r/nextfuckinglevel • u/bendubberley_ • 1d ago

A police officer in Mexico prevents someone's suicide attempt, on a bridge, with no safety equipment.

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

Psych ward stays shouldn’t feel punitive.

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u/love6471 1d ago

I mean, it was either that or I was going to jail for underage drinking and causing a scene. They were very kind to me there, I just don't handle feeling trapped well. Most people having a psychotic break like that are glad to have survived once they get help. Also, keep in mind that suicide doesn't only affect the person doing it.

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u/CarnelianCore 1d ago

That. It’s a snippet in time where the deprivation of liberty can be the liberating thing someone needs. Have the need of control over your life and decision-making taken away and be cared for without any expectations put on you.

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

I’m just saying. Not everyone who goes to a psych ward has done something that warrants punitive response other than try to kill themselves.

The psych hospital I was transferred to was awful.

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u/doggietv123 1d ago edited 1d ago

Probably not the best idea to have someone who suicidal let’s say drive a vehicle on the highway if you pose a threat to society or yourself you will be locked away lol

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

I’m meaning that the treatment you receive at psych facilities shouldn’t feel punitive. Mine was basically jail and the staff members uncaring even though I was as easy of a patient as it gets. Even tho I checked my own self in.

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u/TechTheLegend_RN 9h ago

I'm sorry that happened, it's very facility dependent.

I obviously don't know the workers who cared for you but I will say psych is a very dangerous profession and many facilities just flat out don't support their staff. They get beat up over and over again and there is effectively zero recourse. This leads to extreme burnout and honestly some PTSD and distrust.

With that being said, it's not an excuse. Reading things like this makes me truly appreciate how good of a program my local hospitals have.

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 9h ago

The crazy thing that stood out was so many staff members being way more mentally unhealthy than we were. Like not far away from a full breakdown themselves. I understand that’s why they treated us like that. I know administration is usually always to blame. How are they supposed to help people in that state?

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u/TechTheLegend_RN 8h ago

They can't. The number one thing I always tell my patients is you can't help others until you help yourself first. Clearly they have forgotten.

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u/doggietv123 1d ago

There’s not a lot for them to do to help you It’s not like you can just snap your fingers and make someone mentally sound again

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u/supreme-manlet 1d ago

Yeah but imagine what they deal with normally

Incredibly mentally unstable people who aren’t there willingly. Of course they ave to follow strict, jail like, protocol. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to keep the place functioning properly

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

Idk, they could do something big by separating the incredibly mentally unstable people there by force from those who have recognized they are not okay and checked themselves in willingly, and have protocols that address both populations, instead of having to treat everyone worse than dog. My facility was also really dirty with nurses fighting behind the desk in front of the whole ward. It was a government insurance funded hospital. These wards are just money grabbers, they don’t actually help people. I still have nightmares two years later. I have visited so many psych hospitals in my dreams. Luckily the dreams have finally lessened in severity and quantity but it was definitely traumatic to be going through the worst time in your life, check yourself in, only to realize they are going to treat you more like a badly behaved child than a full grown adult seeking real help.

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u/TechTheLegend_RN 9h ago

Local hospitals in my area do that. Everyone is on one unit together, but if someone is extremely agitated or acute they are separated off from everyone else until they are stable.

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u/Ruzhy6 9h ago

Only way for that to get better is with more funding. Glad you're doing better now.

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u/doggietv123 1d ago

This would all take manpower lots of hours funding planning all things that are very hard to do with people who are incredibly sporadic and have psychotic behaviour I get where you’re coming fromI wish they could treat them better too but it’s just the reality of the mentally ill there’s not much you can do with them but protect them from themselves

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

And what makes you the expert? You ever stayed in one? Worked in one? Let’s just shrug our shoulders and say whelp, nothing can be done it’s fine? Maybe we should think “even though not much can be done right now, it is still not okay”

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u/supreme-manlet 1d ago

Just because you stayed in one doesn’t make you an expert on how to better run the place lmfao

And I say this as someone who has been there

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

It sure as hell makes you someone who can contribute credible, firsthand experience. I’ve been on advisory committees that bring on these same kind of people (not for a psych ward, for social services type things) to check for advice/experience before making a final decision. So if we were both on an advisory committee, both our opinions would help shape decisions.

