Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

Gimme some more
http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/a...ta_200x200.jpg

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

Awesome stories by all, please keep them coming.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

yes, this thread is great. dont stop!

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
Awesome stories by all, please keep them coming.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

What''s it like to have your brain split in half?

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

I have been reading this thread from the start, good stories all around, keep them coming op and others.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

Tell us about drinking on the job.

Also, have you ever yelled at someone or became physically violent towards a patient?

How much money did you make?

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

How do "normal" people react when you tell them these stories? Are there crazy chicks that find all this attractive?

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

OK well I thought this thread was exhausted but there is still some interest so I'll keep going.

If you asked a question that I somehow missed please don't take it personally and please do ask the question again.

A few people asked about drinking on the job and I have two stories regarding this.

First, I would never normally drink on the job because it would be dangerous for staff and patients and there might be legal ramifications beyond the obvious problem of gettting fired. However, on my last night working the other tech who was working with me -- a girl of about the same age as me (24yo at the time) -- brought a bottle of apple schnapps into work so we could celebrate. We kept the bottle in the staff bathroom and took bathroom breaks quite regularly. We finished the bottle in about 4 hours and let me tell you that apple schnapps gets pretty gross after the third or fourth shot and produces quite the hangover. All the patients cooperate with our scheme, sleeping peacefully through the night, and we were able to control our behavior when day shift arrived.

We could do this because the nurse who worked with us that night was himself a raving alcoholic. He was in fact fired a few months later for drinking on the job. This nurse "Tom" was a really cool guy. He was a former cop who was fired for some unspecified offense (probably alcohol related) and then went to nursing school. Whenever he worked we had free reign to do whatever we wanted -- he slept in the medroom for a good 6 hours of his shift each night and his breath always stank of alcohol when he showed up for work. The other nurses knew about his drinking and I knew it was just a matter of time before someone ratted him out.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

From swingdocs story:

[ QUOTE ]
Being the good student, I ask about special powers or missions. Apparently he has been contracted to meet with Saddam Hussein and pay him $1 million and if he does not, then a nuclear sub will sail to kansas and nuke KC. Honestly I'm a little baffled by this and having some small trouble not smiling.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a story that might make me seem cold or unempathetic, but I'd ask you to remember where the expression 'gallows humor' comes from, and also my earlier point about it being human nature to distance yourself from the patients.

So there was a woman "Jane" who really didn't belong on a psych unit, as she seemed to be simply retarded (er, I mean that literally). She was about 55yo and had the state of mind of a 10yo. I think she said something to the effect of 'I am going to kill myself' but I really don't think she was even remotely suicidal.

So one night she wakes up screaming because she has had a nightmare and she is waking up the whole unit. This is bad because it is hard enough getting some people to sleep -- sometimes the only reason they go to sleep to begin with is that they got drugs right before bed and when they are up they are up. So we are asking her to quiet down and after about 5 minutes we aren't getting anywhere -- she just won't shut up and now in addition we are having to deal with other people freaking out. So the nurse says let's put her in seclusion.

This woman was very overweight -- probably weighed 250 or so and she was relatively short. So we tell her she is going to the back and she starts screaming even louder. Typically the way you walk someone to seclusion is that one person takes each arm and with one hand you pull the arm back at the wrist and with the other you press your hand forward on the patient's shoulder. So we try to do this and she resists by simply laying on the floor and not moving. If we had more people we could try to carry her, but this is night shift so it is just me and the other tech and a nurse who weighs like 100 pounds.

So the nurse says she has an idea. We put a bed sheet on the floor and roll her onto it and wrap her in it so she can't get out, and the idea is that we are going to drag Jane back to seclusion in this sheet. So we start doing this and Jane is really screaming her head off and then all of a sudden Jane starts farting violently. The other tech and I try to ignore this at first but we are looking at each other smirking and then all of a sudden one of us starts cracking up and pretty soon we are both laughing hysterically. I mean we are laughing so hard that we can barely walk, let alone keep pulling her. The nurse is yelling at us to stop laughing but even she can barely keep it together. Eventually we get her in the seclusion room and we are wiping tears of laughter from our eyes for an hour as Jane sobs in the background.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm fascinated by this thread as well:drinking on the job stories/people trying/killing themselves would interest me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Strangely, I don't really have any stories of people trying to kill themselves on the unit while I was working. The thing about depression is that depressed people often have very little energy -- not really enough to go through with the act of trying to kill themselves (this is why some anti-depressants have been linked to suicide -- because it gives people the energy to go through with their desires without changing the underlying cognitions).

