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35 Psychiatric Hospital Employees And Patients Share The Creepiest And Most Disturbing Things They’ve Witnessed
Interview With Author
Mental health continues to be a topic that many people ignore entirely. Some think it’s taboo to speak about it openly. Others might rush to judge those with mental health issues without digging deeper. While still others choose to ignore their problems instead of tackling them with the help of licensed professionals.
Most people’s experience of psychiatric hospitals, for example, comes from movies and TV shows. However, reality can be more gruesome, brutal, and bizarre than fiction. Redditor u/N3SSDOGG sparked a very open discussion after asking the people who have either worked at or been admitted to mental health units to share the strangest things they’ve witnessed. You’ll find their candid stories below.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of the thread, redditor u/N3SSDOGG, who is currently working in a psychiatric hospital as a mental health technician. They shared their thoughts on why there's still so much stigma surrounding mental health and revealed some of the signs of a great mental institution employee.
Warning: keep in mind that some of these stories are rather unsettling and might not be for all of you Pandas.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Hoo boy. There was this kid like 14 years old with Schizophrenia. He would take off his shirt, scream and throw things if the nurses wouldn't play for him a Red Hot Chilli Peppers' live concert DVD over and over again. It was honestly sad to see. Most of the people I was with were really chill actually, and hearing that music on the repeat made us only feel worse. One day, close to my release date, I sat to have lunch next to him and he had a sudden moment of lucidity. He told me I was a really good person and that I should go back to the real world, because my mom wouldn't want to see me sad like that. I was sent to the ward because I was deeply depressed as my mom died early that year. I stood up and gave him a hug. Mario, wherever you are, I hope you are ok. I'm about to get my college degree and it's thanks to you and many other wonderful people I've met.
Abigail Hill 2 years ago
Oh goodness. I had to listen to this kid I know (he's about my age, teenager, but I still consider myself and him to be kids) talk for 5 to 10 minutes today about how psychiatrists are wrong and how they can't understand the human mind because they could never know his next move because he has *schizophrenia* (in stars because I dunno if he's actually diagnosed or what if he doesn't believe actual doctors know what they're doing). Then he talked about this martial arts thing called "demon brain" and "demon back" which I think we're probably made up and how these techniques result in trauma. He finished his talking by saying "oh well back to schizophrenia". Just... goodness gracious brother, do you not know how you sound..?
Ponyo (they/them) 2 years ago (edited)
i hear so many stories about hugging but when i’ve been to a HUGE amount of psych hospitals and eveytime i tried to hug someone i either got physically detained or booty juice, is that not normal?
RELATED:
#2
I had a patient remove his eye with a spork.
The Ghost of Glasgow 2 years ago
How does this happen???? Also a spork seemed like the least menacing utensil ever! Or at least it was.
theoneandonlynoira 2 years ago
holy snickerdoodles what in the everlasting biscuit is this thread going to be
freakingbee (they/them) 2 years ago
i've heard a story where someone did...
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your local gender dysphoric 2 years ago
Wait if this is just the first one... this is not gonna end well, is it.
Harold Maio 2 years ago
I watched an aide in a state mental institution kick a man crawling (he could not stand) on the floor because he was not moving fast enough. I watched a group of nurses standing there as he kicked.
Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
They must see more worse things. After some years of working there, they must be worse than slaughter- workers.
Load More Replies... Harold Maio 2 years ago
I witnessed an aide in a state mental institution kicking a man crawling on the floor (he was unable to stand) when he did not move fast enough. I watched a group of nurses sitting calmly by as it happened. Harold
#3
I was in an adolescent inpatient facility for 30 days. Two people come to mind.
One kid named David who was very tall for his age, I think he was only 13. He insisted on watching Friday the 13th movies on movie nights and everyone was afraid to disagree with him because of his violent nature and frequent homicidal fantasies. He hated taking his meds, and probably 2 or 3 times a week he'd brawl with the psych nurses over it. No joke, it took 5 to 6 large grown men to overcome this kid. He was scary.
The other one was just sad, a girl named Wendy. She was 13, really nice. But she always wore the same clothes and she stank really really bad. Apparently this is a common defense for kids who have been repeatedly assaulted by family. They don't clean themselves or they'll even soil themselves to make themselves undesirable to their abuser. I gave her a big hug every night in the common area when it was time to go to our cells.
DanandSheryl Oberheu 2 years ago
I worked in a locked facility with abused adolescents. Your acts every night were a message of kindness. " I will not hurt you." Thank you.
Xenia Harley 2 years ago
I had a friend whose brother abused her asa teen. She said it was why she gained at least 100 pounds, to be less desirable to him. This is why some women gain weight.
Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
An adolescent psych unit should absolutely not have horror movies. That's just a way for the children to regress and re-traumatize themselves. This is absolutely the Unit's fault and disgusting.
Daffydillz~ 2 years ago
I worked in a lockdown treatment facility for girls 13-18 years old and boys 5-12 years old and first, they weren't allowed to watch anything over pg-13 for the girls and we also used staff discretion on these as well and the boys were held under pg-13 with very few exceptions at staff discretion. Second, restraint for any other reason than the safety of themselves or others, would be abuse. Third, any restraint lasting 30 minutes or longer has to be reported to their social workers, and the state for review within hours of the incident and there better have been very good reasons for happening or people are getting charged for abuse and fired from their jobs. Restraint longer than 10 minutes required contacting the on site psychologist or LCSW immediately and they would have to come to your location to monitor and assist with deescalation or begin making arrangements for placement in a hospital for more thorough focused care and evaluation. Continued below.
Daffydillz~ 2 years ago
As for a person with mental health issues watching horror movies frequently, I would say it depends on their diagnosis, treatment plan, and the wishes of the parents or social workers. In a residential environment, one would need to be very conscious of the triggering content of said movies affecting the other individuals who reside there as well. There's usually a lot of trauma based issues involved in the children there for treatment and you can't allow someone else to be traumatized by the movie choices of another. We have to do our best to respect everyone's needs there. Once they have reached certain treatment goals, many of the children are able to take home visits, and that would be the best time for them to enjoy the things that they can't do on campus. Unfortunately, it's a treatment facility, and watching movies and things like that as a group is for the children with good behavior. The place being described sounds like a nightmare. It would be a liability to work there.
Load More Replies... Loverboy 2 years ago
I hope that boy got help, that's actually scary considering his age. That last one is just terrible. By family, no less. I hope she got actual help.
Tan Artt 2 years ago
The last one is so common! A lot of children in school who get bullied for being untidy are just going through stuff inside their home life
Load More Replies... Nichole Harris 2 years ago
Omg really???. Where? My last 2 places wouldn't let you watch pg 13 without a docs consent
The OP revealed to Bored Panda that they're 18 years old and have been working at the psychiatric hospital for 4 months. "I’ve never worked in this field before, but in my short time here I have witnessed a spectrum of bizarre, dangerous, and outright disgusting events," redditor u/N3SSDOGG shared with us.
"After a particularly traumatizing shift, I wanted to know if other people, both former patients and staff who have spent time in psychiatric facilities, might be able to share similarly outrageous stories. I figured r/AskReddit was probably the best place to ask."
The redditor believes that the stigma that surrounds mental health is the reason why so many people avoid talking about it in the first place. "Misinformation and a lack of education on the topic has led society to deem mental illness as something the victim should be ashamed of, as though it makes them less human," they explained.
#4
Someone I knew said there were two people who thought without a doubt they were Jesus on his floor and he was ACHING for them to meet. One day, it finally happened because the nurses couldn’t keep them apart. They had a long, intense conversation and walked away deciding that Jesus A was Jesus before the Crucification and Jesus B was post-death Jesus. “Altogether what I would have expected Jesus to do and say.”
Jennifer Clayton 2 years ago
This was published by a psychologist who encouraged them to meet, only to realize there was no therapeutic reason for doing so. He had given in to curiosity.
SaneMinotaur (she/her) 2 years ago
I can understand the curiosity, certainly, even though there was reason to allow it and it could have gone very wrong.
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Biscuitbot 2 years ago
Literally JUST finished watched Three Christs! Film based on a true story similar to this
Marc Lyman 2 years ago
"Two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong" Industrial disease, obviously.
Rylee Evergreen 2 years ago
I'm sorry but I'm laughing. I love this ending, "altogether what I would have expected Jesus to do and say." Keeping in character
#5
My mother worked in an asylum in Ireland when she was about 15. This was in the early 60s. She loved working there, despite the fact that some of the patients would physically try and kill her. One patient always stuck out to her, every day he would tell my mum he was going to kill her when she finished work. She knew he loved music, so would tell him she was out dancing that night, and could he wait until the next day, which he agreed to. The next day he would forget what he had said, and would threaten her again, and she'd say the say thing again. This went on for a couple of years that she worked there.
Fish Fingers 2 years ago
When my wife worked on a psych ward, a violent sex offender screamed at her "D'YOU WANT F****N RAPING, YOU!?" "Not now, John, I'm really busy today..." "Oh, ok" *calmly sits back down*
#6
I was brand new and was eating in the day room alone. an NA Meeting came in , even though ive never had addiction before I was too shy to leave. at the end of the Meeting an old man handed me a drawing of me he had just done. It was beautiful. He told me I caught his eye because I was the only person in the room who had any sunshine left. Tripped me out in a curious way.
SnakeBestie 2 years ago
Also, one of my sisters continously kept being sent back into a mental hospital when I was younger. I remember waking up to my mom telling me "sissy's back in the mental hospital, sweetie." I was always so scared, confused, and sad for my sister and wondering what was happening that kept making hey go back? My mom told me she always lied, saying she was fine and way better now, and once it was found out that she wasn't, she was eventually sent back. It makes me wonder, now that I'm older, what happened in there that made her keep lying about being better just so she could escape
SnakeBestie 2 years ago
Yeah, it seems the first time you step into one of these places, you're so full of life and not exactly broken(entirely) yet. But after a certain amount of time, that light dims and eventually fades away
"Some refuse to confide in others and some refuse to admit they have a problem at all. Nobody wants to be the 'crazy' person. There’s still a big 'get over it' attitude when it comes to mental health and I don’t believe it’s taken as seriously as it should be," the OP told Bored Panda.
"It’s labeled as something reserved for the homeless, the addicts, and the self-absorbed. The truth is if more people were properly educated on mental illness and funding was increased to treat those who currently suffer from it, we’d have much lower suicide rates as well as be able to diagnose and treat people much earlier in the development of their illnesses."
#7
The saddest thing ever. They had brought this lady with dementia in for a while. Her husband had just died and she was not doing well. We would be sitting in group and she would look up and say "I need to call Bob. He doesn't know where I am." Then they would ask her where Bob was, but she didn't know. And then they would tell her that he had died. She would break down and they would take her back to her room to rest.
And this happened like 10 times a day. I had to watch this lady learn that her husband had died over and over again. It was brutal.
Ann-Marie Bentley 2 years ago
That's against dementia protocol!! There is no benefit to telling someone with dementia that their loved ones have died. Most dementia facilities are told to distract or tell a white lie instead. Like he's out shopping we can't ring him right now. He knows where you are. It's kinder to go with their delusion as there is no getting better in dementia and grieving over and over again is not good for the person. It's cruel ! Please please next time she asks about her husband make something up then distract her with another subject. Reminding her of his death does not help her.
SaneMinotaur (she/her) 2 years ago
Depending on what point in history this story happened, they may not have developed modern protocol. Mental health treatments were plain barbaric and patients were treated awfully, even up until relatively recently.
