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/Xacktastic 1d ago

Idk, better to have your agency than be stuck in a box. The criminalization of suicide is fucking stupid. 

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u/love6471 1d ago

Putting someone in a psychiatric ward is not criminalizing suicide. It's a precaution to save lives. What do you think he would do if they just immediately released him? I've been committed by the police. Sucks and feels like a punishment at the time, but it saved my life and was 1000x better than a jail cell.

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u/AnonThrowawayProf 1d ago

Psych ward stays shouldn’t feel punitive.

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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 1d 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.