One patient did manage to kill himself at my facility when I was not working. He took a bedsheet and tied it to the door handle of his room. He ran the sheet over the top of the door and from the other side of the door tied a noose and hung himself.

One patient died in restraints/seclusion (this happened a few months before I started working there). She was restrained at night and when the morning shift showed up they found her dead. The nurse was fired and the patients family sued, because autopsy revealed she had been dead for a few hours and when a patient is in restraints a nurse is supposed to take vital signs every 15 minutes.

I saw a few really scary attempts by people to kill themselves. One woman had half her face missing because she shot herself in the head but was not successful at killing herself.

One woman had jumped from a moving car at 70 miles per hour and had road rash all over her face. Nurses were impressed because she jumped face first and had the discipline not to instinctively raise her hands up for protection (no road rash on hands).

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
What state did you work in and what were the criteria for involuntary admission? <font color="blue">I worked in FL and you had to be homicidal, suicidal, or pyschotic to be admitted involuntarily</font>
(other qestions to follow)

Have you ever heard of or read The Journal of Polymorophous Perversity? (if not I highly recommend it- There is a book based on past magazine issues, I think the mag comes out quarterly, I can't recommend this enough for anyone considering entering the field) <font color="blue">I haven't seen it but I'll take a look based on your rec</font>

What % of the people do you think lied about having a plan to kill themselves in order to get admitted because they were very stressed/confused/etc but did not want to or would not acutally kill themselves? <font color="blue">At my first facility about a third of the patients at any given time were just homeless people looking for a bed and a meal and had no intention of killing themselves at all. Among patients who were admitted for suicidal ideation but who were not the homeless just described, I'd say about 10 to 20 percent were actually at risk to kill themselves if not locked up</font>

Have you ever read anything by Harry Stack Sullivan and/or Thomas Szasz and what did you think of their works? <font color="blue"> I read Thomas Szasz's book about 10 years ago. From what I remember it was a provactive book and had some valid criticism but a lot of those criticisms are irreleavnt today because as I remember he was reacting against the field of psychiatry when it had more to do wtih Freud.</font>

Are you familiar with Dr. Daniel Fisher and what do you make of him, what are your thoughts on him and his works? (again highly recommended if you plan to enter this field) <font color="blue">No I am not familiar with his work</font>

Did you ever catch 2 patients having sex, if so what did you do? And if so did the dude approach you later and complain to you in a man to man (rather than biotch you out as a psychotic patient) fashion the way a buddy would if you walked in on him and ruined it for him? <font color="blue"> I haven't personally caught two patients having sex though I have intercepted plenty of kids trying to get into other rooms. Some adults had been caught having sex and I don't really think they would speak man to man or if they did that it would matter </font>

What is the largest item a patent ever swallowed pre or post admission that you are aware of? <font color="blue">I can't recall anyone ever swalling anything large pre or post admission</font>

What was the most extreme case of self mutilization you were aware of either pre or post admission? <font color="blue">There were plenty of girls with borderline personality disorder who would pick at their faces till they were bloody. Plenty of girls with surface scratches all over their wrists. The schizophrenic "D" that I spoke of earlier (while not really being a case of self-mutilation in the way you mean I think) was pretty severe. She'd always be raising her shirt to show you the scar which was pretty hideous</font>

Do you think any of the fat nurses there looked for opportunities to flirt with and or cop a feel/examine the neather reagons of a male patient there, or somehow or other exploit their position to do so (assuming the male patient would cooperate)? <font color="blue">Er, I don't think women generally think this way and I can't imagine any of the fat nurses doing this</font>

Did any nurses get busted for grabbing the benzo's prescribed for patients? <font color="blue">The nurses had to do a drug count every shift so the nurses couldn't really steal the highly desirable meds. The ativan, though, was in a big jar that you would stick a syringe into, so that could be stolen and I believe nurses were probably stealing it. </font>

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
Tell us about drinking on the job.