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LeiLah 2 years ago
I don't know - I mean, I'm not a professional or anything - but it seems to me that this would be a good candidate for a little white lie. "Oh, don't worry, honey, I already called Bob for you to let him know where you are."
Ann T 2 years ago
That really does seem like the kindest way of dealing with it.
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King Joffrey 2 years ago
This was just badly handled. They should have said they called Bob and he was on his way - she would forget anyway. My grandmother had dementia and we told her all sorts of white lies so that she didn't feel so distressed.
starsailor (they/he) 2 years ago
i'd never be able to work in a dementia facility. i would break down crying every day.
RedMarbles 2 years ago (edited)
A sincere FU to whoever downvoted this expression of empathy. Edit to add: upvoted to cancel it out
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Nat of Clan P 2 years ago
I used to visit a lady who had dementia and her husband had died and the staff kept telling her over and over again that he'd passed away. It was a total shock to her each and every time and totally broke my heart. As and when she talked about her husband, I just went along with it so as not to upset her any more than she already was. She would say she'd have to go as he was due home for his tea so I would say how nice that was and what was she making him for tea etc. Bless her.
Monday 2 years ago (edited)
This and the pediatric cancer ward of a hospital are the strongest pieces of evidence for that. I'd rather believe that there is no god than believe there is a god that just...lets this happen.
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Cynthia Kelly 2 years ago
As a caregiver to a grandparent with dementia--- THIS IS ABSOULTELY THE WORST! I only told my grandmother once that my mom has died (my mom was an only child) and she took it like being hit by a freight train. Her grief was unbearable. Her doctor recommended that I never tell her again,. When she would ask where her daughter was, I would tell her that mom had to work late and would come by tomorrow. The next day she would ask again and i would repeat the same thing. This went on for 2 years before my grandmother finally passed away.
Sarah Turney 2 years ago
That's actually classed as abuse and is revolting. I've looked after hundreds of people with dementia and unfortunately there are staff who just can't stop themselves from trying to prove to the poor old dear that there wrong getting them distressed and upset to then repeat it again 5 minutes later. The only godsend is that when the horrible staff do give up being pricks the dementia sufferes have forgotten about being told distressing news .
#8
Not super crazy.
Just.. odd.
Was with a bunch of teens on a pediatric ward but we all had special rooms by the nurses desk with shatterproof, wired glass so the nurses could always look in on us easily, and the bathrooms had no locks.
Myself and another girl were in for anorexia. Another guy was suicidal to the point where he couldn't have any cutlery but a plastic spoon for meals, no blankets, special pyjamas, etc. And then there was a young homeless guy who' d been hit by a car while squeegee-ing for change, so his leg was in a full cast...yet he still had a habit of sneaking around (in his wheel chair) and hoarding extra supplies from the kitchen, the kids' playroom, the nurses station, etc., so they kept him in one of the "psych" rooms.
We formed a weird little club, and would often play cards in a lounge area together. Conversations would go something like this:
Me: "Hey does anyone want this cheese? I snuck it into my pocket so Nurse thought I ate it."
Homeless Kid: "Mine! Dibs! Here, you can have these beads I swiped from Craft Time."
Other Anorexic: "I'll get you some ice cream and saltines if you find me some sewing gear. I'm gonna sew some batteries into my hair scrunchie for my next weigh-in day."
Suicidal Kid: "Do you think I'd die if could scoop my eyeball out with a spoon?"
And so on.
It was a very bizarro time in my life.
Demolition Lover (He/him) 2 years ago
Someone (obviously people who have dealt with mental illness) please make this a sitcom. Like one that treats the issues seriously but also jokes about them through the characters making jokes, not through stereotypes. dark comedy found family type of stuff. I'd like that a lot I think.
Mocha The Lion 2 years ago
seems... kind of... i dont want to say nice bcz those places are anything but nice... but it seems like you had a nice connection with the other anorexic and the homeless kid, i hoped you guys could be freinds if/when they got out
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Odd harmonious connections are awesome and cool, I have many with other alcoholics and addicts and some days are like a nonstop comedy act and very, very serious at same time. It's wonderful
Load More Replies... Biscuitbot 2 years ago
The whole situation is sad but the homeless guy stocking up supplies is heartbreaking 😢
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
As someone who relates to these things, I can tell you that if he has availability he likely has something stashed for every situation :-)
Load More Replies... Haywood Jablome 2 years ago
Good God, to think that batteries in a hair scrunchie could be enough to fudge an anorexic patient's weigh-in is horrifying
SnakeBestie 2 years ago
A few years ago, I was in a psychiatric hospital spefically for minors. I hung out with a group of friends, and I quite enjoyed my time there. Nothing absolutely wild happened, but it was loud bc of younger children(like I'm talking kids here - it was confusing), cold, and I never got good sleep work the hall light on, the door woke open, and nurses shining a light in your face every half an hour to an hour. Other than that, it was pretty chill. I had really interesting conversations and have even weirder memories with the friends I made in that one week
your local gender dysphoric 2 years ago
them *having a cohesive convo like friends* The suicidal kid *Randomly plans death out loud*
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Everything changes when we can remove the judgment, fears, stigmas, egos, and let it all hang out..... as somber as it can be, those are the best times of my life
Load More Replies... Felix Grace 2 years ago
i don't wanna glamorize, but tbh this is very similar to conversations I had w other patients during a period hospitalization
#9
Alright a little late to this but we’ll see, I spent time in a female mental hospital in Florida. I was committed after attempting to kill myself. It was the right decision but holy f**k was that place horrible. We had 2 wings. One was for violent people. And one was more like a daycare. I was initially put in the violent one, I stayed in it for months. Even though I should’ve been transferred. This is because my roommate. Who spoke tongue. Peed on me and I hit her. That move meant I spent months in the violent wing. It also meant I was to be restrained. And since they thought I peed myself, I also had to wear an adult diaper. The craziest part about a mental hospital? How much power they have over you. One of the nurses was a f*****g psycho. She clearly enjoyed tormenting us. But guess what, no one believes the crazy girl who attacked another patient. There was one time I was getting my blood taken, the medical tech noticed I was in a clearly soiled diaper. He mentioned it to my nurse. And she says “I have 20 minutes after discovering a soiled diaper to change it”. He left, and she winked at me and left. I was also sexually abused. By my roommate, by the nurses, by some random security guy. Once again, no one f*****g believes anything you say. If you don’t have an advocate. A parent, spouse, even a therapist. They have complete control over you.
Tweed Jefferson 2 years ago (edited)
THIS!! The staff at these places are horrible. At best, they completely ignore the needs of the patients before dumping them out on the streets with no resources. So many kind, scared people being abuse by nurses with impunity. It's terrible. (USA)
ShellsBells 2 years ago
Please tell me that you dont think this only happens in the US. That you don't think that all the evil, vile people on this planet only reside in the US. This is a worldwide problem, not one that just happens in one country. Over 1 BILLION people suffer from some sort of mental disorder. So instead of placing blame on one individual country, we all need to recognize that this affects people everywhere, in every country, and to stop stigmatizing mental health.
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Jessica Wolfe 2 years ago
I’m so sorry this happened to the OP! I, too, had an extremely traumatic experience in a psych hospital. I felt completely helpless and degraded. So, I went to nursing school and became a psych nurse. And for the last 16 years I’ve been advocating for patient rights and trauma informed care. Inpatient psych is an incredibly difficult and dangerous job. I’ve been hit, sexually assaulted, kicked, spat on, bit, and threatened. We’re more likely to be killed or permanently disabled at work than cops. Nurses become cynical and jaded and defensive and I have certainly seen nurses who need to retire and move on because their attitude towards patients becomes uncaring or unprofessional. OP’s story is a helpful reminder to me of how very fearful and helpless a bad nurse can make patients feel. I hope OP and other patients with these experiences feel empowered to share their stories with hospital management, state advocates, insurance providers, and political leaders. Thank you for sharing!
Imperial Guard 2 years ago
I was abused by medical professionals in the mental hospital, and the resulting trauma has f****d me up for life. More awareness needs to be spread about that.
Sunny Day 2 years ago
If it was the roommate with a bladder issue, why was OP wearing a soiled diaper? They can make you wear them, but that doesn't mean you have to use them.
Mabelbabel 2 years ago
Yes, it's an odd story. Surely if you need to prove that you don't need a diaper, the way to do that would be to not use the diaper and go to the bathroom instead.
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DonnerDinnerParty 2 years ago
I am so sorry you didn't have a voice 😔 I've read that the majority of psyche facilities in the UK are just horrible to the patients and use them as entertainment and really do t care about what is happening on their watch. I was only in a US psyche ward for a few months, it was like being in jail but we were never abused. I sincerely hope that you are doing better 💞
savage silence 2 years ago
Name and Shame!!! My gawds this is...I don't even have the words to express how this one makes me feel
Alaskatgal 2 years ago
I’m so sorry you had to endure that! It was horrific to read, cannot begin to imagine living it!
According to u/N3SSDOGG, a great psychiatric hospital employee is someone who balances mental fortitude with kindness. You have to avoid getting too close to your patients while also staying empathetic.
"You have to have a strong mind to work this kind of job and too often than not, people leave the field because it’s too much to handle and can trigger their own trauma," they said.
"It’s easy to get close with patients and be manipulated or taken advantage of because you wanted to be nice. On the other hand, you don’t want to be cold and shut off. These people often don’t come from the best of places and to treat them as human beings and just listening to them might sound simple but could mean the world to a patient," the OP told us.
"At the end of the day, your priority is to take care of your patients and keep them safe, but a little kindness and understanding can go a long way."
#10
A doctor told me I was too fat to be in there and should come back when I actually look anorexic (I was already pretty underweight) and I was released hours after that.
Shannon Donnelly 2 years ago
It's a common misconception that people who get graduate from medical school are smart. We forget that there has to be someone last in every single graduating class at every medical school & university. Also, being knowledgeable in medicine does not guarantee that a doctor also has a good bedside manner. I've met many doctors unfortunately who knew their subject area & yet had all the compassion of a rock. This is not a field where it can be either/or. If you have no compassion for the people you treat, go into research.
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Mamaof5meemawof3 2 years ago
😮😮😮 I’m so sorry that people aren’t taken more seriously with mental health. So sad
Denise Melek 2 years ago
I met a woman who had normal weight and was anorexic. She was obese before. You can never judge by the look.
D Destroyers 2 years ago
Yeah that's not really a thing anymore. Apparently only about half of all doctors take it
Load More Replies... Ponyo (they/them) 2 years ago
there are a lot of ed inpatient wards in the u.s. that require you to be under 95 pounds to receive treatment. i know from experience
BenMaharaj 2 years ago
Outpatient care for mental health issues is legitimate. To me this is like not admitting someone with high blood pressure if they take pills to manage that issue.
Cll 2 years ago
Is there a magazine I haven't heard of entitled 'mental health'? That is really amazing.
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Becca Kuehn 2 years ago
That doctor who said that to you is a horrible person that should not be practicing medicine! I'm sorry that you went through that. I hope that you got the help you needed elsewhere.
Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
Omg did the doctor really tell someone with possible anorexia that they are TOO FAT TO BE ANOREXIC??
#11
Inner city resident psychiatrist. Seen a lot of s**t!
-woman on meth brought into ED by police. Kept saying there was a devil in her vagina. It turned out to be a small (unplugged) hair straightener.
