is worthwhile, ime...
It is still better than jail. Or being homeless. That said, you will see some really weird shit. Last place I was at there was this 40+ year old woman, with no teeth, that basically kept telling everyone she was a lesbian and flashing her tits at people. After her showers, she would scream down the hallway for a nurse for a towel. If one didn't come right away, she would just start traipsing down the hallway ass naked.
And yeah, like ions said, the boredom is the worst part. That, and the time sitting and digesting whatever dumb shit you did to wind up there in the first place. I've been in there before with injuries, or freshly sober, and that doesn't help. That said, at least where I'm at, they're not the hellish early 20th century wards that people make them out to be.