Also, have you ever yelled at someone or became physically violent towards a patient?

How much money did you make?

[/ QUOTE ]

I never yelled at someone or became violent. I knew one tech who seemed to get into a lot of altercations with patients when alone with them and I think he probably provoked the fights.

I think I made about 10 bucks an hour but it's funny I'm not really sure how much I made. I never really worked for the money.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
How do "normal" people react when you tell them these stories? Are there crazy chicks that find all this attractive?

[/ QUOTE ]

I try to stay away from crazy chicks nowadays. The stories go over really well with most people. The story that gets the best reaction is probably the "Memento Guy" story that I refered to in my first post. I generally say a lot more about him so I can elaborate if anyone is interested.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

Memento Guy sounds like he is in a living hell.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
Memento Guy sounds like he is in a living hell.

[/ QUOTE ]

srsly, I got a lump in my throat when reading about when he looked in the mirror.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

Mental illness can have a devastating effect on families. Both my older and younger brother are diagnosed schizophrenics, my mother was diagnosed as bi-polar, I personally suffer from bi-polar and anxiety disorder, but pretty much live a functional life.

However my mother took her own life March of 2003 after many years of threatening to do so.

My younger brother has been in a state hospital for over a year, my older brother has periods of his life when he manages his illness, only to go off meds after about 4-5 years and lose everything he's built up.

Great thread, my family has had to deal with psych techs, and psych nurses for over 20 years now, and I know it's a tough job, but you have confirmed some some beliefs I have about some of the people working these jobs.

I realize it's a tough job, but I do believe that in some cases, these people, along with the environment, do more harm than good.

Don't wanna sound like this is a troll, far from it. This is a very interesting thread, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
Don't wanna sound like this is a troll, far from it. This is a very interesting thread, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not even close to a troll. Thanks for your reaction and feel free to contribute anything else that you like (this goes for everyone of course but especially people who have experienced the mental illness of themelves or a loved one first hand).

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

So if someone starts exhibiting signs of schizophrenia, there's basically nothing you can do? IE - no benefit to catching it early, etc.? I was under the impression that with drugs a lot of them could live normal lives, but I guess that's more like a 10% minority?

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How do "normal" people react when you tell them these stories? Are there crazy chicks that find all this attractive?

[/ QUOTE ]

I try to stay away from crazy chicks nowadays. The stories go over really well with most people. The story that gets the best reaction is probably the "Memento Guy" story that I refered to in my first post. I generally say a lot more about him so I can elaborate if anyone is interested.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, please elaborate

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
So if someone starts exhibiting signs of schizophrenia, there's basically nothing you can do? IE - no benefit to catching it early, etc.? I was under the impression that with drugs a lot of them could live normal lives, but I guess that's more like a 10% minority?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well there are a few issues. The first is that schizophrenia is a disease that ebbs and flows. Meaning that even outside of antipsychotic medication a person will often go through periods where they feel fine before the hallucinations and paranoia and the like come back. The frequency of periods of active psychosis helps determine how functional a schizophrenic will be.

Also, some people with schizophrenia are responsive to anti-psychotics and others aren't responsive at all as far as the psychosis goes. Often, people who are on anti-psychotics that are working will stop taking them because they feel the side-effects but don't perceive any benefit, and this can sometimes provoke a relapse.

As I indicated my 1 in 10 statistic is really unreliable, but I can say that the majority of people confined long-term in state mental hospitals are schizophrenics, and schizophrenia is on the low end in terms of the percentage of the population who experience mental illness (this indicates that there are large numbers of schizophrenics who cannot be helped, compared to other mental disorders).

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

Any stories about patients doing gross things with their poop?

Did female patients ever try to manipulate you or other male employees by flirting/offering sexytime?

About what % of the patients had problems with addiction(s)?

Were you ever totally creeped out by something/someone at the hospital? Did you ever have nightmares about something a patient did, or could potentially do?

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
Any stories about patients doing gross things with their poop?

<font color="blue">Yes, I knew one patient "George" who was in a wheelchair who had a colostomy bag. He was admitted for suicidal ideation but was one of the homeless guys not really suicidal. He was particularly annoying because he treated the place like his own personal Hilton.

