since thursday i’ve been sitting within various psych wards of a local hospital.
it’s a lot less scary than i thought it would be when i first went in. in the beginning i was in the heaviest security ward, ie. lock-up rooms, straight jackets etc. in that ward they don’t even have buttons on their shirts. the ward i am in now is the brief intervention one, we get shirts with buttons and bathrobes with velcro, and our beds have blankets and our rooms do not lock.
there is thick metal wire on the windows in our ward. the lock-up ward is encased in concrete and doesn’t have windows anywhere. it is like a prison there, but i guess if that is what you need to keep yourself safe, then there isn’t much choice about it. i have my own room with a locker. they said i could stay at home tonight and come back tomorrow morning, but i don’t think that will happen. i think i need to go back but i decided to write this down before i did. maybe for personal reference i don’t know.
tomorrow the regular psychiatrist who meet me during friday will see me again because he is going to be looking after what happens to me. i think that he is doin fine so far eh so that is good and i am looking forward to clarifying things again. i didn’t expect to have to go to the hospital when i went to see my psychologist on thursday, so it is my first time there too.
the part of the hospital this wing is in is in an older part, though i went for a walk in the oldest part the other day. it is hard to believe they did operations in a place that looks like it should be some sort of archaelogical display, or for an architecture tour.
don’t get me wrong, i’m glad to be there. i’m willing to place my trust in the hands of those who i think know better than i do about what is safe and or what isn’t. i think maybe they can set me on a better way, or at least set me on a way to find it, with help from others.
oddly enough, the psychs here know far more about my gender than the therapists i seen about gender. they are more respectful, understanding, caring, and understand that though it could be the cause of much trouble, in my case it is not, and therefore, since it has been dealt with healthily, it doesn’t need to be probed and rehashed or blamed for all things. it makes me rather sad that the student nurses here know/care/understand more than those psychologists i’ve seen about gender for years. makes me think some people are living in the dark. it was a gender specialist who said that my gender was the cause of all these problems, and that they would all go away after i had dealt with them. though i would love to believe her, i don’t think my gender has anything to do with my homicidal wanting to kill certain people.
i think i’ll stick to my psychiatrist’s opinion on that one.
took a left at the wrong right 
Here in Washington State I was involuntarily committed to a (single) psych ward. We weren’t allowed to move around to various psych wards. There was only one big one that housed about 25 of us. How many people did your various wards house (about)? And you had lockers? What did they let you put in them? We had no lockers. And bathrobes? Really? Wow! Sounds like a much better facility than the one I stayed at . And mine cost $3,900 a DAY. Do you have any idea how much yours cost per day? I’d love to know.
I live in canada, so my taxes pay for it. our ward housed at max 14 people. there were other wards in the building which housed many more people (the hospital i was at is the psychiatry centre for the province), but the ward i was on was for high need, suicide risk people. the bathrobes are just large brown pajama prison-style shirts. nothing different than the pajamas except they have velcro, short sleeves and reach longer. the lockers were for our stuff, which they locked away until they had search through our things (if people brought anything), and we were only given access if we and the items were deemed safe. idk how much it costs per person per day in tax amounts. officially i was a voluntary patient because i said i would go rather than have the cops or medics come get me. we were allowed out, but only when we were deemed safe. there was another higher security ward where they assess you. and that ward never lets people out. they have padded rooms, cells, straight-jackets etc. i think the regular wards house about 50 people but i’m not sure because there were quite a few outpatients who go to a program in the same building, so i’m not really sure.