What It Was Like to Be a Mental Patient In the 1900s
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
- Straitjackets. Sedatives. Bars on the windows. In 1900, patients at mental hospitals in the United States faced inhumane treatment, often because doctors could not identify the cause of their melancholy or mania. Officials at psychiatric hospitals in the 1900s, known at the time as lunatic asylums or insane asylums, locked patients up against their will, with few ideas on how to properly treat their problems. As Nellie Bly witnessed when she went undercover at Bellevue Hospital in New York, patients were beaten and choked, and their living quarters often looked more like prison cells than hospital rooms.
#Psychiatry #MentalInstitutions #WeirdHistory - บันเทิง
Sounds like a great way to develop PTSD, anxiety, and panic disorders.
You'll end up with issues if you didn't start with one.
Pretty much lmao. I was in a mental hospital for a while due to self starvation, and came out with PTSD, oppositional defiance disorder, and a deep distrust of humanity. Fun stuff.
I worked in a mental institution. When I first started we had to use and learn about physical restraints. However later Drs used medication to help control behaviors
Many veterans in the UK became institutionalised following their traumatic service.
@Seven Inches of Throbbing Pink Jesus Is this irony or memes?
I worked in a mental hospital. I have seen stuff that will scare you for the rest of your life
while I wish I could experience life in the past, I always realize I’d die within the first 5 minutes
Yeah I wouldn't make it.
Me being a PoC means I can't go back & experience American history so I have to go back to the cavemen or Dinosaur days
@@theolddarksoul1129
Took me a second
😶
to think what PoC stood for
🤔
then I went
😅
Oh yeh
🤪
Duh
Followed immediately by
😮
Ohhh
☹
riiiight
Then again
You could go back to anytime before 1492
😉
@Nikk-o K I wish I did so I could correct museum's on what the Dinosaurs actually looked like
@@theolddarksoul1129
Hmm
Racists
Or
Veloceraptors
Decisions Decisions
Nellie Bly was one brave lady to voluntarily enter into a mental institution. It was only for 10 days but during that time must’ve been terrifying.
I'm guessing Zachary Quinto tried to kill her?
I agree!! She’s lucky she was able to get out!!! So many didn’t!!! I watched something yrs ago about the Willard hospital & the suitcases left behind by patients who never left…they had some of the info & pics! A woman was there over complaining of pms pains & another over melancholy 😳😳😳 it was a fascinating & horribly sad documentary!!!
as someone who has been to an awful mental hospital for a period of time, a lot of these things still haven't changed
Thank you! I have never been in one myself, but I have heard stories. They seem to be mainly based around profit now.
I was in one for a week 😣 Never going back.
true. glad someone pointed it out, otherwise i would have commented myself. 200 years later & still treating patients as prisoners ( & not only at psychiatric wards )
bless you
This is truth!!!
Imagine being depressed and suicidal then you end up in a prison where you’re tortured and beat daily because of it. How were people actually this dumb lol
Omg putting your own small kids in there. My heart goes out to them and all the people who should have not been in there. I know I would have been put in there due to my depression. I feel so sorry for them 😢
were? you think this still isnt happening? the prison population is full of people with mental disorders who are just being held in cages instead of rehabilitated.
@@adrianc6534 well said 🙌
@@Andshewasafairy no, but they should be treated as a human that is mentally sick
@@neogeo1670 so the people in there for killing innocent children deserve fair treatment? I’m sorry but I cannot feel any empathy for someone like that. My sons father was murdered and I don’t feel an ounce of empathy for the monster that did it who is now sitting behind bars. I hope the rest of his life is hell
Nellie Bly actually wrote her experience being in a mental hospital when she faked insanity and the book is called 10 Days in a Madhouse. I suggest anyone read it. Its tragic but if it weren't for her faking insanity and witnessing what she did it wouldn't have changed the course of mental health care like it did when her story got out
They also made it into a movie that's here on TH-cam
The movie with Christina Ricci was good as well
The problems created by her little book will eventually be scorned by historians. That book and one lawsuit lead to the unnecessary closure of thousands of mental health facilities that could've just been reordered and cleaned up. Now all we have are jails for the mentally ill and I can tell you that they are not better
Isn't it a movie 😩
@@cadillacdeville5828 yesssssss
@@franklinjackson3637 "little book" she is famous and has helped close down bad medical facilities.
I wonder what remarkable you have done to belittle the brave authors "little book"?
As someone with ADHD, I'm just happy I wasn't alive in those times. I have a feeling that I might have ended up in one just because I was hard to handle at school seeing how I had a teacher throw an eraser at me in Kindergarten. While I still think we have a long way to go to be able to not make mental illness so taboo. We have also come a long way but I'm worried we'll step backward if we're not careful.
If you an eraser thrown at you by a KINDERGARTEN TEACHER who was the mentally ill one.
We? Honey we are not the ones with ADHD - you are.
It is not everyone else that need to adjust to you - it's the other way around.
The world does not revolve around you - it revolves around the majority of people which doesn't have ADHD.
@@roserevancroix2308 that is such an incredibly ignorant point of view. You have to realize that people are different and the world has to account for thise dofferences. Why do you think we have braille? Or wheel chair accessible areas?
Just becuase you come from a place of privilege where you fit the classic mold of society doesn't mean you have the right to tell ither people they have to be like you. It's highly ignorant
@@roserevancroix2308 are you okay????
ADHD doesn't land people in the phyc ward. You would be considered aloof not crazy.