-old homeless dude who was convinced that the street cats were telling him to kill people
-young software engineer who became convinced that a girl he met at church camp was trying to communicate that she loved him thru a microchip he was convinced was implanted in his head. Had tried to stalk her and enter her house.
-big black dude who was convinced he was Bruce Lee. Would only talk to us if we called him Bruce and he would loudly be doing Kung fu moves in his room when not chatting with himself
-400lb dude smashed through the locked doors around 4am and was chased by staff thru the hospital, was only stopped when security barricaded the front doors of the hospital, he wanted to escape bc the Popeyes down the street had that new chicken sandwich
-guy addicted to smoking PCP literally ripped out his eyeball, believing something was behind it. We saw him in the medical hospital, dude was so chill about it too
-woman w no psych hx became convinced over time that someone was living inside the walls of her house. She would make cracks and holes in her walls trying to convince her family. Ended up drinking bleach.
-woman who was on the long-term unit decided to go on a hunger strike to kill herself bc she lost hope in getting better. We can't force foods on her, and the medical decision making fell onto her mom who hadn't spoken to her in 10 years. She refused placing a feeding tube to force food. Ultimately we had to place her into palliative care.
-guy who was stockpiling cogentin in his room, then always asking about it, bc he convinced it made his penis larger.
-woman who held staff in a standoff using a shower rod she ripped off the walls to use as nunchucks
-woman who would s**t into cups
-people with psychogenic polydipsia who would drink out of toilet bowls. We had to shut off their shower and toilet water.
THERE are just hundreds of more things we see everyday. It's hard to remember them all! It's never a dull day in the psych ward. It's a shame for the higher functioning depressed patients who are like "wtf have I gotten myself into".
detective miller's hat 2 years ago
I've always wondered how the staff viewed the higher functioning patients. Like do they look at us and just assume we're all nuts, as in no matter what we say to them or how normal we act, do we still come off as crazy because the staff are viewing us through the lens of their experience as staff? Super curious.
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
MD and former psychiatrist here: I can only speak for myself, but there is a big difference between psychotic and depressive patients. True, symptoms can overlap, but all in all they don't belong in the same ward. I think every depressive person who found themselves in an acute psychiatric ward for the first time felt hugely out of place. Oh, and of course you have your special prejudices against/presumptions about 'the psychotic patient' and 'the depressive patient'.
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Blue_Mouse 2 years ago
It’s sad. I have been in group homes and residentials and a mental hospital. I was never there for aggression or phsycosis or any other horrible thing. Just depression Ave a couple other things. I felt bad because I felt I was taking away from others. Yet I was suicidal and felt guilty about it. Idk. Just needed to let it out
Imperial Guard 2 years ago
"Higher functioning depressed patients" aren't exactly the people who should be gaining the most sympathy here. People who've been deemed out-of-control, dangerous, and separated from society for months and years on end are those we need to be recognizing. They've been in an empty, neutral-toned holding cell for so long that they've lost all touch with reality and the outside world. I know this because I was, at separate times, both the "high-functioning depressed patient" and the "crazy out-of-touch patient". We cannot continue to spread stigma of psychiatric patients. They. Are. Humans. Worthy. Of. Respect.
RedMarbles 2 years ago
Seems like there's room for a lot of sympathy for all these people.
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Monica Sargent 2 years ago
Obviously homeless dude was crazy; streets cats would never outsource that sort of work.
RyanaAmos 2 years ago
It's best if you can deal with them on the outside. Seeing a counselor or therapist possibly.
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#12
Did psych rounds as part of my nurse training. The story I'm gonna talk is about my friend's experience when she had psych rotations a month before mine.
Apparently, she had a patient who was sexually attracted to the Sun. The star of our system. Literally. She would lie on the floor, spread her legs, and get railed by the sun rays.
Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
Danae has some children with rain. I heard about a sexual practice caled Golden rain, something w. p**s. People are very special.
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bottomless.abyss.of.bordem 2 years ago
Unless you're the one assigned to stop it
Load More Replies...There are a lot of stigmas associated with mental illnesses, going to therapy, and having stayed at either a mental health unit or a psychiatric hospital. Many find it embarrassing to speak about their struggles, others might not want to appear weak or want to avoid ‘burdening’ others by broaching the subject at all.
Men, in particular, tend to have a hard time tackling these topics. According to a survey commissioned by the Priory Group, 77% of men have suffered common mental health symptoms like anxiety, stress, and depression. Meanwhile, 40% of men have never spoken to anyone about their mental health.
#13
There was a lady who thought she was an egg. She’d only eat small packets of Vegemite and would sleep in front of the nurses station.
She would growl if anyone talked to her.
Mick Casey 2 years ago
I think the puns and jokes here are really insensitive. These people are real people, not the brunt of a joke. That is exactly how freakshows happened in earlier times. These are people, not freaks or weirdos. They are real and believe what they believe.
L hill 2 years ago (edited)
Im bipolar. Ive attempted suicide 4 times. Im am now doing great thanks to meds and cannabis. I think back on some of. The strange things i did before the meds and it makes me laugh...and shake my head in amazed disbelief that that was me. I laugh about it more than anything. Im sure im not the only one. Ive done enough crying.
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Zedrapazia 2 years ago
I wonder how someone gets into a state of mind like this, believing they were an egg
Karri Berkowitz 2 years ago
Had one think they were a glass of orange juice and no one could touch him or he would spill. No psych episode, he was just on a lot of drugs.
Paul Werner 2 years ago
now she would be considered normal and we'd have to use her pronouns as not to be labeled eggphobic
Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
Eggs Benedict, devilled eggs, growling eggs....
Load More Replies... starsailor (they/he) 2 years ago
that's really sad, actually. imagine the kind of trauma or mental illness that would be associated with believing you are an egg.
Donald Crocker, Jr. 2 years ago
I wonder if a bundle of hay and sitting with her for a while would make her better or worse.
#14
My brother-in-law had a stint in a psych ward a little over a year ago, and on a particularly manic day they were in the middle of the community room and started singing “I have a structured settlement and I need cash now” This was then met by about 40-50 psych patients shouting back “CALL J.G. WENTWORTH!!! 877-CASH-NOW!!!” After getting a few verses in the orderlies stepped in and kindly requested they stop, which was kinda a shame since it sounded like they were all having a good time.
Mel in Real Life 2 years ago
I have a friend who went to interview for a position at a psych hospital. he was escorted into a room by three people in white coats. Was halfway through the interview when the REAL staff came in and put the patients back in their rooms. I laugh every time my friend retells this story.
Katy L. Paso 2 years ago
My little brother always sings Burger King jingles when my mother is trying to drive, is he a mental case too?
Dread Pirate Roberts 2 years ago
Nah, I'm a substitute teacher, and for some reason, a lot of the kids seem to be obsessed with that song lol
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Nikki Sevven 2 years ago
Their commercials were corny af, but everyone remembered their name and number.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Of course they were ! I live on the outside and my friends and I do shiit like this even now whenever we think of it and can get away with it !!
Load More Replies... #15
Spent some time in a juvenile psych ward when I was in my teens. I saw a kid rip off their own fingernails. And I don't mean like bite their nails and then rip the hangers off. It was full on grab the tip of their nail, then except force and peel the entire nail backwards, taking the whole nail off. They got the left thumb, left index, and left pinky off before an orderly stopped them. They were 14ish and did it all clinically and with not a wince of pain. Creepy as f**k.
***Why was I there? Because at the time people didn't know what to do with someone with autism.***
Tsdey 2 years ago
Agree... when I hear about someone bullying/doing bad things to people with autism I feel a LOT of rage
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Currentlylost 2 years ago
I knew a guy who did that and he’d laugh after he did it…poor dude just needed help
detective miller's hat 2 years ago
I knew a guy who did that to his nails. He still picks and bites them and good lord do his nails look gnarly when they grow in.
Rahim Carlock 2 years ago
PTSD or the right not knowing what the left hand is doing,?: What's In this soup?
Psychiatric wards, aka mental health units, are facilities that exclusively focus on patients’ mental healthcare. Often, wards house patients with serious conditions, ranging from major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia to psychosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, and others. Patients are often given round-the-clock care and they’re observed 24/7. Psychiatric hospitals are different from wards in that they focus on long-term care while the latter focus on the short-term.
In mental health units, licensed medical professionals assess their patients, prescribe them medication, and offer them therapy, as well as various other treatments, like art, music, and pet therapy. Usually, patients are given their own rooms during their stay, but they spend time together with others in shared spaces.
#16
Most amazing: for some reason a piano was in the psych ward, a patient who never spoke started playing, she knew every piece by heart. The entire ward of psychotics, manics, and even staff went and sat in that room. Not a word was spoken for a good half hour.
Craziest: family members choking a patient because his sister gave another patient a blow job. A guy who thought he was Jesus convincing the entire ward to meet on the balcony to discuss ways of breaking out. A guy would run away every day, steal a car and drive back to the ward. People speaking in tongues- scary.
detective miller's hat 2 years ago
I've been in the loony bin 3 times, and there was always at least one person who thought they were Jesus.
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Salty Sasquatch 2 years ago
Sometimes people just don't know how music will appeal to everyone. There's a video out there of a 90 something year old woman who used to be a ballerina. Someone played the music for Swan Lake for her, and she started making these amazingly graceful movements of her arms (she was in a wheelchair). And lets not forget other patients who are nonverbal who start singing when someone sings along to music the patient would have heard in her lifetime. I saw a video of someone like that start singing to some gospel music when an attendant started singing to her and gently placing her hands on the patient's cheeks.
T5n 2 years ago
The lady playing the piano sounds like she is an Autistic Savant. Disclaimer:I and quite a few of my friends are on the spectrum so I am not trying to be critical or rude.
Mylo 2 years ago
That's a lot of assuming. She simply could've known how to play piano. /nm
Load More Replies... #17
When I was 19 and admitted the first time. I was anxious already, and could barely sleep the first night. My roommate was quiet, which didn't alarm me at first. The next day I went I to the common room, and talked to some people, and then later went back to my room, and found that my roommate had scribbled "find them" all over the walls, and was talking to herself. I was terrified and grabbed a nurse who tried to talk to her, but couldn't make any sense out of what she said, and I asked to stay in another room. I stayed in the restraint room that night by myself, and woke up the next morning to a fight in the hallway, and nurses running past my room. Apparently one guy pulled out his d**k infront of the wrong patient, and got punched. Then later that week, I was cornered by the same guy who pulled out his d**k, and asked if I wanted to have sex in the bathroom. I literally cried after that and was f*****g terrified, so I would say my whole first trip there.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
I think it's just a matter of the "wrong one" being someone who would instantly fly into a retaliatory rage instead of, say, calling a staff member.......
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detective miller's hat 2 years ago
All 3 times I was locked up in the home for the bewildered, there was at least one dude who was constantly exposing himself. And there's always someone who thinks they're Jesus.
Thom Serveaux 2 years ago
I had a guy corner me and say he was going to follow me home. Staff wouldn't help so I pretended to be better to be released. Sex abuse/harassment happens more in these places than folks realize.
#18
My best friend's mom was in temporarily we went to visit and there were 2 dudes, one thought he was Jesus one thought he was the devil they had major beef for serious. (Not a joke)
Disinforminationalisticalities 2 years ago
Why would they allow these two people to be in proximity of each other, unless to appease some sick desire for entertainment
Tamra 2 years ago (edited)
Depends on how the facility is run. I was on a psych ward for a suicide attempt and the people on the ward included those with bipolar, schizophrenia, psychosis, and eating disorder. Men and women in the same space together. There simply wasn't space nor staff to keep people separate. It was...not a place of healing, and that's all I'll say.
