Posted by yxibow on September 28, 2006, at 1:34:21
In reply to Suicide Attempts, posted by Triolian on September 26, 2006, at 22:47:50
> Take my advice - if you're considering suicide, don't ever ask for help.
> Don't ask your doctor, don't ask a clergyman, don't ever go to a hospital
> emergency room, and for God's sake, NEVER call one of those goddamned
> suicide "help" lines. There are new laws in nearly every state in the US
> which will allow you to be imprisoned, yes imprisoned, in a mental hospital,
> for anywhere from 72 hours to 72 years. It's up to them. They're doing it
> "for your own good", to keep you from "harming yourself". In my case they
> threw me into an isolation room in a hospital emergency room, sprayed me in
> the face with pepper spray, locked me in the room for hours, and then had me
> taken off to a locked psychiatric facility. I remember sitting in the
> isolation room with pepper spray on my face, wishing I had just done myself
> in instead of calling a "help" line. Next time that's exactly what I'll do !
>
>
I can't believe what I'm hearing... this goes beyond the pale. If you're suicidal and you want to go off yourself, why make a discussion, its almost a self-fullfilling troll. Laws are there to protect the patient whether you see it or not. 72 hour holds are perfectly common in most all states and nobody is held in institutions for 72 years, this is not the 1950s or even the Road to Wellville.
If you want to discuss other types of abuses at mental institutions, like the ones in the past several decades where gay teenagers were held on mental holds in the bible belt because they were not of age or could not obtain the status of an emancipated minor, then we have a story.But no sane doctor, however pitiful a mental facility, is going to say oh, sure, go home, when you walk into the door willingly and say with a forlorn face that you feel troubled and suicidal. They will place you under watch and a 72 hour hold, evaluate you, take your medical history, and attempt to do as best as the facility can.
This does not include pepper spray, mace, ninja stars, or any devices of medieval torture. That is, unless the individual is also under a "manic rage" as presented before or some other type of psychotic breakdown.
After the 72 hour hold, an evaluation will be taken place, medications if necessary will be given -- Lithium, regardless of its age is still one of the best preventions against suicide. But medication plans aren't typically instituted because that is something to be followed up by your own practitioner.
poster:yxibow
thread:689496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060927/msgs/689810.html