How was your mental health experience Part 2?

Question

Hi there,

My question is, does the way a person is admitted into a psych ward or mental hospital affect the way they are treated in there?

How can a 'paranoid' person safely say they were treated well? Is it beyond the scope of humanity to have a Doctor understand the person being admitted, or does that make him insane too?

What degree of empathy should be involved?

Is it a lack of empathy that makes the experience horrible?

J

Answer 1

Well when you first go in it does, because if you are out of control when you go in they may put you in restraints. If your calm, your treated better, because you are not a danger to yourself or others! There are a mixture of empathy with all the doctors and staff that you see. Everyone is different in how they will treat you! It depends on your empathy to, how you treat them. If you treat them bad you will get negative results just like everything else in life. But they are not there to treat you bad. I've been in the hospital 4 times and I have been restrained once, I didn't like it but it had to be done. And it was done because I was a danger to myself. Having paranoia is not fun, the best thing to do is to tell them you are paranoid and they will get you on meds for that right away. They don't ask you to be someone you are not, in fact they usually want to talk to you to see what they can do to help you! Really! If you need to talk to someone they will get your nurse or assigned person and they will listen to you and give you suggestion on what you can do. Take care and good luck! hugs!

Answer 2

Dear jp t,

I'll answer your questions one by one.

1. Yes! If you are obviously out of control they have to get you under control. If you are quiet, withdrawn and passive they will have to get you to respond to questions and commands so you can be treated properly.
2. Paranoia is a fear for the person having it that is unfounded and unrealistic. A paranoid person can't rationally assess any situation that contains objects or people they fear. So it may not seem right to think one is being treated well but it is probably safe because the paranoid persons thinking about any he/she fears is usually wrong.
3. Doctors usually are not empathetic toward patients any more. In the days of the American pioneers, when doctors made house calls, they became friends of the family and empathized with the patient they treated (even if the family failed to pay their bills). In psych wards even without empathy for the patient they usually understand their emotions because that is their proffession; what they are trained to do. They have seen many similar cases so they can diagnose safely without much one on one talk.
4. Empathy for the psych patient is usually the job of the psych nurse who is more involved with the patient on a day to day basis. It has been my experience that these psych nurses are more important for recovery than the doctor.
5. The experience of a psych ward is "horrible" for the psych patient in direct proportion to how muddled his/her thinking and how sick he/she is. Once they decide to trust the therapists and meds they start to recover and the experience becomes less traumatic. The psych patient then starts to empathize with the medical staff.

Good luck, good health, peace and love!
Mad Mac