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Randy Klefbeck 2 years ago
Richard Ramirez (Walk-in killer, Night Stalker mid 1980's Los Angeles CA) thought he was the devil. Another in-mate who thought himself to be Jesus killed him in jail.
Disinforminationalisticalities 2 years ago
Mmmm, serious beef for 'dinner'. Beef 'dinner' for serious'. Beef for serious 'dinner'. Serious for beef 'dinner'. For 'dinner' serious beef. THE SERIOUS DIVERSITY OF BEEF FOR DINNER. We must tell the world
Load More Replies...Because of how serious a patient’s condition is, they’re often admitted to mental health units and hospitals involuntarily. Someone who might be having suicidal thoughts, harms themselves or others, abuses substances, and lives in constant anxiety may be admitted to a ward where they’ll receive the treatment that they need.
This can take anywhere from just a few days to several weeks or even longer, depending on the situation. Then, when the patient is no longer a threat to themselves or others, they can be allowed to leave. However, the medical professionals working there may decide that the patient may need further treatment before they can go back to their old lives.
#19
I was a security guard at one for about a month while I was in college. There was a really big dude in there, used to play amateur football. I'm not a doctor, I never asked what exactly he had going on that required him to be living full time in a mental health facility, but I did get a warning that he's had a few violent episodes.
All the exits between wings had magnetic locking doors. The magnets were STRONG. Three of us couldn't open the locked door if we tried.
One day *John* (not his real name) had a violent episode. Threw some stuff around a hallway and then went for the exit. I hit the door lock button and heard it clunk locked. John peeled that m**********r open like it was a windy day and walked outside. Turned himself back in the next day, no problems. That place did not pay me enough to try and stop a guy who could open a magnetic door, so I quit
Julie Schulz 2 years ago
Best thing to do in that situation is let the guy go. You'll only get hurt trying to stop him.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
I guess it's good he wasn't Jesus on top of what he was expressing already....
Lavi Berko 2 years ago
um no? science proves that it is a MENTAL disorder. not some voodoo hoodoo or demonic spirits or whatever
Load More Replies... #20
It was a temporary thing for an incident I don’t care to explain right now, but in the psych ward there was this kid, like, an actual kid. And he would always cry really loud late at night. During the day he started touching himself inappropriately and screaming his father's name. I guess he was r@ped for days straight and it messed up this kids head. I wish I could see how that kid is doing now, god bless his poor soul.
Eva Kašu 2 years ago
I hope he´s dead and in peace. No one should live with such memories or trauma.
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Me. 2 years ago
I think it is a yell for help if he shouts his dads name(could be wrong though)
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#21
I was a social worker at an institution that had a hall for what we called “lifers,” it was essentially for people who had no hopes of ever being released due to their conditions.
Anyway, my hall had 14 beds and it was full.
There was this one guy who was huge. He was 6’7 and about 350. His name was Simon. He suffered from drug-induced schizophrenia and had bipolar disorder.
He talked to himself all day, but never talked to others. All the other men in the ward were scared of him.
It was my day to do first shift. I got there early to start on some paperwork I needed to finish. When I got my keys in the door, I heard Simon hit the door with his fists. I looked through the tiny window on the door and he and the hall was covered in blood.
I panicked and called security for backup because I thought he had killed somebody.
Turns out, Simon was in the throes of an extreme manic episode and had managed to walk the literal soles of his feet off. Other medication he was on thinned his blood and led to him bleeding all over the place.
We checked the camera footage and he had walked and talked all night. The orderly (who was fired that day) had slept through his whole shift and never heard Simon walking back and forth.
Sanguinius 2 years ago (edited)
Worked in a jail for 4 years. Did a shift in the psychiatric area of our medical department once or twice. I remember the time when I watched a man dance naked in his cell for 12 hours straight. Had to escort the nurse to his cell to give him meds at one point. He calmly danced up to the slot in the door, took the cup with pills and the cup with water, flicked the pills over his shoulder, drank the water, and continued dancing.
#22
I visited the psych ward as a psychology student (part of a mandatory course) and spent a couple of days there practising interviewing patients. My personal worst memories are the old man who was catatonic and who could have died without anyone noticing for I don't know how long (he looked dead all the time); and the lady who kept picking the worms she hallucinated off her skin. I can’t imagine what it must be living like that, but it's heartbraking to watch.
I knew some of them could / had been violent, I knew the ward was locked for a good reason, but these two haunted me the most.
Mental health matters. Please take it seriously.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 years ago
😢 poor people. I’ve never personally had to go to a mental hospital but two of my closest friends have and they both said it was soul crushing as much as it was helpful.
Imperial Guard 2 years ago
I've been. The mental hospital in my case was basically a really horrible endurance test: if I wanted to return to a place where I wasn't constantly treated like a sick animal, abused and cut off from the world, I would have to force myself to figure out how to cope. It required heavy medication, but I did it. Been out for over half a year. The thing that they don't tell you about the mental hospital is how traumatizing it is: my memories from there are buried far down, and when I get flashbacks, I return to the state of feeling like a terrified, feral dog.
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Kerry Borthwick 2 years ago
Due to my mental illnesses if I see something like a small glitch in a TV screen and ppl say they can't see id repeatedly I'll shout I'm not crazy then get mega anxious I am as I always hear negative things about me in my voice in my head
Belladonna.dreams 2 years ago
I've got to a point of calling myself crazy before anyone else can call me that but my mental health issues are different. I have depression, anxiety, ADHD, and borderline personality disorder. I think there's some undiagnosed OCD but that can be a form of anxiety.
Load More Replies... Chexmy Licks 2 years ago
my parents threatened me to put me in a mental hospital for being suicidal and being so good at doing bad decisions but never the good ones. and i kept doing the same things over and over. i also do cut myself for no reason not like before. im 15 i started self harming around 5th grade.
Belladonna.dreams 2 years ago
I started when I was 12. I'm 32 and fight like hell to not start what I stopped a few years ago.
Load More Replies... Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
Poor people, namely young people - mental ilnesses developed in my country by kids about 30 % through and after covid. God bless them. It is really terrific.
#23
I was in one with people who were mostly in for suicidal ideation. One patient was a nice young girl who did not eat anything the entire week I was there. A few months later I was at the grocery store and she was working there but was getting fired by what looked like a horrible bully of a manager. Watching her walk to her car absolutely defeated broke my heart. I hope she is doing better now.
#24
I did my internship (master's degree in clinical psych) in the psych ward. The thing that shocked me was nothing the patients did. It was the staff counselors and doctors. Fwiw, the nurses were great. Talked about their patients' sexual attractiveness, guessed about sexual attributes, fantasized about them, etc. Mostly about the male patients, but both. Gossiped about the famous patients and told me who they were and how many times they'd been in. Denigrated and made fun of the eating disorder patients in particular, behind their backs. Instead of making an effort to understand, they'd say things like "he's just a sad sack" "she's a spoiled brat" or whatever. These things were true sometimes, but I don't talk about my patients that way. There's a clinical term for "sad sack", and there's a reason I use it. The environment was so unprofessional. I couldn't wait to be done.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 years ago
Not everyone out there is horrible. Good luck, I hope you can get better ❤️🩹
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Emily M 2 years ago
I work for the department of human services in my state as a therapist (co-occurring disorders and serious mental illness). This breaks my heart. Never have I or my coworkers talked about a client in such a way. Do we get frustrated, of course. We want our clients healthy and we are human, it is hard watching a person you care about struggle. But this is unethical. If anyone ever has a professional that is supposed to be helping them do this, please report them. They do not deserve the privilege to walk along a person on their recovery journey.
Lisa M 2 years ago
I worked in public health on a psychiatric ward for several years. Applied for the job because of the team's great reputation and wasn't disappointed. The nurses and allied health were very caring and professional. Black humour, but everyone knew where to draw the line. Can't say all of the doctors or management were as good. It wasn't perfect, but if someone working there does something wrong there are ways to make complaints that are not able to be ignored. We had independent patient advocates available too. I supervised students on placement, and it can be a confronting environment but all of them really enjoyed it because they saw what a great team we had and how we made the best of a limited government service to try to provide good care to the patients. It was the system that was the problem, bullying by management, bureaucracy, lack of resources and follow up for patients, and disregard of staff and patients' well-being by the organisation that led to many of us leaving.
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Suzanne G 2 years ago
I got on he wrong side of a senior counselor when I was hospitalized and he decided I wasn’t really sick, just spoiled. Because of his seniority, the rest of the counselors took his word like it was the a gospel truth. Lectured me that I needed to “grow up” (I was 50 at the time, suffering from suicidal ideation thanks to my bipolar 1 disorder). I’ve never wanted to knee someone in the groin so badly in my life.
Imperial Guard 2 years ago
Exactly how my stay was. I remember a nurse telling other nurses that I was the laziest on the unit because I would sleep a lot due to severe depression and social anxiety. Another nurse referred to the patients with behavioral and psychotic issues as "crackpots" as a form of compliment to the people who were just there for suicidal depression. I got yelled at for crying by the nurse who had just forced me to completely undress in front of her so she could force me into a "safety smock" without any underwear or even socks. I have little respect for nurses who are a******s to patients because "their job is hard".
#25
Not my story. My wife works as a nurse and spent some time in mental health units. A 60yo lady came in because she stopped taking her meds while travelling with her husband. She came out of her room, stood in front of the nurses station and started announcing to every person around her that she was the devil and also Jesus and that they needed to bow down and worship her. She proceeded to remove her hospital gown, wrapped it around her head in some kind of shawl and started bowing and chanting on the floor butt naked. Multiple visitors, including her husband were watching the whole thing. Nurses, including my wife, and her husband were trying to redirect her back to her room or put a blanket around her and she was just fighting everyone off. Her husband was so embarrassed he just stopped trying to redirect her and left.
Another one is a guy who was recently admitted was coming down off something and was constantly pestering the nurses to go out for a cigarette. You can’t smoke in a secure unit. He got sick of the nurses saying no, flew into a rage and in the process bit off his own finger. When the nurses came to help he was yelling at them “look what you made me do, you c*nts should’ve let me out for a smoke”. My wife had to pick his finger up off of the floor.
detective miller's hat 2 years ago
To the one nurse who snuck me into the stairwell every afternoon for a cigarette: I hope everything in your life is going exactly how you want it to.
Aster Oli 2 years ago
I’m not certain I understand, was it a good thing for you to smoke? I don’t mean to be offensive, I just do not quite understand.
Load More Replies... Thom Serveaux 2 years ago
I really hope people see how sad these are instead of laughing at them.
#26
I work in a hospital that has a psychiatric unit and I am in the float pool so I get sent to that unit occasionally. Few months ago I was there a patient attacked one of the counselors, detached his eye from the socket and he is now blind on that side. 2nd craziest was someone eating their poop straight from the tap
Disinforminationalisticalities 2 years ago
Eating their poop straight from the tap. Now that's sustainable.
Ranidae 2 years ago
When I worked at a group home for severely abused and neglected kids...I had a kid in the time out room who pooped on the floor, saw gum, dug it out, and chewed it.
My O My 2 years ago
That makes me so, so sad. My kids are still small and it brakes my heart that there are parents out there that don't (for whatever reason) take care and do everything possible for their kids.
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#27
I've worked in one for about 2 years now. The staff are just as crazy.
Here's some highlights
Patient got into the ceiling, couldn't get them down for a while.
Patient milked themself into their coffee. Did you know some anti-psychotics make you lactate?
