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I have just got access to the internet. I am much less petrified than I was at first but definitely 0 out of ten. I have a tribunal and if that fails I think I will be here until July. I feel as though I am living in a nightmare. I have never felt so alone.

What have you been sectioned for?

Hopefully, things will start to improve for you now.

Good you are less petrified. You are not alone.

It might not be as bad as you think, because as soon as you are well enough they will make you an informal patient.

I have had a few sections, shortest time on a section three was one week, longest to be fair was six months, but I needed it that time, I am just grateful that they can section because otherwise I would not be here now.

Use your time wisely, accept help from the staff, try to change what you can and let go of what you can't and get plenty of rest.

paranoid schizophrenia
persistent delusional disorder
paranoid personality disorder
bipolar affective disorder
!

My SiL is frequently sectioned for varying lenghts of time. She's never had access to the internet.
Use your time wisely, Yoshys gives good advice.

As Clara says, you are not alone.

I was section ll for 13 days and then they changed it to section lll, with those diagnoses (differential?) in the psychiatrist's support. NB he does not know me.

Would you like to give some more details about your self, family, etc.?

They told me at my appeal that I could be an informal patient but that if I tried to leave, they would section me again. Which is an odd way of putting it, and would mean that I would still effectively be sectioned.

Don't really want to give details, even if that does mean that I am paranoid, which I don't think that I am. I have requested and received my med records from this place but not yet from my GP. Apparently my mother, who I have only seen once in 5 years, at a funeral, contacted my GP, and my partner contacted him about 'mood swings'. I don't even know how my mother knew who my GP was, as I changed GP surgeries a few years ago.

I have loads of paperwork and lots of it is very upsetting so I am reading it in bits but I definitely think that things will become clearer when I get the records from the GP. I saw 'my' psychiatrist briefly last Friday and he said that he had given permission for me to see my GP notes.

I am astonished. I have a brilliant advocate and two lawyers who all seem to believe in me, and don't think I should be here. I am actually concerned that I will lose my mind just being here. I just sit in my little room all day and try and read.

I will force myself to go through more paperwork after supper (5pm) and use the exact phrases.

Lazy
Do you have children?

I have to take 600mg quetiapine, 10g diazepan and a 7.5gm zopiclone and a vitamin thing at night and a vitamin thing at noon.

I haven't felt any different at all, except for dry mouth. I am fairly pissed off but that is the situation. The nurses don't really engage except for bed linen, food etc, and I see the psychiatrist only once a week if that.

Blimey love, you do have a lot on your plate.

Take this time as a rest from it all, let them look after you, then deal with your mother and partner when you are feeling a little more yourself. Just deal with one thing at a time at the moment and get your head around your current circumstances at this very moment in time - everything else can wait.

Hope you make some sense of it all soon, then you should be feeling a lot better and able.

I don't have any experience of this, but want you to know I'm thinking of you.

You poor old thing I am sorry I can't help but my thoughts are with you.Hang on in there.

I don't know anything about being sectioned. I am sorry to hear that you are ill. It must feel very frightening being forced into hospital and to take medication.

I hope you are better soon and best wishes to you and your family.

I'm sorry

You probably don't need to hear the old cliches about it being the best if it helps you in the long run etc etc, but I hope it's true and not just a cliche.

But I am genuinely sorry, it must be bloody awful.

I might be here until July!!!

I have been so confused and scared. There is another patient who thinks I want to kill her and has told other patients that she has got hold of some scissors. Obviously this is a symtom of her ill-health, or of some side-effects of whatever drugs she is on but it is very very uncomfortable. The worst thing is that she sort of stalks me. The staff are (thank goodness) taking it seriously enough to move her to the very other end of the ward, beyond the communal areas, so at least this is not being taken of 'paranoia'.

Practical steps to keep myself sane. Good intentions, etc, but I am intending to spend most of my time in my room, which is a bit like a smallish student halls of residence room.

I have ordered a course of tapes to learn a language.
I have ordered a book about how to use windows 7
I can go to the gym 4 times a week and I spend a lot of time walking around the 'courtyard'.

And to watch something on TV each night.

(I cannot pretend that this is not a fucking nightmare. I keep thinking I will wake up).

Does anyone remember a thread a couple of months ago asking if anyone had been sectioned? It was before I was sectioned, but I remember reading bits of it. I'd like to read it again if anyone can remember where to find it.

It is pretty difficult to argue about paranoia when one is under constant observation, and, I am beginning to find out, that there had been preparation for the 'cold call' section two months before it actually happened.

They had (I am now learning from my notes) an ambulance and a police van outside my house, and given that I am only 8 stone in weight, I do not see why they had to manhandle me, rough me up, and handcuff me so tightly that I had cuts to my wrists. These facts are (thank goodness) mentioned in the nursing notes. Does anyone in the police service have any explanation for this?

I don't have a link to the thread but how is it that you have internet access? I've visited people in a secure unit and it just wasn't allowed, all phone calls were monitored and there was just no internet access. And this person wasn't even sectioned, she was there of her own accord. Have things changed?

Is it perhaps because people (police included) are scared of people with mental health problems ?
It must be awful for you at ,the moment , if i were suffering from paranoia i am fairly sure being sectioned and placed with people who were mentally unstable would probably add to it .
It must feel a bit like the people who are meant to care about you ,like your partner and mother , have let you down . Try to remember that they have acted in what they believe are your best interests .
Are you in NHS or private care ?

I was in a ward last summer - I wasn't sectioned, but was told that if I tried to leave I would be (like the OP mentioned)

I was allowed my mobile with internet access. Thank God I was - it was an absolute lifesaver. I think they were "turning a blind eye" more than anything - I had my charger taken off me when I arrived, then they gave it back to me "for an hour" and never actually asked for it back. The only other phone was a payphone right in the middle of the ward.

It is horrible - there is nothing at all to do. They had a lovely art room that had everything in it locked away. The main craft room was open for two sessions of two hours each a week. There were other activities on paper that never happened, a library full of really really trashy novels and a tv, permantly tuned to Jeremy Kyle style shows.

I sympathise.

However, they did say to me that, if I had been there longer, they would have been able to put more activities on that suited me. I also found out afterwards that I would actually have had more rights if I had been sectioned - you get advocates and proper advice. Have you been in touch with your local mind and/or rethink?

@fuck, I was surprised too. I ordered a laptop and a dongle and am reluing on a suicidal teenager in the next cell to help me.

Nothing to do except silly activities which remind me of the brownies, and which I will not do.

Most of the other patients are passed out in front of daytime tv. I think it is because of side-effects of drugs and I am terrified of that. If I refuse to take my drugs orally they will pin me down and inject. I am terrified.

Yes, in touch with Rethink, who, with the lawyers, are my only human contact. I don't want to do fucking activities, I want to prosecute the police for their brutality and publicise the cost of this fiasco to the local MP.

I have not (apart from one funeral) seen my mother for 5 years. Why does she get a hearing from them?

This might not sound as though it all hangs together but, given that my psychiatrist has authorised my access to the GP notes, it should all become clearer.

(NB: If your GP invites you to chat to a community nurse about your worries, do NOT say NO. I just thought that my GP was a lovely, caring man, until I found out that half a dozen members of the local mental health team were planning to seize me. And I GENUINELY do not understand why thet smashed the door. There were already two drs and a sw in the house with me.

Thanks, SoE. I really have to concentrate on staying busy and staying sane.

It is NHS. I am trying to find out how much this horror has cost.