Anyway, George knew that this colostomy bag (bag hanging off his side and into which his crap was deposited) was a pretty credible threat. He would save up a nice big load and if there was a staff member he disliked he would fling it at them given the opportunity. For some reason a few of the homeless guys like George thought that being in a psych hospital for suicidal ideation gave them license to "act crazy" even though 99 percent of schizophrenics wouldn't even do something like that.

Also there was another guy Jim who was a very short black guy with Rheumatoid Arthritis and who was also in a wheelchair. He couldn't move any of his body -- he was completely stiff/rigid (kind of like the opposite of a parapalegic who is limp all over and can't move). He had to be wheeled everywhere, fed by hand, placed in bed, etc. The 'etc.' is that he also had to be held above the toilet to crap, and then wiped by hand. Also if he crapped himself you had to bring him into the bathtub to wash him by hand.

He knew how unpleasant the techs regarded the job of cleaning his crap to be so if there was a tech he didn't like he would save up a nice big load and crap his pants and then wait for the tech he didn't like to be available and for all other techs to be busy and he would ask to be washed. Made you really not want to piss him off. I was on pretty good terms with Jim and I think I only had to wash him once and all I did was fill the bathtub with water and put him in there for 30 minutes and then returned to get him out of the tub. If I had to do things like that on a regular basis I would probably have quit because that really wasn't what I was into. </font>

Did female patients ever try to manipulate you or other male employees by flirting/offering sexytime?

<font color="blue">Oh good lord. There was one patient Samantha who was a 55yo former nurse (real nurse not psych nurse). She had also been a crackhead and screwed up her brain.

Anyway she would constantly be trying to seduce me and other guy techs and nurses and patients. She was really foul looking -- gnarly teeth and face, hair falling out. She would prissy herself up though and come up to the nurses station asking really improper personal questions like (1) are you married (2) do you find me attractive (3) can you come to my room I want to show you something. She had a series of 'boyfriends' on the unit but she was only caught having sex with one once (not by me). I just remembered this story in case it conflicts with anything I wrote earlier about patients having sex.</font>

About what % of the patients had problems with addiction(s)?

<font color="blue">Huge percent. Almost everybody smoked for one thing, though this also went for nurses/techs too (and I think smoking nurses are probably unusual in medical field generally but I might be wrong. Tons of alcoholics. Tons of crack addicts.</font>

Were you ever totally creeped out by something/someone at the hospital? Did you ever have nightmares about something a patient did, or could potentially do?

<font color="blue"> Grossed out by a few things occasionally, like some of what I just mentioned The closest I ever came to being *creeped* out is when that chick "D" that I mentioned would show me the scar on her stomach. Even then I wasn't that creeped out but maybe I only have this blase' attitude in retrospect </font>

[/ QUOTE ]

Some great questions, especially considering how far we are into the thread.

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
How about a couple of crazy stories people told you about their life growing up (daddy raped them, sold crack to 9 year olds, sister ripped their eye out with a fork or whatever)

Also any good stories? Anybody make a full recovery and go on to be a lawyer or anything?

[/ QUOTE ]

As for the first part of your question, I'm afraid stories along those lines would have been told to me in confidence and I wouldn't reveal such details even on an anonymous internet forum.

As for people going to make a full recovery: I saw a ton of people go in and out of the facility, with a few regulars in attendence at any given time. If someone went on to become a lawyer or something I'd never know because the only reason I would have seen someone after they left is because they had more problems to such a great extent that they had to be admitted again. I'm sure many people fully recovered I just would never know.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

I had a 2 week stay in an IL. mental hospital. I guess I'm still not sure if I really needed to be there, but it was definitely a fascinating experience. I made friends with a schizophrenic who wanted to marry me b/c she thought I was jesus (i hadn't shaved in a month...). I repeatedly requested conjugal visits during group meetings, advised suicidal patients on the most efficient ways to die and then would spend hours trying to talk them out of suicide. The food was sub- grade school cafeteria. I spent several days reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, intersparsed with Discover Magazine articles on Quantum Mechanics and Scientific American articles on mental illness. I spent my 24th b-day "inside". I asked one of the nurses for money from the monopoly game, so I could teach some of the other residents to play poker. When that request was denied, I devised a way to bet using Uno cards. There was a 22 yr. old scandinavian nurse named Una, which is not spanish for anything. I have more, if anyone is interested...

