Posted by Toph on September 21, 2005, at 18:08:09
In reply to Re: Words Never Heard But Were Surely Spoken, posted by cockeyed on September 16, 2005, at 21:46:53
> ...they put me away ...with a bunch of lunatics, spactics[the staff] and people who just lay there... > cockeyed.
c, I've been away at a conference, so this is the first I've read your post and had a chance to respond. I am really disappointed. Yes, with you but more with anyone else in the last 5 days who has read your statement and not responded. Maybe I'm the only one who has been hospitalized that has read it. Before stabilizing on lithium I was, like you were, voluntarily admitted to in-patient psychiatric facilities around Chicago twice for a major depressive episode and three times involuntarily placed for acute psychotic manic episodes. I guess that makes me one of the lunatics to which you refer. As much as I regret that these hospitalizations occured, they nonetheless were necessary. Major depressive episodes were nothing short of torture and motivated me to seek drastic help. When manic I alienate everyone, then develop paranoid delusions that make me a significant risk of harm to myself and others. I do not regret any of my hospitalizations though I was not stranger to physical and chemical restraints, and despite being assaulted by patients who became agitated by my mania. The system is woefully underfunded and staffed by untrained and inept "clinicians." I want you to know, cockeyed, that these necessary inteventions saved my life. Only a century ago I would likely have resided in one of these facilities as an incompetent ward of the state for the rest of my considerably shortened life. I know I am a better social worker and, I hope, a better person for my experiences. I appreciate that my piece in some way stimulated you to share your reaction to having been in a hospital in December. For someone who presumably enjoys the company of others whith mental health issues, your description of those so unfortunate to need hospitalization puzzles and offends me.
Toph, Bipolar I Disorder with psychotic features
poster:Toph
thread:553278
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20050910/msgs/557772.html