The entire adolescent unit escaping because maintenence forgot to lock the gate. Don't worry they all came back eventually.
And myself getting a concussion from a patient trying to escape, they weren't successful but at least I didn't work for 6 weeks.
detective miller's hat 2 years ago
I'm sorry, but the patient getting into the ceiling really made me LOL.
Imperial Guard 2 years ago
What kind of antipsychotics was that person on?? I have never heard of lactating as a side effect holy s**t
Curly Q 2 years ago
I just imagine a person scuttling around above your head in the vents with a crooked head and slippers. 💀
E Murph 2 years ago
I know you didn't mean it this way but the next time I have to tell anyone about my mental health issues I'm using the phrase "crooked head".
Load More Replies... #28
Was admitted December 3 years ago.
Before that I had a sibling who was in and out of the care system for years prior.
She had ward mates, one of them was convinced he was the terminator, talked like him, dressed like him, carried round a banana for a shotgun.
Another lady was dancing around the room, sticking to the walls, then taking her clothes off, she tried touching several of the males on ward, before it was discovered her husband had just died a few days prior.
There was an old fella with super bad anxiety, but he was really nice, and at the hospital I was at they had an ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) ward. After his first session, he was unquestionable changed by the experience, no longer nice, but not horrible, he said he "just felt empty."
Strangest thing that happened to me, was probably making a person up, I was friends with a person called Chris, who apparently didn't exist. I'm not psychotic, which made it all the more odd. I think it was a coping mechanism.
Mostly though, what stuck with me, I met so many creative people, painters, poets, musicians, sculpters, dancers. People who I may never come across again, but we shared a few weeks of life together.
Monday 2 years ago (edited)
Electroconvulsive Therapy is such a weird thing. A friend of the family has bipolar disorder and this is her treatment of choice. She goes to stay at a psychiatric facility whenever one her "episodes" gets really bad and swears that ECT is the best thing in the world. It really does help keep her mood in check as for months after a treatment she'll be totally "normal"....but she's forgotten an episode in her life that's was quite traumatic and we can't tell if her brain simply repressed the memories or if the ECT had some effect on it.
Feathered Dinosaur 2 years ago
I've done ECTs as a psychiatrist and even more important I've received ECT to treat my own severe depressive episode. It isn't scary, you're put under general anesthesia before they start and you feel nothing of the procedure. And it helped (me) like a miracle! Just a few rounds of ECT made me feel so much better where medication and psychotherapy hadn't helped for months. It's so sad ECT got such a bad reputation, because it's one of the most effective treatments for depression we know of.
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Fish Fingers 2 years ago
ECT is one of those treatments that is very helpful in a particular circumstance (in the way that a plaster cast is good in the right circumstances), but became a go-to for any and all. Broken leg? Plaster cast. Eye infection? Plaster cast! Liver cancer? Plaster cast! Which is why it has such a negative image.
Mary Rogers 2 years ago
Well that, and the fact that most people don't understand that you are under anesthesia when they do it. The scary movies showing people thrashing about in apparent pain isn't how it works at all.
Load More Replies... E Murph 2 years ago
My husband has severe depression, and is finally on a medication that helps (it's one of the MAOIs that they really try not to prescribe anymore because management can be above the capacity of someone who's severely depressed, plus it's easily fatal). What really helped him the most he says was the ECT before the positive med change. He credits it with saving his life. He had some memory loss but nothing more important than life, he says. My great-aunt though is part of my illustrious lineage of type 1 bipolar disorder (I got the inheritance too; we didn't find out my granddad took lithium for decades, he was so scared of anyone finding out that even though as a doctor he could have recommended it to me/my Dad obliquely he didn't, still mad/hurt about that), was given the old torture style ECT. She was never the same & it didn't even work. Sad. She died before my time but how is a secret so I think she killed herself. So much shame over a chemical imbalance controlled by an old drug.
#29
Worked security for an emergency behavioral health.
I saw many, many crazy things. Many sad things, many confusing things.
The one I shall share today is the woman who started throwing rocks at the window of the staff area.
Why do you let the patients have rocks, you ask?
We don’t. She smuggled them in. Inside herself. A substantial number of rocks, approximately golf ball sized.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 years ago
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Imperial Guard 2 years ago
Lots of people hide things in there going in. Most common I've noticed is vapes.
#30
Not me, but a friend of mine that struggled earlier in life. He made a birdhouse for his mother and wanted to paint it red as it was her favorite color. But he never got to because one of the other patients would always drink the red paint before anyone could use it.
#31
One girl bit her own nipple off and swallowed it.
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
... reminds me of a Jeff Foxworthy joke, except that had a beaver doing the biting.
#32
I was supervising a patient overnight on a snowy December night. This guy *loved* Christmas. I mean, *loved* it. In the early morning hours, we got some calls from other units saying they were missing their Christmas trees. We wondered why they thought we knew where they went, until we saw trails in the snow of ornaments and artificial pine needles leading to his bedroom window. Upon opening his door, we discovered a forest of Christmas trees packed into his room, at least 6 or 7, with him giddily sitting in the middle of them. At some point he snuck out through his window and stole Christmas from everyone. How nobody including us heard him is still a mystery to me.
Another time, we had a group of three patients all strip completely naked, elope from the complex, and run two miles away to the local Police Department. The leader of the group did this more than once, and the police officers all knew her name and if they saw her, they simply met her out front and took her back.
Jennifer Clayton 2 years ago
Never heard of a psych facility where you could just open the window and run away.. And apparently you can just walk through wards with no one noticing?
bottomless.abyss.of.bordem 2 years ago
A lot of these sound more like crisis homes than actual locked psych units.
Load More Replies... #33
I used to work in a psych unit. I have two stories. The first was a gentleman that was diagnosed schizophrenic and was medicated. He decided to go camping without his meds and was found a couple weeks later completely detached from reality. He kept screaming that he was Jesus and that he was dead and he had to wait three days to rise. He refused to stand and walk because he was dead. We had to lift him on to a gurney and put him in four point restraints. A week or so later after being on his medication he was like any other person, completely normal. The other, I don't know the backstory, they call "Code Armstrong" overhead if they need muscle. I heard the xall and me and five other guys were being coordinated to tackle and restrain this young 100 lb girl. Basically you take her legs, you take her torso, you go for arms, you go for head. We tackle her and she still managed to get her head loose and started just smashing her head on the wall until we could chemically sedate her. She nearly fought off 5 full grown men, I'll never forget that.
Imperial Guard 2 years ago
They had the same thing in the hospital I was at, but it was called "BERT" (behavioral emergency response team)
Imperial Guard 2 years ago
I kept thinking they were calling some buff guy named Bert to tackle whoever got the code called on them
Load More Replies... Lisa M 2 years ago
I worked in psychiatric hospitals and they trained everyone to restrain patients during a code (if it comes to that) in ways that reduce the likelihood of injury to the patient (& staff). The training is based on things like biomechanics and is mandatory. Not a perfect system, but it probably prevents a lot of unnecessary injuries.
#34
Guy had a "tattoo" carved into his neck. Apparently he took a pen in his fist and repeatedly carved it into his skin right on his neck. It looked very scratchy and was still red despite it apparently being pretty old.
You know how really young kids grip a crayon in their fist and grind it against the paper really hard? If you made a fist with your left hand and put it below the left ear, that was exactly how he must have done it.
#35
I saw a man smear his s**t on the window of the room he was in with a dead eyed stare. Never gonna forget that sight.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
These things are heart- and gut-wrenching but sometimes hard not to laugh at just the same, even if just out of shock or amazement
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bored hamster 2 years ago
It's bad enough when your dog maintains eye contact when taking a s**t, but this....
RedMarbles 2 years ago
Aw, they just want to make sure you have their back while in a vulnerable state.
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#36
My great aunt used to work in one, it was a while ago so things have improved. She described one woman who would just walk around carrying a doll everywhere and clearly not in the right state of mind. When my great aunt asked why the woman was in there it turned out that she had a child before marriage so her baby got taken off her and she got sent to the mental institution. Another one had been in there since he was a boy, he had stolen an apple and kept in until he was in his 80's when he got kicked out due to budget cuts
Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
Maybe he was really mentally ill, his parents owned an apple orchard and that was a last drop. 80 years before now is during ii. WW. Long time ago, but no one will cage healthy kid.
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#37
The funniest thing I ever saw (spent total of about three years in in my teens and early 20's): a kid in seclusion who was having a genuinely good time making staff's life a living nightmare while he was in there, took apart the plastic mattress, tore the foam inside into small pieces, donned the empty mattress and started yelling 'I'M GUMBY, DAMMIT!' while tossing the pieces of foam around like confetti. Even most of the staff were laughing about it.
#38
Another story is not as crazy as it is heartbreaking. But in my time working I’ve seen my fair share of SI (Suicidal Ideations) patients but only once have I seen someone who had comepletely in every possible sense of the phrase given up, unlike anyone else I’ve come across. He was 60+ and had spent his whole life homeless and in and out of institutions, living with his brother and his brothers family periodically until the patient became too much to burden for the family. I spent every shift with him on a one-to-one (order to have eyes on the patient 24/7) as every chance he could get he would self harm with whatever he could find. I’m only a technician so i don’t have a degree of any sort other than a highschool diploma. I still would listen to him talk for the hours I spent with him, the most nihilistic and pessimistic tangents I’ve ever heard, a sense of hopelessness and despair I’ve never considered possible. Even the mountain of medications he was given seemed to have little affect. And then as his hold ended he was discharged. I’m not a doctor or certified in any way as I stated before but I can’t believe he was given the okay to be released. This event sticks with me because I was left without any answers or explanation of what happened. The next day his room was occupied by a new patient
Kaylee Best 2 years ago
How’d they get a new patient in the room so quickly?? Is nobody else concerned by that?
#39
Saw a 90lb, 5ft girl toss one of those 18L water cooler bottles, a full one at that, at a bunch of nurses trying to calm her down as she was having a manic episode-it took a few security guards and quite a few nurses to take her down. I'd just been talking to her the previous evening and she was an absolute sweetheart who gave me a book as a going away gift, as I was being discharged the next day. I still own that book, and I still think about her and wonder from time to time what she's up to-do were briefly in contact but she dropped off the face of the earth. A close second would be the time from my second stay in another psych unit in 2021, where a guy was going through alcohol withdrawals and screaming about a bear coming into his room and they had to lock him into his room and keep him heavily sedated. When he was allowed to mingle with people, he was still relatively sedated, so confused and lost, and kept asking me and other people if we knew what happened to the bear. Pretty sure he was an absolute hardcore alcoholic that had fried his brain, and I felt pretty bad for him.
#40
Not a patient but I worked in inpatient adolescent and adult Eating Disorder units for a few years. We did a LOT of restrained NG feeds on teenagers and adults, but the worst was always this really lovely and quiet 18 year old girl who straight up would refuse to eat despite a staff member basically pleading with her for hours on end. We would have 8 members of staff hold her down while I threaded the NG tube into her nose and down her throat, and the whole time she would be trying to bite, spit or attack us all (understandable, tbh). She would target whoever was actually doing the feed, so usually me, and would scream my name over and over to try and get me to stop. I always felt so awful for her. Once she managed to get free and attacked one of the staff, a really big, strong man btw, and broke four of his ribs before we could get her off. She's doing well now, I recently heard that she started training to be a mental health nurse and is recovering from anorexia :)
Lakota Wolf 2 years ago
NG = nasogastric. In other words, they run a tube into your nose, down your throat, and into your stomach. Used in many medical instances.
