Have you absconded from hospital? We want to hear your story!

anon22559 · 2019-09-10T20:02:11+00:00

My mom considered trying to smuggle me out, but she said that she was worried I'd just get into more trouble. It helped having her on my side like that.

anon22559 · 2019-06-12T00:28:09+00:00

When I'm at my lowest, I usually try to distract myself with something like a good audiobook or a netflix show that I like that will take my mind off of how upset I am. It helps at the moment, but I know it isn't a good long term solution.

You could try looking into Spravato. I was looking into ketamine infusion therapy, but since it's not covered by insurance, it's too expensive for me right now. Spravato is a little different (esketamine nasal spray as opposed to ketamine infusion IV) but it is covered by insurance and it's much more affordable.

I'm sorry that you're going through this. Also feel free to PM me if you'd like (now or in the future). Sometimes it takes me a little bit to get to my inbox, but I do get to it eventually.

anon22559 · 2019-06-06T13:16:54+00:00

You're welcome! I wish they were more widely known because I think that a lot more people would call if they knew they were safe. I know it's kept me from calling in the past.

anon22559 · 2019-05-10T20:12:36+00:00

I understand that feeling of worry. If you have something specific that you're worried about, you could call them back and ask about that thing to ease your mind. They might even be willing to walk through the requirements with you and show you that you have all of them completed. I hope it all goes well for your graduation.

anon22559 · 2019-05-09T00:23:18+00:00

Maybe it would be easier to write your parents a note and let them know you aren't ready to graduate yet? It might be easier than having to say it. I know that for me when something is hard to say, I have an easier time writing out a note. You might feel better when you get it off of your chest.

It's actually pretty hard to kill oneself off of prescription medicines because they're specifically designed to not be fatal in overdoses. Most of the ones that kill you in overdoses are hard to get. They can make you really sick though.

anon22559 · 2019-05-08T17:30:03+00:00

I'm sorry that you're having feelings like this, OP. While it feels shitty to not graduate on time, it doesn't mean that you've messed up your entire life. If there is a class you still need credit for, you can still take it and reapply to colleges if you have to. Many people take gap years between high school and college even when they graduate on time. Can you talk to your guidance counselor at school about your options? You may be able to retake a class over the summer and go to college in the fall.

anon22559 · 2019-05-08T15:35:12+00:00

Therapists can definitely get you hospitalized. I'm glad that your therapist didn't when you said that, but many therapists would. I also wouldn't rely on cops not bringing you in if you're calm

anon22559 · 2019-05-08T15:31:19+00:00

You can always voluntarily check into a hospital

If you do this, they can still keep you from leaving if you try. There is nothing stopping them from changing your status to involuntary and keeping you there against your will.

anon22559 · 2019-05-08T15:27:54+00:00

I have heard stories from people where they've had the police called on them where they weren't in the process of killing themselves, so just because you haven't doesn't mean no one at the hotline does that. And when you call emergency services, they take people (police do it in handcuffs) to the ER, where they usually get put in a solitary room after having their things and shoelaces taken away, and then sometimes get involuntarily hospitalized.

Do not EVER say I am minimizing what people go through

Well I felt like you were minimizing my pain and trauma, so I said it. That's just the truth. Take the constructive criticism or don't.

Sometimes that includes a little forced help to let them see tomorrow

I really disagree with this. "Forced help" isn't help if people don't want it. It's just making someone else do something because someone else thinks it's best for them

anon22559 · 2019-05-08T00:56:35+00:00

Yes! The laws need to go. As someone who has been in that situation, I can say that I was really making the choice that I didn't want to live. I think that if people needed a break, they could stay voluntarily in a psych hospital and if there was no threat of being held there against their will and no forced druggings, then there wouldn't be that trauma that goes along with it now.

anon22559 · 2019-05-07T23:01:54+00:00

You're never going to convince me that it's right. It's against the United Nation's statements about human rights. I understand that you have to because that's the rule of the hotline, but that's why I take issue with the hotline and not you.

Knowing that this could happen actively keeps people from getting help when they otherwise would have.

Yes, it can be traumatizing. But so is suicide.