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

This is an incredibly intersting thread.

Basically all stories are intersting so keep them coming.

Socicopaths are especially intersting.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

About a year ago I spent a month working at a state prison mental hospital. I worked on a maximum security ward with murderers, rapists, a few pedophiles, etc. Forensic psychiatry is not nearly as glamorous or cool as tv shows might make it out to be. No profiling or any of that kind of cool stuff, unfortunately. It was just like working in any other kind of mental hospital, just all the patients were on trial or already convicted of bad crimes. I'll just give a few general comments in this post and then answer questions/post more specific stories later.

First of all, prison is a terrible, horrible place for people with mental illness. Their illness frequently makes them outcasts in the prison system, making their time there even more dangerous. Psych patients often are reluctant to take their meds (side effects, general paranoia, etc) and prison guards typically have very little patience for anything out of the ordinary. This all adds up to a really bad situation for trying to manage an illness.

Some ridiculously high percentage of the people I saw had some degree of mental retardation in addition to whatever else was going on - something like 30-50% of the patients. One of these patients once offered my boss $1 million if he would discharge this guy to the patient's mom. Boss turned it down. Patient then upped the offer to $1 billion PLUS a ferari!! Nice. Almost half the patients were psychotic, a third depressed or bipolar and the rest were there when they didn't need to be. They all had numerous "axis II" disorders (personality disorders).

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

During my med school surgery rotation I saw a few psych patients in some interesting circumstances. 1 patient from the department of corrections had the weirdest desire to put non-food things into his stomach. Wasn't really pica because he didn't just eat the spoons, knives, pens. He had made several attempts to stick items (forks and knives mostly) through his abdomen into his stomach. When I saw him he was at the university to get an endoscopy because the jail was afraid he had eaten some plastic spoons. The GI doctors refused to see him because he had bitten one of their fellows, so the surgeons just made sure he was anesthetized first and scoped him.

Another guy took a shotgun to his own face. Problem with shotguns is that it's hard as hell to shoot yourself and not slip forward with the barrell. This guy came in missing his jawbone, tongue, nose and one eye. Once he was stabilized and put into a coma, he had a TON of really, really long surgeries with the plastic surgery team. Kinda interesting cause with that much of the face gone, the surgeons had to get photos of the guy enlarged and taped to the walls of the OR so they had a guide for where they were trying to get to.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

^ that's insane because you know after all that hard work, the guy is going to look in the mirror and decide he doesn't want to live anymore.

This is one of those situations that I think it would be better to just let the dude die. Why should tax-payers have to pay for the upkeep of these type of people?

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

The two hospitals I stayed in were nothing like what is being describeded here. Not that I doubt any of it for a second.

Both places I was in were pretty cool, yes I know that sounds messed up and just may be, you had little group meetings where everyone is supposed to act like they care. Then you go to some like artsy classes where you make a coffee mug, plate, etc.

TBH, I knid of miss it.

I did have a nice looking assistant type person want to go out with me. We were supposed to meet one night and she didn't show up. Turns out she thought about it and realized it wasn't the smartest thing to do.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

Very interesting thread and op you are a good storyteller.
Please share more stories.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

ooh, you got to make a mug? We had a pretty thin selection of wallet, vase, trivet, and little wooden trinket box.

[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

&lt;I'm garden-variety Bipolar 1, and have gone into manic episodes scary enough that a few times I've been hospitalized until new mood stabilizers could kick in&gt;

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]

"I've heard psychotic drugs (LSD, shrooms, etc.) can trigger it to develop in people sooner in life, but if you are going to get schizophrenia, you are going to get it, even if you never did the drugs. Any chance if you know if this is true/false/just pure speculation?


[/ QUOTE ]
Environmental factors can definitely trigger the onset of schizophrenia. E.g., a period of high stress such as separation from family. I've never heard of illegal drugs such as these triggering the onset of schizophrenia but it certainly seems plausible that the drugs could have such an effect. For the most part Schizophrenia is something you will get or not get but timing can vary.