Kaylee Best 2 years ago
Sounds gross, but probably really helpful in instances like this
Load More Replies... #41
I saw a patient try to escape by crawling through the ceiling tiles.
#42
A guy tried to kill me when I was visiting my brother in law. For some reason the visits were held in the common room. This guy came up to me first day and told me my wife was now his girlfriend and sat like 2 inches from my face the entire visit staring aggressively, no matter how many times I asked staff said he was doing nothing wrong. Next visit he picked me up from behind and tried to throw me through a f*****g window into the staff room. The staff helpfully locked themselves in there while I fought a 6'5 schizophrenic man for several minutes. Eventually took like 10 nurses to restrain him. Other patients started freaking out and trashing s**t, kids visiting screaming in terror. Absolutely horrible place to be in my town at least.
Daffydillz~ 2 years ago
That's horrifying and crazy that they didn't redirect him the first time. That place is a huge liability waiting to happen. I definitely would have made complaints to the state over the behaviors of staff at that facility.
#43
Not a patient but an employee. - Seen countless patients attacked by other patients. Many serious injuries, and a couple that came close to death. - Some of the patient's backstories can be wild. Some are almost unbelievably tragic, some are legit criminal. - Some of the most foul and disgusting personal hygiene I've ever witnessed. Worst was a patient who had no concept of using a restroom, they would simply s**t or p**s themselves wherever they were sitting or standing. Was real fun when they decided to do it during meal time. - I think the most shocking thing though, is how you can have some truly awful and psychotic patients who turn out to be genuinely cool people once you get them on consistent meds. I'm talking 100% turnarounds. Of course then they get discharged, stop taking their meds, and the cycle repeats.
Sunny Day 2 years ago
I wonder if showing people (on meds) videos of themselves (off meds) would make them more likely to stay on the meds.
Mary Rogers 2 years ago (edited)
That might be one way. But it's important to note that there can be many reasons why people go off their meds and those need to be addressed as well. One reason can be that they simply cannot afford their medications. Another is that often a side effect of antipsychotics is impotence in men. Of course being sane is more important than having a love life, but it still is a pretty cruel price to pay. Once you understand some of the reasons why they stop taking their meds, it becomes less baffling. So what these people need is a strong safety net including free medical coverage as long as they need it, and also for the medical profession to figure out solutions for some rather serious side effects that affect the quality of life of these people. Of course there are others who are just stubborn about taking their meds, your approach makes sense in that case.
Load More Replies... Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
I was once in hospital with a little chirurgic thing, in my room was 60y voman, MD, who stays from her bed, pissed on the floor and lays back. in bed. Second time she s**t herself staying in bed. Alzheimer and a broken arm when she was alone at home. Not psychiatric ward, normal chirurgic one.
#44
Had a rough time my first year at college. Almost unalived myself and got put in psych for a week. The ward was a chaotic mix of alzheimer patients, detoxing addicts and us mental health folk. There was a separate unit for the older folks but it was overcrowded my first night there. So I, a dissociative mess coming off of sedatives, had a mumbling old woman for a roommate. She kept calling me her daughter's name. Was flopping around in her bed. Coming up to me and getting in my face. Begging for me to help her escape. I told the nurses but they didn’t care. I was able to go in and out of sleep briefly and woke up to a horrid smell. Somehow she managed to squat over a cup and take a s**t in it. When I saw her and realized what was happening I bolted from the room and finally an attendant took me seriously. She was relocated to the alzheimers ward and luckily my new roommate was a regular old depressed suicidal person just like me for the rest of my stay. I could go on and on about the neglect and abuse from the staff, but that by far was the most extreme experience I had.
#45
I was like 14 and just having a bad time so I went into a youth mental health facility. We’re sitting around a table and the “teacher” lady is having us take turns explaining what we do to cope with being angry or scared or whatever. Most of the kids said pretty normal stuff. Go for a walk, scream into a pillow. The occasional punch a hole in a wall. Ya know standard stuff for troubled teens. Then it’s time for Chris to tell the group what he does. During the time all of us were joking and talking during the session, Chris didn’t say a word. He was a big kid, and he scared me. Chris goes: “Well….I usually just go for a walk….and then I find someone…..and I beat the s**t out of them.” Everyone is f*****g silent and my jaw hit the floor. I asked him “…dude are you serious?” Because no one else was saying anything. He was completely 100% serious. The really f****d up part was that our teacher lady had nothing to say about it and I had to explain to him that doing that is really wrong. He was like completely unaware that beating the f**k out of a random innocent stranger is a bad thing to do. Like I was explaining this to him and he was like “really? Why?” Completely surprised that it was f****d up.
Gil Heuvelmans 2 years ago
That´s because in group therapy, the counseler doesn´t judge.insight abd progress comes from you.
Sunny Day 2 years ago
They don't judge but they sure take a lot of notes.
Load More Replies... #46
A 6-7 year old child behaving like a dinasour, making sounds not talking, running around and holding his hands like a t-rex. I assumed he was probably autistic as he was extremely obsessed with dinasours as well. A 7 year old girl who would play with you one minute and then suddenly throw a toy in your face unexpectedly. She also opened your door at shower time and stare at your naked body. Once she asked me if she could see my vagina. She would constantly steal your stuff and had many violent meltdowns a day, where you had to evacuate to your room and hold the door closed. She was in foster care because of sexual abuse. The craziest thing for me was I had to beg for a year to get prescribed anti-depressants. I was there for a suicide attempt.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 years ago
All the ones about the child s*x abuse survivors are crushing…
Felicia Baxter 4 months ago
when was this? I think the t-rex kid would absolutely adore dinosaur train
#47
A girl grabbed my toe while I was sleeping. I woke up and said "what the f**k" and she ran off. I went to the front desk to complain and while I'm talking to the lady the girl jumped on my back and clung like a monkey while screaming. It was bizarre. I threw her off me and the lady just said "sorry about that" lol.
#48
I was in a long term facility in my early 20s. There was a man named Vince who would wait by the door all day for the Senator to pick him up. One day he busted in my room screaming that I stole his Guatemalan coin collection. Bless him. Willie, another man in that same facility, would follow me around and whisper that he was going to kill me and my mother. Bessie was another patient there, and she would have violent outbursts in the middle of the night. She fought 2 staff members and was subsequently transferred to a more appropriate facility for her (not jail). In a different facility I was in, a woman named Kathryn would go into people's rooms while they were in group therapy and try on their underwear. I've been in multiple facilities and met tons of interesting people, but these were the stand-outs.
#49
One of the patient stabbed multiple coloring pencils into her own eyes. Ended up in the ICU..
savage silence 2 years ago
Omg! Truly hoping she got the proper help she needs...poor woman v.v this is so sad
#50
Not a patient but an employee. Had a 16 year old kid come in who was about 6'2 220 pounds. Built like a linebacker. I found out since he was technically a child he somehow ended up at an autism school for children with very little security. He ended up inflicting a TBI on one of the teachers and got sent to us. The kid had a violent streak the likes I hadn't seen before, he knew he was stronger than most and liked to fight unprovoked and it always took 4 to 6 people to restrain him. I never seen a patient spend more time than him in the "safety room" an incredibly small padded room with nothing in it. His parents wouldnt authorize his move somewhere else and they wouldn't take him home either. We were not equipt for someone with his level of violence. So there he sat... For one and a half years... It wasn't like a single incident that was crazy, it was the entire situation.
Tess 2 years ago (edited)
There probably isn't 4-6 of them on hand at all times to try and restrain him, and most homes don't come with a "safety room". I agree that he's in the wrong facility, but in the great land of the USA, I would imagine that they've most likely already got massive debts from trying to get him the help he needs, and paying for the facility he's in already. Higher security facilities would charge a lot more, and the medication costs would certainly skyrocket too. I'm not saying that he's where he needs to be to get the level of care that he needs, or that it's fair to the staff, or patients. It's just maybe not safe to assume that the parents aren't doing all that they can, in a country with a truely atrocious medical system.
Load More Replies... #51
I work in EMS and volunteered in a pysch ward briefly, so my experience is always a bit superficial but the "craziest" part for me is how a lot of patients often time act completely normal and rational. I've transported a lot of people to a psych ward that were diagnosed with all sorts of illnesses, but from my interaction with them they were completely normal and just had some general anxiety. A lot of people I've observed and wondered "why the hell are they even here?"
#52
I’ve worked in a ward for about 6 months now and have seen pretty much everything but the one event that sticks with me the most is catching a girl trying to dig out the inside of her vagina with her finger nails. Blood was everywhere just remembering the event makes me cringe.
Diolla 2 years ago
MY brother used to do this to his throat. They put boxing gloves on him. It worked.
QuirkyKittyGirl 2 years ago
I called them “Q-Tip hands”. There are few things that will bring you back to reality more quickly than having to be fed like a toddler.
Load More Replies... #53
Nothing crazy really happened, just the kinds of things you would expect to happen when you house 20 people with various mental health issues together in a supervised environment. One girl wouldn’t talk for the first two days she was admitted, and refused to sit in the chairs in the dining room, she just laid on the floor. I saw a total hardcore biker gang looking dude who was at least 6 feet and 225 lbs weeping tears uncontrollably, me and about 5 other patients that were close by just went and sat with him and put our hands on his shoulder, but we didn’t say anything. There was one guy who thought that there were cryptic messages specifically for him being transmitted through the TV and written in the news papers, I kept clear of him. Another man would routinely ask me if it was AM or PM, he had no perception of the time or the date, it was sort of sad and I never got annoyed with reminding him when he asked. There was one severely depressed old man who kept completely to himself, but he would actually talk to me in one specific scenario, when it was only the two of us out in the smoking pit sitting on the park bench. He was a very smart man with an entire lifetime of wisdom to share, only in very small doses. He had never seen a vaporizer before in his life until I used one sitting next to him, so that was the worldly wisdom I was able to give him haha. Each room had a TV in it but they were literally tube TV’s from the early 2000’s, big black boxes with a bubble screen, which I thought was hilarious lol.
#54
I spent about 9 days in the psych ward in Atlanta. I made a friend who was convinced he had aids, and all the doctors were lying to him because he was black. He was terrified that he had passed it to his girlfriend, and the baby she was pregnant with. There was also a Muslim woman who never spoke, but I lent her my shampoo and so we developed some trust between us. She eventually told me her husband had her committed because she didn’t want to be with him anymore. He was abusive to her and their children. There are so many more stories. I really wish I could check in on these people… however this was way back in 2007.
#55
I was in a psych ward when I was 17, almost 18 (so in a youth psych unit). My 13 year-old roommate snuck in a couple packs of cards and hid them in her pillowcase. She waited until I got into bed and just started wailing on me with the pillowcase. I couldn’t get out of bed because I was tucked in so tight, but when I finally did I ran to the nurse’s station for help. I got out that day, she got booty juiced twice because the first one didn’t take her down. I was in the psych ward for attempted suicide. She was there for attempted homicide. I talked to the nurses earlier that day because she had been threatening me, but they all thought she was harmless so they didn’t listen.
