My mom talked my (now-ex)husband into committing me to the mental ward when I was 5 months pregnant. I’d gone off my medication (Lithium and Paxil) and kinda flipped out. What I needed, of course, was my medication (which I apparently refused to take, but after a few hours of TV or something I probably would have taken willingly). Then I would have calmed right down. After sitting around the ER for about 45 minutes without anything happening (and we were the ONLY ONES THERE) I said “this is bullshit” and started to leave. My husband came up and tried to pull me back in by grabbing my arm.
Some security guards saw this and came over to help him. The started to wrestle me inside like I was some sort of felon and they were the big bad cops. After fighting for what seemed like forever (I think I bit one of them) they finally wrestled me TO THE FLOOR, ON MY STOMACH and held me down. Then they brought out a gurney and lifted me onto it. They picked me up by my hands and feet, BELLY DOWN and lifted me up. Now, one of the worst parts about pregnancy is that all of your muscles are stretching. It is painful enough just to try to stand up out of a chair (flexing the stretched muscles hurts) let alone have the whole weight of your body pushing your belly out!
Once they got me onto the gurney, they strapped me into four-point restraints. If you’ve never been restrained, here is the deal: your ankles are cuffed down to the corners of the bed, your right arm is cuffed to the top of the bed, over your head, and your left arm is cuffed to the side of the bed, by your hip. The cuffs are wide strips of leather with buckles. Keep in mind that one of the most uncomfortable positions a pregnant woman can lie in is on her back…
So they wheeled me into a room and pulled the curtains around me and they left me there. For about 3 hours. Without anyone so much as peeking in. I managed to unbuckle and get out of my restraints, and was sitting on the bed by the end of the time. A doctor came in and asked me about 3 questions (my name, etc) and left again, and then some guy came in, no idea who he was, could have been a janitor for all I could tell, and he has a hospital gown in his hand. I said I wouldn’t put it in because I wasn’t staying, and so he started coming for me, to take my clothes off!
I jumped down off the bed on the far side from him and the scene that followed was straight out of any sitcom you can think of: him chasing me around the bed, etc. Finally another security guard came in to help and between them they wrestled me down onto the bed and put the restraints back on. I managed to spit on one of them in the process.
continued:
Comment
| Gravatars enabled | ||
| Textile Help | ||
Next: Misty the Wonder Horse
Previous: The McDonald's Gunman
I Survived a State Mental Hospital (Printer-friendly version)
This page location:
http://www.opalcat.com/Personal/i-survived-a-state-mental-hospital
[ hits on articles since reset on 08/07/11]
[58 page views in the last 15 minutes]
11/06/2007 01:35 PM Reply
Poor Opalcat! I spent 1980 in the loony bin and got beaten up, ECT and paraldehyded to oblivion many times. Don’t dwell on it, it’s over now. If we go along with the madness, they’ll leave us alone.