Dealing With Life on a Psychiatric Ward

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Over the years, I have been a patient on a psychiatric ward a number of times. I think one time I added up all the months and it came to over two full years. It isn’t always a bad thing to be sent to one, but there are some difficult patches everyone has to navigate.

One of the first things I feel I should talk about is the Full Moon and Christmas Rush. Many who work in Emergency wards will tell you they get busier on a Full Moon. In fact, the term Lunatic was coined to describe people who tended to have severe mental health issues when the moon was full.

As far as the Christmas rush goes, Christmas can be a hard time for anyone, but especially for those who live with depression and other mental health disorders. In Canada, there seems to be a clear reason for this, around Christmas, there are much fewer hours of sunlight. About 30 years back, researchers were starting to recognize this trend and developed something we now call “SAD" Lights. Sad stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder. It was and is believed that suicide attempts and self-referrals to psychiatric wards are highest during these times of low sunlight, and so special lights were developed to mimic the effect of sunlight. I actually have one of these next to my computer right now while I’m working, and it is on. I need to stay alert and not go back to bed event hough it is 3:21 am because I have to work tomorrow and I worry if I fall back asleep I won’t be able to get up when I need to. This is not the best way to manage a lack of sunlight, but it is the best I can do, and I do notice the effects. SAD lights can be purchased on amazon for about $40 Canadian $30 US and are often the size and thickness of a small tablet like an iPad mini. Important to note is that one of the things sunlight does is increases your level of vitamin D. I had a good friend tell me once that everyone needs vitamin D each day and it is a good idea to use supplements in winter. They are actually pretty reasonably priced, and seem to do a world of good, though I would suggest reading peer reviewed studies about both SAD lights and the use of Vitamin D. I can only relate here what I know from personal experience, and I honestly think that while it is among the better places to get advice, there is no substitute for carefully researched scientific fact.

I have had a lot of various things get me admitted into a psychiatric ward or psychiatric hospital. One of them really stands out, I had been doing well for a long time and was taking my medication as prescribed. I think what was the worst thing that happened was that I stopped going to see my psychiatrist. Over time, I started to wonder (not being monitored by anyone qualified to do so) if I didn’t have a mental illness. Though there are relatively rare cases of people who experience such things as schizophrenia and psychosis just once then never relapse, this is not the norm.

So thinking I had somehow recovered/gotten better/cured myself, I didn’t want to stop my medications, but I knew they were doping me up a great deal. I took one of my medications, depekane (an anticonvulsant that was found to have mood stabilizing properties) and cut the dose in half. What I didn’t know was that depekane needs to be at a certain level in your blood to have any positive effects, so lowering mine was just as bad as going off of it. Noteworthy here is that later, my sister and a social worker had to clean out my apartment and found all kinds of medications I hadn’t taken. This made it very hard to prove to the hospital staff that I was medication compliant and had the effect of greatly prolonging my stay. To break up your reading and get your wisdom in easy to remember chunks, have a look at this helpful video I found on Youtube.

One thing I have found from many hospitalizations it that going into a hospital you have to go through an adjustment process. One reason for this is that when first hospitalized, the staff will err on the side of caution and give you a strong dose of your medications. Most will adjust to this and later, when they are released, then the fine tuning begins. But in your first few days, you literally can be a drooling zombie.

The other thing I noticed is that when you are released from the hospital there is also an adjustment period where you need to be accustomed to doing your own housekeeping, cooking, shopping. This difficult time is why I feel there should be more group homes to support people in their initial phase of leaving care. I know I was sent to one and it greatly benefitted me. All of a sudden I had regular, healthy meals, regular sleep, regular medications, encouragement to attend appointments and sports programs, and I went through a lot of healing. Perhaps the most beneficial part of going to a group home for people with mental health issues is that everyone either has a mental illness or is trained to deal with someone who has one. This takes away most of the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

While you are in the hospital, it may be extremely difficult to accept being on a closed ward, where most people go in their early days of hospitalization. People here can be dangerous and violent (not just the patients, but the staff as well). It is important not to lose your temper or act out, and to treat everyone with respect. Not doing this will only prolong your stay and make the stricter staff members literally hate you. I had one staff member swear to me that he would kick the s%$t out of me if he ever saw me again outside the hospital. There was no way to play the tough guy, no way to come back with a snappy answer or go and tell anyone. When you are in the hospital often no one believes what you have to say and people who never should have been made staff members of psychiatric hospitals can almost do what they like.

One thing I would strongly suggest if you do go to a hospital is to not fall into the temptation to eat a poor diet. I know in many hospitals there is a gift shop/candy store where you can get chips, pop, treats of all kinds, but try not to take comfort in this type of distraction. Inactivity in the ward plus the food the hospital provides can make you gain a good deal of weight. Try to take up any offers of walks, sports, or other forms of exercise and do as much of it as you can. This will stop you from gaining weight, help the time go faster, and prepare you better for your eventual discharge day.

It is important to remember that unless you are in a locked forensic ward on a court order, you have done nothing wrong by needing the help of being in a hospital. Even if you get frustrated or start an argument or physical fight, you have to understand that your hospital stay will end at some point and you will go home and go back to the life you choose. Try to make the most of your time. Ask to be part of support and education groups, make a list of concerns you have to take to your psychiatrist. Ask about therapy. I know in Canada, it can be difficult to find a therapist unless you are willing to pay high rates, and if you are in a hospital, they should be able to provide a therapist which will do you a world of good.

Photo by TienDat Nguyen on Unsplash

One thing I think is critical to say is that it isn’t a good idea to make close friends with people you meet in the hospital. I asked a nurse once why this is, and she told me that often people make friends, have them over to their home and end up being scammed out of their bank card and pin number or a whole host of unholy crimes. They try to go to the hospital and ask for information about the person to give to the police, but the hospital can’t comply with any requests for information, leaving the person who was scammed in serious trouble when rent or groceries are needed. There is nothing wrong with socializing, but just make sure you draw the line when leaving the hospital and not give out any personal information or to associate with people who may be very ill or even very desperate.

There really is a lot more to psychiatric wards and hospitals I could cover, but I don’t want to overwhelm my readers. I encourage you to join the chat and ask questions, I will respond to them, either in a blog or directly. I will sum up by saying that it is critical to keep busy in a hospital. When you have free time, do puzzles, read if you are able to concentrate, and take walks or attend chapel services. You need to understand that you will have a life to get back to when you leave the shelter of the ward, and these things will help prepare you. Treat everyone with respect, but remember you are there to get better, not to make friends. I recall during my last hospital stay it was so amazing that my employer, my landlady, and a number of friends visited and called, and made a very difficult experience much easier to handle. Never sell yourself short either, even if you have psychiatric problems, treatment and medication can bring you back from the brink to start the healing process. It may be a long process, but it will come.