I spent 2 months in a psychiatric unit

[amapsychiatric]

Ask away…

Just sending a hug OP. You've done terrifically well to get back on track when none of those things were your fault xxx Mental health can indeed be a precarious thing and just because someone is smiling in pictures on social media or around the neighbourhood doesn't mean they aren't feeling awful and out of control about life x

@amapsychiatric Thank you. I'm so sorry you had to go through so much and I'm so pleased you've managed to pull it round. I hope my husband manages to do the same. Unlike you he didn't take me seriously the last time I said he had to get serious help or we were over and here we are. I sometimes feel the untimatum was wrong thing to do but I seriously can't do it again so I'm glad you said the same. You've given me hope he can recover for himself and the kids. Good luck to you.
Your experience of the section sounds like my ex's. By the end of his 6 weeks he was running the bloody quiz nights on the ward yet couldn't just keep going with the meds.

Sorry to hijack.
I was also sectioned (psychosis) and extremely unwell 10 years ago. What I’d give to see the staff now to thank them. The truth is I’ve entirely blocked out these awful memories. I was not a good patient, I am exceptionally sorry for things I said and did. The staff were fantastic and I am SO grateful. They saved my life, the NHS saved my life. Thank god for people who do jobs like yours. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ♥️

OP. I’m sorry, I don’t really have questions because I, like you, have come out the other side and pieced the puzzle back together again, if you know what I mean.
I just wanted to say I understand, I think you are amazing and one day at a time. 🥰

I’m so so pleased to hear that you were treated with such kindness. I understand that the patients I work with are going through the hardest time of their life, and that mental health wards aren’t the most therapeutic of places, and that sometimes things happen that are scary and traumatic. So I’m glad you were looked after. It’s all I hope for, for all inpatients.

We take nothing personally, nothing at all, so please don’t worry about any of that. All we want is to see you get well. I look for little glimpses of who you are underneath the illness, and do my best to speak to that part of you…if that makes sense? But honestly, sitting with you in your darkest moments, no matter what the behaviour is why we are there. Nothing is too much for me (unless you’re yeeting something my way, in which case I duck and run 😂) and nothing shocks me. The little moments where we sit together and you share parts of you and we talk make up for everything. And seeing you so much better when you walk out of there is worth it all.

I hope, like OP, you are doing better now. 💐

2 months in psychiatric is a totally different experience to recovering in hospital, from, say, an operation.

People have different experiences in such places though.
My experience was being in with some very scary people. Some of them alternated between prison and the psych hospital. Some would start fights, set fires. Some were homeless and tried to get admitted on purpose in the winter months.
My first day, I saw a woman forcibly sedated.
I couldn’t sleep at night because I was so frightened.
My belongings got stolen every time I left them unattended. If I went for a shower they would steal my clothes, shoes, slippers etc.
It was freezing cold, ice inside the windows and the food was so awful it was almost inedible at times. The entire place stank.
One woman used to masturbate in front of me.
I was very young at the time, actually a couple of years below the usual minimum age but they made an exception. It was a horrible, traumatic experience.

You were in a private hospital paid for by the NHS? Presumably no beds in the local unit? Or was sit some kind of specialist placement? I am not sure of your experience is generalisable to NHS psych units. Why were you not followed up by a CMHT post discharge? Was it your preference to go private?

Thank you. It's really nice you are still in touch with some of the others and hopefully you're all doing much better. The lady banging on your door sounds scary. But as you say, she has no control over it.

I agree I would never want to be sectioned again but it can definitely save lives. X

My husband was in a private hospital on the NHS too. The CMHT was good for the 5 minutes it lasts but they are desperate to ditch you asap.

Ffs have a bit of compassion and manners.
It won’t cost you anything.

Many posters here can think of many things to ask. You can’t pretend there was kind intent behind your comment and I’m not buying the genuinely confused argument. If you couldn’t think of what to ask then you just didn’t need to comment.

OP, I’m glad you’re doing better and I’m so sorry that your life has been so full of trauma and grief. You are incredible to survive and overcome this. What kind of therapy do you do now? Are you able to work now as well as be a parent and wife and run your home?
And, do you think you’ll ever feel truly free and healed from your past?