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u/doggietv123 1d ago

I’m not a dog either but I understand keeping a dog in a pond is inhumane I never said I was an expert but the cold heart truth is we don’t have enough workers or funding for mental health services yet it’s still being worked on

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

Well yeah I know what the cold hearted truth is. That’s literally what my original comment was espousing

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u/doggietv123 1d ago

We can all just be glad they don’t lobotomize people anymore as far as I’m aware of

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u/Booksarepricey 1d ago edited 1d ago

I was bakered for ideation without intention. I missed my scheduled therapy the next day because I got there after doctors went home. Incredibly upsetting malpractice.

I was treated like a criminal (my record is spotless). It was one of the worst nights of my life and they did nothing to improve my mental health, just let me go the next day. It was seriously awful and only induced a ton more ideation and made me feel like I was being punished horribly for being sad. That’s not the kind of place I’d want to go for help on the brink. Having been there before now I know in the heat of the moment I’d probably rather jump than go back. Which is CRAZY. It really needs to change. I went from being hopeful to being completely terrified of mental health systems.

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 23h ago

Yeah I always said I’d kill myself before I got sent back to one of those places which is really fucked up. Thank goodness I got better, thank you ketamine therapy

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u/SunnyDogg 13h ago

Depends on the place! If you were on my unit we likely would have had fun. I used to run daily YouTube music video groups, hallway bowling, origami, optical illusions, and a bunch more for my recreation groups and I always made an effort to make being at the hospital better for people. I’d do my best to provide any printable activities I could. Of course I did therapies and stuff too, but the last thing I wanted was for people to feel worse for seeking help. My hospital was pretty good at not admitting people for ideation only and generally would set people up with outpatient resources if they weren’t an immediate risk to themselves.

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u/Booksarepricey 13h ago

I had to sleep in my clothes (wasn’t given a change) and couldn’t brush my teeth. I was in a small box (a clear prison cell basically) with nothing but a hard couch for over five hours crying my eyes out. Then when I was finally moved to the bigger box with other women the only recreation was a single TV. And I couldn’t sleep on my hard cot through it because the 15 minute rounds they do feel like 5 minutes when you’re trying to sleep, so I was awake all night. The dude taking my financial information to figure out how much they could charge me for my unwilling incarceration had the gall to complain about his kidney stones and how hard he had it. The case manager told me people not in crisis get bakered all the time. And the entire time I was FUMING because I was being treated like I was crazy and dangerous when I was just trying to tell my psychiatrist I needed a change in my meds because I felt like shit. I was so upset I couldn’t eat the entire night and next day.

I will never work with another psychiatrist or any mental health professional who cannot tell me the difference between ideation and intention. I cry every time I talk about this. My psychiatrist was a gaslighting bitch and I have completely lost respect for the profession as a result. If I hadn’t met amazing therapists prior I probably wouldn’t seek help again. People are right to be scared of getting mental help.

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u/farfarastray 1d ago

The reality is they often do

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u/purplesmoke1215 1d ago

It's very hard to restrict someone's movements without it feeling punitive.

But the alternative is to let people potentially do it on a whim, in the middle of a sudden manic episode, or severaly under the influence.

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u/Mobile-Breakfast6463 12h ago

You are right but they treat you like crap. There could be better conditions and it wouldn’t be so bad.

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u/Bladesnake_______ 1d ago

It's not punitive. It's restrictive. And only until they determine if you are a danger to the public.

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago edited 1d ago

My stay was both punitive and restrictive. I checked myself in for help and walked out with more trauma. I had no issues with the restrictions other than the smokers got to go outside and the non smokers didn’t, even tho there was a small walking trail and tall fences.

I couldn’t sleep after I was discharged because I couldn’t stop thinking about the poor souls still left in there that I had connected with. I donated a small paperback library with a mix of mental health info, addiction info, $1 paperbacks, some classics and some modern bestsellers. Made sure it got to one of the kinder staff members, because there were a few.

There was nothing for one to do to occupy one’s time. I begged for a book to read and they tried to give me a bible. I said nevermind, I’d rather read nothing. They tracked down a young adult novel someone had left behind in the youth ward and that was all I had to read. It was actually a pretty good book luckily. I had someone else drop me off Jurassic Park because that was the only paperback they had (no hardcovers allowed for safety reasons)

I also had to stay twice as long all due to the fact that doctors/social workers are off Friday-Sunday. I would have gone crazier inside those walls had I stayed one more day. I was ready to bang my head on the walls, literally.

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u/shabusnelik 23h ago

Ideally, it's not punitive, but in practice those places are really bad and often not helpful at all. Being trapped with a bunch of other severely mentally ill people is not a good way to recover.