Posted by lostforwards on November 27, 2004, at 19:43:45
In reply to Re: On the psychiatric ward....., posted by ed_uk on November 27, 2004, at 17:30:52
Those patients are extreme!
I find most of my fellow inmates to be much more socially capable at the time of admission. If not that, then within a few weeks of their staying in the ward.
I've had a few odd experiences though ( and in my manic state I'm very sociable, but luckily not totally bonkers).
This is from my first admission:
It was late at night and I was wandering down to the smoke room. I don't smoke, but it's where everybody usually "hangs out". There was one guy who was trying to get the door open. It had been locked, and I said to get one of the nurses to open it. He told me the nurses weren't around, I turned around and looked at the nursing station which was filled with nurses.....
Hmmmm. The same guy also told me something about having a hole in his arm.
There was another patient I met who had bipolar, but she was WAY more screwed than I was. She was an older, mid-30s, woman and was very sexually deviant at the time. She enjoyed putting the moves on all of the young males in the ward. It was kind of fun, and kind of scarry.
This other guy had OCD. A few patients my age were sharing a room with him. I opened up his cupboard one day and found a huge collection of cups from the trays they give out at breakfast/lunch/supper. It was insane, he even had the slips for eachs mealplan in there.
Most of patients this time I was in who were my age were pretty sane. One guy who had schizophrenia was a little strange SOMETIMES, otherwise you could have a conversation with him and he was good company. The two bipolar guys in the hospital who were about the same age as me seemed "normal".
You'll sure see some weird things in the hospital though. My first admission was actually kind of fun since there were a lot of people my age in the ward, it was the early psychosis program ward.
My last stay in a hospital was terrible. Few people my age, plenty of middle-aged people but not enough energy. The first two weeks were great because a fairly attractive woman who had bipolar was courting me. The problem is she was in a mixed state so she'd act really spaced out sometimes, rambling in a very low voice while I couldn't make out any of what she was saying. Good company though.
Things really got boring after she got out.
Anyway I think I've gone on enough. The whole experience of the ward is strange and the people can range from arguably sane to completely gone.
poster:lostforwards
thread:420511
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041123/msgs/421063.html