#56
Guy hoarding bananas underneath his bed. Poor bloke, hope he’s doing alright these days, but the bananas just seemed so odd
#57
Man when I was like 16-17 I was forced into one for reasons. There where 16 of us including me. Thank God because we had to have room mates and the nurses tell u nothing about the person moving in your room. This is bad because they lock all the doors every night at a certain time like jail. But I was number 16 odd numbers are amazing so I had no room mate till someone else came along. There was one kid who would act totally normal most of the time then just freak out for no real reason. Then the very large men nurses would hold him down. as the doctor would inject him with what we called booty juice cuz it goes in ur as a*s cheek as they hold u down. U pass out in like 10 second then they drag u to your room where u wake up 3-5 hours later and everybody acts like nothing happened. He wasn't the only one to get it we where all scared they would all be like don't do that or u get booty juice. But this kid got it almost every day. So to the real story there was one night where I guess he snapped in the middle of the night. This was a large kid for his age he looked like a middle line backer from the NFL and this was a younger than 18 only place. So he decided to beat the c**p out of his room mate one night in the pitch black all i could hear was this kid screaming for his life. Then he broke down his door this Is a large wood door with metal interior like a front door of your house. But he ripped thru it like the hulk after he was done with his room mate. then was trying other doors I guess to find another person and he was beating on doors and screaming like a maniac. Maby that's why he was there but damn that was the longest well felt like hours but only lasted 20-30 minutes. hoping my door was solid enuff or he wouldn't try my door till the nurses gave him the booty juice. The next morning morning everything was normal we played basket ball watched TV and everyone acted normal he was chating my ear of about who knows what I was in my head thinking yea OK whatever you say just don't kill me... I was only there a week and damn that's not the only story. that s**t is life changing and not in a good way.
#58
1. A woman I shared a room with demanded to be discharged. It was a voluntary admission, so her doctor discharged her on condition that someone else pick her up and take responsibility for her. Her ex husband came and signed the discharge paperwork. Then they handed him all of her medications. He proceeded to give her the meds to pack it in her bag and left the room while she was packing. No-one else was in the room with her at the time and she proceeded to drink most of the pills she had. A nurse found her drinking the pills and got the other nurses to help restrain her while they waited for the paramedics. The paramedics loaded her up and took her to the government hospital. I hope she's okay and doing better now. 2. There was a guy who was completely narcissistic and managed to p**s off all of the other patients by insisting that people who have attempted suicide are weak and should just get on with it. He was also delusional. Insisting that he was the CEO of a big company and better than everyone else. After that everyone shunned him. 3. Many years ago I was a student nurse and had one patient that had frequent psychotic episodes with times of lucidity in between. During one of his psychotic episodes, he managed to rip out his IV line, his catheter and then threw his glass water carafe on the floor. Everything was sopping wet and there were glass shards all over the floor. I did manage to get him to sit in a chair while I cleaned up the floor and remade his bed with dry bedding. Then I tried to dress him in dry pj's. It was at that moment that a whole platoon of medical students came into the room with their professor to see another patient. This guy then decided that I was the sexiest thing alive and tried to kiss me wherever he could while I was trying to dress him. Instead of helping, the medical students just laughed their asses off. Eventually we had to restrain this guy because he was still in the midst of his psychotic episode. The next day I had to help the same guy wash up but this time he was lucid. I'll never forget him apologizing for the previous day. I'll never forget what he said next: I'm not nuts! I'm a fruitcake really. And the first thing I thought was - Dude! you're a nutty fruitcake. I didn't say it out loud though.
#59
I worked in the mental health unit in a prison. My first day a woman started slitting her wrists, stripped naked, ran into other inmates cells and threw their stuff onto the tier, and then went to janitors cart and poured the sanitizer and degreaser spray all over herself. She then began licking her cut wrists and was spitting the blood on all the walls on floor. Eventually the emergency team came in and pinned her to the wall with a shield and got her to the most secure mental health unit in the prison. It was a hell of a first day. In my 4 years in that unit I ended up wrestling her about 7 times. She would always strip naked because she knew we f*****g hated it.
#60
I used to work in a psych ward about 22 years ago in a private locked unit. I would say autistic kids sh**ting in the drawers and someone eating a lightbulb would be two of the worst.
Tsdey 2 years ago
low functioning extreme cases of autism may, I have high functioning and worst I do when I am very very VERY upset is bite myself, but not anyone else. hate how people think there is only low functioning autism (which tends to make people not really able to speak) when it is more common for people to have high functioning
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#61
I was not admitted, however, My high school job was working in the cafeteria at one of the local hospitals. One of the duties I did for that job was taking carts full of dinner trays to each floor/wing of the hospital. The mental health wing was always a bit intimidating to deliver trays to since I was still basically just a kid, especially since that wing was always locked and you were supposed to always deliver there with a partner. You were required to take the tray cart into the middle of the wing to the nurses station, past their recreation room and a hallway full of rooms. It was about 100ft one way. One night, we were short staffed so I didn’t have a ‘buddy’ to make the delivery with me. I had been in the position a while and had never had any incidents happen before so I wasn’t extremely worried about having to deliver there by myself. I unlocked the door to the wing, made the walk to the nurses station and quickly spun around to make my walk out. I was about halfway down when I heard someone yell ‘STOP!’ I quickly turned around. Initially I saw one of the nurses standing and pointing towards me, looking extremely stressed. It was at that time I noticed a female patient sprinting towards me. She was a petite, maybe just 5ft tall and 100lbs soaking wet but had an extreme look of determination. Now, I’m not a small guy, but I froze in fear. My training about having to call a ‘Dr Strong’ (when a patient attacks the staff) started playing in my head. She kept ran right up to me, stopped inches from me. I thought she was going to try and take the key from me and escape. She reached and embraced me with one of the nicest hugs I’ve ever received to this day. I was still froze in fear. Hands at my side, clutching onto that key for dear life. She then looked right into my eyes and said ‘God loves you and he wants you to know Jesus’. At that time, A couple of the nurses had just made it to me to, to try and halo. She then gently let go of me, and walked back towards the recreation room. I just kind of stood there for a second making eye contact with the nurses. I’m sure I was pale as a ghost. My heart was racing. The nurses asked if I was ok, which I was, but I could muster and words so I just nodded. They went back to check on the patient so I went back down to the kitchen, still a little in shock. Later security came down, I’m assuming the nurses had to report that included. I had to relay what happened to them and then never heard anything else about it.
#62
As soon as I walked in my third time I girl threw a chair at me. She was small (I think she was around 12) and it was light plastic but like damn. On my first visit they had to take me outside threw the gate into the back yard threw the playground entrance into the building because a girl was beating everyone up and screaming and throwing herself at the door because she got switched to our side because she was caught f*****g another patient. She got booty juice. On my birthday one girl was jealous so Everytime I got attention that day she would fake seizure and when that didn’t work she would keep saying she is seeing dead people and like was in a fetal position jerking her head around saying they are coming for me. Staff ignored her because she was not schizophrenic she was in there behavior like that. All mild cases but it was the children’s/teen ward. Went there 4 times last visit ended with me in foster care custody because they finally believed my parents were the problem.
#63
I had a shorter stent in a mental hospital, and the craziest thing I saw was enacted by a staff member. We were having a group session, when one of the counselors came in, waving a book and screaming at one of the residents. He was yelling about doing a spot check in the boys room and how he found this satanic book. On the way out of his room, he claimed to see two hounds from hell in the bathroom, frightening him and causing him to run into the meeting in quite a state. He ranted on for a little bit, accusing this kid of being a Satanist, eventually throwing the book in the middle of the circle. It was a collection of Isaac Asimov short stories. Hmm mmmm.
TotallyNOTaFox 2 years ago (edited)
Primum non nocere, secundum cavere, tertium sanare - First do no harm, second be cautious, third cure. That's the literal basis every medical peronal gets teached as far as I know (or at least should have learned)
Daffydillz~ 2 years ago
The counselor should be fired, then reported to the social worker and the OIG and any other applicable boards so that they don't get hired anywhere else that they would have contact with the public. They sound like they need some mental health care for themselves regarding the behaviors they exhibited in front of the kids and staff, if the story is true. This staff member sounds off the rails.
Load More Replies... #64
I was in a lower intensity psych unit almost 7 years ago, my first of 2 trips. I was transported there by ambulance from the hospital, was shown my room and new roommate, and did a 1-2hr intake session. I was then walking to my room (shared with another guy) and I was stopped from going in. I was informed (by other residents) the guy was trying to slit his wrists with a semi-plastic medicine cup and was whispering “I’m going to kill him.” When asked who was “him” he was referring to me. Nothing directly happened to me, but damn did that shake me up.
#65
I worked in a psych hospital as a social worker. It was heartbreaking and challenging to see people in psychosis. It’s one thing to see it in the movies, but another to have a conversation with someone right in front of you who has such genuinely delusional beliefs. I remember a patient hysterically crying in my office about how the CIA knew she was in the hospital and as a result, they were now going to kill her brother… and there was no convincing her otherwise. The scariest thing that happened to me was getting cornered by this guy with a history of violence and sexual assaults. He was literally near 7 Ft tall, probably close to 400 lbs… I am 5’7 and weighed 120-130 lbs at the time… He just cornered me and eerily grinned and slowly laughed in my face. A nurse was walking in the door about 10 seconds later luckily, so she told him to back off me and I slipped out of the unit. Scariest 10 seconds ever.
#66
I woke up with another patient standing over me arguing with himself. Had a real hard time sleeping the remaining 2 days.
#67
As an intern in college: I had a woman pull my hair making my head go down to my waist. A women asked me to wash her vagina. I saw a man holding his hand up saluting for like 6 days. A man tried to sneak out but got caught in between security door one and two.
#68
was a patient at a psych ward outside of nashville(usa) saw this woman get body slammed by orderly’s , they knocked her teeth out. there was also this 65 yr old man who walked around with a raging erection literally all day. breakfast lunch and dinner this man was hard as a rock. it was both weird and disgusting
#69
It was me, when I fell asleep due to the large amount of meds (via shot) they were giving me, I was knocked out cold, constantly. I remember waking up due to the male nurse having to hold me down while they administered a thing that would knock me out. I have no recollection of the place I was in, nothing. I don't even remember how long I was in there for I went willingly due to sleep episodes. That's why I was held down.
#70
Dad was an army medic doing volunteer duty at a state hospital. One particularly dangerous patient was known for being creative with violence. Apparently, he got his hands on a bristle from some kind of broom and sharpened it into a tiny skewer. He called in a nurse for something and flicked the skewer through her eye before anyone even realized. Blinded her instantly. I believe he got disappeared after that incident.
QuirkyKittyGirl 2 years ago
I think it means “he was not seen after that by the OP”
Load More Replies... #71
The one I was in was separated by drug use and mental health issues but had combined meal times. A guy from the drug unit claimed to have snuck outside and met up with someone. We all thought he was full of s**t until we watched him OD on something. He fell to the floor and had what I think was a seizure. Eyes were white and literal foam was coming out of his mouth. EMTs came in and took him away, not sure what became of him. Same stay, I had a roommate that snored like a chainsaw, and I was too intimidated to say anything to her (think a bigger, meaner Boo from OITNB). On the third night with almost no sleep, I’ve taken a Xanax, melatonin, and an Ambien and still can’t get any rest. I go back to the nurse station and ask if there is anything else they can give me. Next thing I know I’m laying on the floor with all these people in my face. I can hear what they’re saying but can’t respond and can’t move. It was like sleep paralysis but so much worse. I heard one say they can’t get my pupils to dilate and another saying my pulse is weak. Finally after what feels like forever I blink and can move. They sit me up, give me gatorade, and send me back to bed. I haven’t taken an Ambien since.
Blue_Mouse 2 years ago
One time I accidentally took my brothers meds (they look similar) and I woke up to use the restroom. I was tripping balls and couldn’t walk straight and must have passed out three times because I kept waking up on the floor
#72
I remember this one dude who was convinced he was talking to a hippo and that his other personality was some Egyptian God's Avatar or something like that.