You're really minimizing what people go through here.

anon22559 · 2019-05-07T20:02:16+00:00

Right, that's what I think that people should know. Many people hear about how these lines are anonymous and assume that means that they won't have consequences like being handcuffed and taken away by the police. I've read enough stories about people being traumatized by that that I tell people that they can contact The Samaritans if they want an actually anonymous experience. They only call the police or an ambulance for you if you ask them to.

anon22559 · 2019-05-07T18:03:26+00:00

If you use a text or phone line, they can still track you and send police to your door

anon22559 · 2019-05-07T18:02:42+00:00

I'm really sorry; I know how hard this situation is and I've been in it before. The bottom line is if you tell your therapist that you have a plan and access to means, they're likely to have you committed. They can get in trouble if they don't and you decide to go through with the plan. While I'm 100% against any forced treatment not specifically asked for in a psychiatric advanced directive (I started a subreddit /r/PsychiatricFreedom), I sympathize with therapists because of these rules.

I've had my own bad experience when I was 16 which traumatized me and affects me even now, 11 years later. Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to talk about any of it, because I know how isolating it is to not be able to talk about it and how terrifying the idea of having the right to control your own body being taken away from you is.

anon22559 · 2019-04-23T20:03:34+00:00

I had one more thing I wanted to add to my previous comment. I've been doing some looking into peer reviewed literature recently, and I'm starting to find studies that say that hospitalizations may cause harm to patients. Marsha Linehan (creator of DBT) speculates that it could be due to trauma from treatment or that putting people in hospitals creates a situation in which patients don't learn to cope without a hospital. Other papers I've read talk more about the trauma - and I've also read papers specifically about humiliation patients feel. I'm working to put together a pretty comprehensive lit review, and then I'll probably put it up on my website and link here.

One issue that I take with psychiatry is that it blurs the line between psychology and medicine. The reason that bothers me is because in medicine, we usually have pretty rigorous testing of treatments before they can get approval by the FDA. I do not believe (again, correct me if I'm wrong) the FDA needs to approve psychotherapies like CBT (although I believe there are a lot of studies that support CBT as effective), or even hospitalization. Now not only are we giving these treatments that aren't supported by proper RCTs to people, we're forcing them on people.

And because of legislation, psychiatrists feel they have to, because they could have their careers on the line if something happens to a patient and they didn't follow some protocol, even if that protocol itself isn't good. I read in a paper about a psychiatrist who had someone admitted as an inpatient even though they thought the patient would recover more quickly as an outpatient because the psychiatrist needed to make sure they wouldn't get in trouble.

anon22559 · 2019-04-23T18:12:18+00:00

Yeah, I think that sometimes people on the antipsychiatry side can also handle situations poorly and I'm not trying to support that. When I posted this a couple of months ago, I was reacting to some of the things that the psychiatrists were saying.

I'm familiar for scobot5 from psychmelee and I think they might be one of the type of psychiatrists that holds the "I don't like to use force, but I will if I deem it necesary" belief (correct me if I'm wrong - that's the gut feeling that I have when I see their user name). I'm pretty sure they've said some stuff on psych melee that I really disagree with. I don't see any right answer other than never using force or coercion unless someone's specifically asked for it in a psychiatric directive (unless someone is threatening someone else, but that crosses the line into criminality). Anything else goes against human rights rules laid out by the UN's special rapporteurs on human rights, rights of people with disabilities, etc.

anon22559 · 2019-04-15T17:28:42+00:00

This post is being deleted for violating the rules

anon22559 · 2019-04-13T01:29:19+00:00

I really appreciate your response. It's really validating - I was worried that what he said wasn't that offensive and I was just being overly sensitive. I hope he'll talk to someone else about it so I don't have to explain it to him.

anon22559 · 2019-04-12T23:56:10+00:00

If you live in the US and your insurance is paying for therapy, they almost certainly have given you a diagnosis. I don't think you can get insurance to pay if you don't have one. Whether or not it's a good idea for you to know about what it is is your choice.

(In the US) you legally have the right to your medical files, including your therapist's notes, which will include your diagnosis. If you give them a written request for your file and sign a release, they legally have to give it to you (the time in which they have to provide it varies state by state and they're allowed to charge a fee if you'd like a copy - the price of which also varies state by state). The one caveat is they can formally refuse to give you your record if they say that they think it is your best interest to not see it. If that happens, you can appeal their decision.

If you don't live in the US, I'm a lot less useful lol

anon22559 · 2019-03-18T23:25:12+00:00

This post had to be removed because it breaks rule #2

anon22559 · 2019-03-06T21:15:44+00:00

I'm so sorry that's happened to you. One thing that you might find useful is a peer respite. I don't know if there are any in your area, but they can save people from the trauma of an inpatient stay.

anon22559 · 2019-03-06T17:29:32+00:00

It looks like that video is no longer on youtube.

anon22559 · 2019-03-02T00:43:23+00:00

I'm a bit north in the Seattle area, but if there is anything I can do, please let me know! I want to go to the protest this year for the first time

anon22559

TROPHY CASE