[/ QUOTE ]

I dont know if this was true or not but a friend of mine said his friend ate some shrooms, and went crazy. He said that the kid that ate the shrooms lost his mind and thought that he was a glass of orange juice, and now he spends the rest of his life in a home trying not to spill.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
I dont know if this was true or not but a friend of mine said his friend ate some shrooms, and went crazy. He said that the kid that ate the shrooms lost his mind and thought that he was a glass of orange juice, and now he spends the rest of his life in a home trying not to spill.

[/ QUOTE ]

A story (that is possibly an urban-legend) from when I was in the Navy about a guy getting out on a psych discharge:

1) So he has been in for a year or two starts walking around in a trance pointing at things and saying slowly "no, that's not it....no, that's not it" with an utterly blank and emotionally unresponsive expression. He's evaluated for a while and can't be helped so they kick him out on a psych discharge. They put his discharge papers in front of him and ask him to sign and as he's signing the papers his expression changes to a big grin and he says "ya, that's it."

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]

I dont know if this was true or not but a friend of mine said his friend ate some shrooms, and went crazy. He said that the kid that ate the shrooms lost his mind and thought that he was a glass of orange juice, and now he spends the rest of his life in a home trying not to spill.

[/ QUOTE ]

Every one in the world's best friend had this very same problem, join the club and pretend you have one too.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I dont know if this was true or not but a friend of mine said his friend ate some shrooms, and went crazy. He said that the kid that ate the shrooms lost his mind and thought that he was a glass of orange juice, and now he spends the rest of his life in a home trying not to spill.

[/ QUOTE ]

A story (that is possibly an urban-legend) from when I was in the Navy about a guy getting out on a psych discharge:

1) So he has been in for a year or two starts walking around in a trance pointing at things and saying slowly "no, that's not it....no, that's not it" with an utterly blank and emotionally unresponsive expression. He's evaluated for a while and can't be helped so they kick him out on a psych discharge. They put his discharge papers in front of him and ask him to sign and as he's signing the papers his expression changes to a big grin and he says "ya, that's it."

[/ QUOTE ]

Too bad Klinger never thought of that.

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

A story (that is possibly an urban-legend) from when I was in the Navy about a guy getting out on a psych discharge:

1) So he has been in for a year or two starts walking around in a trance pointing at things and saying slowly "no, that's not it....no, that's not it" with an utterly blank and emotionally unresponsive expression. He's evaluated for a while and can't be helped so they kick him out on a psych discharge. They put his discharge papers in front of him and ask him to sign and as he's signing the papers his expression changes to a big grin and he says "ya, that's it."

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the laugh I liked it

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

this thread is sweet, if i have some questions i'll make sure to ask

Re: Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital
 

This thread reminded me of some of the patients I've met the last couple of years.
As a med student in Denmark, you can take temporary shifts at hospitals, monitoring patients who need 24-hour care - some of the worst somatic patients, and some psych patients.

This especially reminded me of P. P was diagnosed with Korsakoffs syndrome, a condition following heavy alcohol abuse. The thiamine deficiancy damages your brain, with anterograde amnesia &amp; confabulations as a result.
He was at a medial section, as his condition didn't make him a danger to himself or others, he just couldn't function very well in the society - therefore they had a hard time trying to transfer him to a psych section.

The anterograde amnesia meant he couldn't make new memories, although he remembered everything of his past.
You could tell him he was at a hospital, but 5 minutes later he would've forgotten - at the same time he could tell detailed stories about his life as a bartender, and the shady environment there.
As an ex-alcoholic, one of the things he had a lot of memories about was drinking. We would chat for a couple of minutes, and P would ask in a sneaky way if it wasn't time for us to get a beer and a schnapps. I would tell him drinking wasn't allowed in the hospital. 5 minutes would pass, and he would ask again if I'd like a beer - rinse and repeat for 8 hours [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

When he faced something he didn't remember, he confabulated. Kept making up the most insane stories. He loved playing backgammon, but couldn't quite remember the rules, which lead to the most bizzare games I have ever played.
He was easily correctable though - when he said he needed to get ammo in his room because he was going hunting, you could just say calmly that he was probably mixing it up with an old memory or appointment, he would think for a second, and agree.