#73
We had a man in the separate locked "acute patient" part of the unit. (In a larger hospital) He kept insisting he was getting out of there. Hours later the power died. And he walked out the now unlocked security door and managed to leave the hospital entirely before it came back on.
TotallyNOTaFox 2 years ago
Shouldn't security doors lock during a loss of power and open only if power is supplied to them?
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wowbagger 2 years ago
I worry about posts like this. A lot of people think of psych wards as horrible, scary places, and that can make them hesitant to reach out for help or speak honestly about suicidal ideation and other symptoms of mental illness because they're so afraid of being committed to a hospital. I personally have had 5 hospital stays in 4 different U.S. states, and all of my stays have been very positive and supportive experiences that I'm grateful for. I still remember many of the other patients; they're some of my favorite people to have met in life. I'm sure there were violent or highly unstable people in those same hospitals, but staff kept them segregated from the more functional people. I always had single rooms (even though I'm on public insurance). Most of the day consisted of group therapy sessions, individual therapy, medication management, exercise group, art therapy group, and quiet time. I'm not saying it was a luxury spa, and I hope I don't ever have to go back, but I'm not afraid
2picklesinabun 2 years ago (edited)
I've been in psych units before after attempting suicide (multiple times) in my 20's. I was very sad. Most people in the psych ward aren't crazy, just depressed and very very down. The worst I ever saw, was someone yelling about not getting their meds. It wasn't a crazy place full of chaos like this thread makes you believe. It is just a bunch of sad people, figuring out how to be ok enough to learn how to live again.
Androgyny Lunacy 2 years ago
I've been in the psych hospital several times. Notable encounters: This girl crapped all over the toilet seat. The chick in the room next to me threatened to kick my a*s because I overheard their plan (which they went through with) to rush a nurse. I met a guy who tried to commit suicide by chainsaw-ing himself. This one chick.. wore a hospital gown and took a c**p outside. This one dude crashed into a gas pump thinking he was batman and that by doing so he was saving Americans money. We used nicotine puff inhaler qthings and this guy said it smelled like when his uncle stuffed a dirty sock in his mouth. The worst was when they put kids in solitary when I was a kid and all we heard was screaming all night. Hmm that's all I can think of for now. Besides staff treating me like s**t and threatening to shoot me up with meds if I refused to take them.
Shane S 2 years ago
I follow a ‘holistic psychologist’ on social media who believes all mental illness can be cured by “resetting your nervous system” without medication. I really want to show her this article. How are you going to reset the nervous system of a mental patient who is cutting out his/her own eyeball?
Joshua David 2 years ago
In 1997 I spent 3 months in a place called "Passages" in Peru IL. The unit was attached inside an actual medical hospital but was locked in. Literally you'd see a new person every morning and most were cool and just not vibing with the card life dealt but there were others. Once in an evening group, there was a very old lady with her head on the table the who group right next to me. For the whole hour kept her head down and the last few minutes looked up and said "there's a froggy in my basement." Me being 18 and a lover of all creatures asked what its name was and she literally cold clocked me out of my chair with one fell swoop I was down.
Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
I am OK seeing stuff like this. Because there is a common misperception in the USA that people shouldn't be conserved. That it violates their Civil Rights. When you see very ill people you recognize that they have no idea that they're sick and don't have the capacity to make treatment decisions. When you treat them you can see them get amazingly better. But then they leave the hospital and stop their meds. It's part of why we have such a huge homeless crisis. And excessive healthcare costs. Hearing about just how bizarre some of this stuff is is good. But then understand, we are sending people with these very serious mental illnesses right back out on the streets. And there's very little doctors and families can do. I have one patient right now who is cycling in and out of the hospital every 2 weeks. Gets super sick super fast and gets way better really quick. No hospital will help us conserve her because she has food (can find stuff in the garbage), clothing, and shelter- a tent.
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Isa's left eye 2 years ago
I feel really bad for my friend who's been to a psych ward at least 3 times. I knew it was bad and the opposite of beneficial (for him, at least) but I never thought about other patients.
Ponyo (they/them) 2 years ago
i have been in over 30 psych hospitals/intensive programs for anywhere from 2 days to three years. i have yet to meet one person working there that have any sense of empathy. i was physically detained, given booty juice (injectable sedatives), and horribly abused multiple times for not wanting to or not being able to leave my room during a breakdown. i was 12 years old and weighed well under 100 pounds and stood at about 5’3. ANY adult could easily pick me up and carry me around, there was no reason behind what they did. when i told a nurse that i was scared of getting a feeding tube (i had dozens of feeding tubes and they never offered sedation or pain medication like they do with most patients bc i “wanted it” bc i had an ed) instead of telling me it was going to be ok, the nurse rolled her eyes and strapped me to a chair and had four men working as security come hold my head and neck still and they made it very clear they weren’t afraid to use their guns. 1/2
Ponyo (they/them) 2 years ago (edited)
i was raped by a nurse a 12 years old and nobody believed me. nurses and doctors would tell me to my face that i wouldn’t live long and if i did i would live a horrible life and that i should just give up. a nurse witnessed me attempt suicide and did nothing thinking she was “doing me a favor”. i was scolded and abused for involuntarily vomiting after i apologized countless times. i went months at a time having to use the bathroom in front of nurses while they looked straight at me and often laughed at me. i suffered abuse for waving to a girl who looked sad. i lost my walking “privileges” for having a breakdown in the day room. i had to go through “humiliation therapy”. i wasn’t allowed to talk to my parents. that’s only a small portion of what i can post on here without getting censored bc a lot of it is so graphic and horrific. i’m 15 now and most of this happened before i started the seventh grade. i get that they’re not all bad but a majority of them are and need to be shut down and the people working at the bad places should be in prison for what they did and what they allowed others to do by being a bystander
Load More Replies... wowbagger 2 years ago
I worry about posts like this. A lot of people think of psych wards as horrible, scary places, and that can make them hesitant to reach out for help or speak honestly about suicidal ideation and other symptoms of mental illness because they're so afraid of being committed to a hospital. I personally have had 5 hospital stays in 4 different U.S. states, and all of my stays have been very positive and supportive experiences that I'm grateful for. I still remember many of the other patients; they're some of my favorite people to have met in life. I'm sure there were violent or highly unstable people in those same hospitals, but staff kept them segregated from the more functional people. I always had single rooms (even though I'm on public insurance). Most of the day consisted of group therapy sessions, individual therapy, medication management, exercise group, art therapy group, and quiet time. I'm not saying it was a luxury spa, and I hope I don't ever have to go back, but I'm not afraid
2picklesinabun 2 years ago (edited)
I've been in psych units before after attempting suicide (multiple times) in my 20's. I was very sad. Most people in the psych ward aren't crazy, just depressed and very very down. The worst I ever saw, was someone yelling about not getting their meds. It wasn't a crazy place full of chaos like this thread makes you believe. It is just a bunch of sad people, figuring out how to be ok enough to learn how to live again.
Androgyny Lunacy 2 years ago
I've been in the psych hospital several times. Notable encounters: This girl crapped all over the toilet seat. The chick in the room next to me threatened to kick my a*s because I overheard their plan (which they went through with) to rush a nurse. I met a guy who tried to commit suicide by chainsaw-ing himself. This one chick.. wore a hospital gown and took a c**p outside. This one dude crashed into a gas pump thinking he was batman and that by doing so he was saving Americans money. We used nicotine puff inhaler qthings and this guy said it smelled like when his uncle stuffed a dirty sock in his mouth. The worst was when they put kids in solitary when I was a kid and all we heard was screaming all night. Hmm that's all I can think of for now. Besides staff treating me like s**t and threatening to shoot me up with meds if I refused to take them.
Shane S 2 years ago
I follow a ‘holistic psychologist’ on social media who believes all mental illness can be cured by “resetting your nervous system” without medication. I really want to show her this article. How are you going to reset the nervous system of a mental patient who is cutting out his/her own eyeball?
Joshua David 2 years ago
In 1997 I spent 3 months in a place called "Passages" in Peru IL. The unit was attached inside an actual medical hospital but was locked in. Literally you'd see a new person every morning and most were cool and just not vibing with the card life dealt but there were others. Once in an evening group, there was a very old lady with her head on the table the who group right next to me. For the whole hour kept her head down and the last few minutes looked up and said "there's a froggy in my basement." Me being 18 and a lover of all creatures asked what its name was and she literally cold clocked me out of my chair with one fell swoop I was down.
Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
I am OK seeing stuff like this. Because there is a common misperception in the USA that people shouldn't be conserved. That it violates their Civil Rights. When you see very ill people you recognize that they have no idea that they're sick and don't have the capacity to make treatment decisions. When you treat them you can see them get amazingly better. But then they leave the hospital and stop their meds. It's part of why we have such a huge homeless crisis. And excessive healthcare costs. Hearing about just how bizarre some of this stuff is is good. But then understand, we are sending people with these very serious mental illnesses right back out on the streets. And there's very little doctors and families can do. I have one patient right now who is cycling in and out of the hospital every 2 weeks. Gets super sick super fast and gets way better really quick. No hospital will help us conserve her because she has food (can find stuff in the garbage), clothing, and shelter- a tent.
Load More Replies... Isa's left eye 2 years ago
I feel really bad for my friend who's been to a psych ward at least 3 times. I knew it was bad and the opposite of beneficial (for him, at least) but I never thought about other patients.
Ponyo (they/them) 2 years ago
i have been in over 30 psych hospitals/intensive programs for anywhere from 2 days to three years. i have yet to meet one person working there that have any sense of empathy. i was physically detained, given booty juice (injectable sedatives), and horribly abused multiple times for not wanting to or not being able to leave my room during a breakdown. i was 12 years old and weighed well under 100 pounds and stood at about 5’3. ANY adult could easily pick me up and carry me around, there was no reason behind what they did. when i told a nurse that i was scared of getting a feeding tube (i had dozens of feeding tubes and they never offered sedation or pain medication like they do with most patients bc i “wanted it” bc i had an ed) instead of telling me it was going to be ok, the nurse rolled her eyes and strapped me to a chair and had four men working as security come hold my head and neck still and they made it very clear they weren’t afraid to use their guns. 1/2
Ponyo (they/them) 2 years ago (edited)
i was raped by a nurse a 12 years old and nobody believed me. nurses and doctors would tell me to my face that i wouldn’t live long and if i did i would live a horrible life and that i should just give up. a nurse witnessed me attempt suicide and did nothing thinking she was “doing me a favor”. i was scolded and abused for involuntarily vomiting after i apologized countless times. i went months at a time having to use the bathroom in front of nurses while they looked straight at me and often laughed at me. i suffered abuse for waving to a girl who looked sad. i lost my walking “privileges” for having a breakdown in the day room. i had to go through “humiliation therapy”. i wasn’t allowed to talk to my parents. that’s only a small portion of what i can post on here without getting censored bc a lot of it is so graphic and horrific. i’m 15 now and most of this happened before i started the seventh grade. i get that they’re not all bad but a majority of them are and need to be shut down and the people working at the bad places should be in prison for what they did and what they allowed others to do by being a bystander
Load More Replies... You May Like 45 Of The Worst Things Patients Had To Go Through, As Per Hospital Workers Who Have Seen It All 127 Powerful Mental Health Quotes That Tell It How It Is 73 Mental Health Tips For An Improved Emotional Balance
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