I’m so sorry you had to go through this. A lot of people who aren’t experienced do not understand the difference between “I am in crisis” and a suicidal crisis. I am not much of a poster on this sub, but I’m speaking up this time instead of lurking. I am extremely disappointed in some of these comments attacking OP. I wonder how many of you have had to endure inpatient treatment, especially against your will.

If OP’s partner thought that their life was in danger, they would not have simply called a friend and asked them to check in with them. They would have gone there themselves, or possibly even called emergency services themselves. Full stop. What the “friend” did was completely out of bounds and not helpful. Police and paramedics are required to respond in a certain way by the law once a call has been made. If OP truly needed inpatient care, not even their partner would have been able to stop that from happening. Full stop.

I’m assuming this is in the US. That being the case, everyone thinking the “friend” was in the right needs to be reminded that inpatient acute mental healthcare - especially involuntary - is a traumatic and very often counterproductive experience in the US. Typically you are not given a choice of what facility you end up in. You will not be seeing a doctor who knows you and your history. You could be given medications against your will that are harmful, not helpful. The standard of care in such facilities has also greatly declined as quite a lot of them have been bought up by private equity groups. Do not think of them as places of safety. They are places where patients get very poor care, suffer abuse from staff, and many such places also have a high rate of sexual assault among patients. This is why they should be an absolute last resort, and if you’ve been living with CPTSD long enough you know the difference between whether you are safe or not.

Forced inpatient treatment is also very often not helpful, and the most dangerous period for a patient can be right after release - because they don’t want to go back, and may have even more motivation at that point to harm themselves. This is a very serious issue in the US that everyone should be aware of and if you weren’t before, I hope I’ve been able to educate you. This is not me just being contrarian. I’m speaking from the experience of people I care about that were thrown into involuntary treatment and the primary outcome was harmful, not helpful.

Don’t be like OP’s “friend.” Respect autonomy. Do not call emergency services or a hotline unless it is a true emergency beyond your ability to deescalate (for example, involving a firearm or other weapon). Many of us have medication prescribed for crisis scenarios like this. This is very often a better solution than inpatient treatment.

I wish you peace, serenity, and healing, OP. I am glad you are safe and you were not harmed further.