My biggest fear is being locked away against my will. I was locked in a psych ward when I was 11 because my school guidance counselor took my interest in chemistry as a sign that I wanted to make a bomb, but thankfully after about 5 hours my parents got me out. I was almost locked in a ward again last year when I had a bad panic attack and went to the ER for help. I was able to leave that night cause I promised to go to outpatient group therapy at a different hospital.
This is why I no longer trust doctors with my mental health. Its better these days then before 100%, but that doesn't mean there are still flaws in the system
@HillaryClinton123
THIS IS LIES. REALLY PURE LIES. 100% LIES. I COME FROM A HAMILY WHO WORKED IN STATE HOSPITALS. THEIS PERSON IS A LIAR. DO NOT BELIEVE HIS LIES. I AM 74 YEARS OLD, MY LAST DAYS DEVOTED TO CALLING OUT GODDAMN LIES TO MAKE TH-cam MONEY- HE IS A GHOUL.
It’s scary to think if I were born just 70 years ago- I’d be institutionalized permanently for the illnesses that I have.
Prob me too
Yup, same
Me too. I have been court Ordered because I demand to be moved from Facility!!
I would have been put in as a child because I have ODD and we don’t listen to nobody
Same
It’s crazy to think how so many of these people were pushed aside and tortured in the walls of an asylum that was supposed to ‘ rehabilitate ‘ them. No wonder there are so many asylum based horror movies and shows because I can’t imagine how scary it was to have ‘ doctors ‘ who didn’t know what the fuck they were doing . . trying anything on you. The way we treat mental health today is still flawed. The human mind is one of the smartest and one of the darkest places to be.
And now they live on the streets and cannot be forced to get help. Most are too sick to understand they need treatment so instead they rot in gutters. Visit any city on the West Coast and you'll see what happened when the asylums were closed down and laws were passed making it impossible to force someone to get treatment unless they were actively about to murder someone (and even then, they can only be held for 72 hours).
Yeah you’re right such creepy places absolute horror.
@@M123Xoxo It's more complicated than "forcing" someone to get help outside of a crisis situation. It's about funding for a network of support for medication, housing, counseling services.
@@EclecticDD Yes exactly! I hate when people who haven't struggled with mental health or homelessness don't understand how it works.
This was indeed horrible but not that surprising. Alot of this type of "treatment " was done on regular basis in the South on slaves.
The difference --people were in a field "working" and they deemed it was " normal " treatment 🙄
But its funny when they locked you up it was considered inhumane and cruel.. yeah "differences"
Going by early 1900 standards, every teenager today would be in an asylum. :)
And we still need padded cells
Why? Because of mental illness? Or do you think lgbtq is a mental illness?
Nah the vast majority would act right cuz they don’t want to end up there lol
Well teens today are awful
It seems like anyone that commits a crime claims to be mentally disturbed now days they have all kinds of excuses why not to be held accountable when they murdered or tortured someone (it’s crazy)
An honest first hand assessment of CURRENT mental hospitals:
As someone who was admitted to a behavioral health hospital:
1. Many were there involuntarily and were brought in by the police
2. They still treat patients like prisoners. I met with hostility from the staff that felt more like they were mentoring a criminal than watching over a sick person.
3. We weren’t given diseases. That’s a plus I guess
4. I wasn’t physically tortured either. However, the staff will tackle you and inject you with drugs if you’re deemed too hostile.
5. They still treat children. Generally all minors are grouped together - that’s 17 year olds with 9 year olds. It was weird.
6. Strip searches are still a thing. They also test you for drugs and STDs and pregnancy upon entry (mandatory)
7. In my experience, diet wasn’t a big part of treatment unless it was someone with an eating disorder. However, the did accidentally poison a patient admitted for suicidal ideation with peanuts - they didn’t know he was allergic. Could’ve died, kinda ironic
8. I personally didn’t hear too many screams at night. People having anxiety attacks and staying up taking to their friends was common tho
I was at an eating disorder ward and there were 25 year old men with 11 year old girls… 😬
Extended prisons! Nothing else!
the eating disorder ward is terrifying. you can't shower without someone watching you to make sure you don't stand because "standing burns too many calories." you'll be put on a diet of over 3000+ calories and if you refuse to eat, then they'll threaten you with a feeding tube. the feeding tube is super uncomfortable. they don't care about ur sickness and they just want you to gain weight. it's horrible.
@@babyvanillas the ed ward system is so messed up- don’t even get me started on restraints and sedations, at one point i was restrained three times a day. and the forced weight gain got out of hand once id gotten to a healthy weight. they kept insisting that my metabolism hadn’t gotten back to normal even after i’d gotten my period and hunger cues back. 0 stars
Back then, patients were routined raped, chained up, whipped, beaten and starved. Even murdered.
Basically if a husband or parents didn’t want you lol they’ll dump you there 😃
The good ol days
@@howiegruwitz3173 Make America Great Again !!!
Yeah, and now because of that, the reformers have pushed to hard in the opposite direction and now it's next to impossible to get the people into hospitals who really need to be there.
@@schmumu Rent free.
During then, I would have definitely ended up in these mental asylums.
We've come so far in terms of mental health but still have so much to do
We backslid, funding for mental health has been decreasing for 2 decades, its all up to the private sector now, and not much money to made in the field im afraid. Sad though, its a field we need to research
It's gotten to the point where 40% of the US are in dire need of getting their smooth brains fixed up.
Have we? Now the people who would have been cared for in asylums are homeless and living in gutters all across the west coast. Since we can't force them to get help and they don't understand they are sick, they fall into hard drug use and die on the streets.
Next we need to work on Prisons.
They are basically the same thing.
Yeah. We need to bring insane asylums back to life.
One Flew Over the Cuco's Nest was based on the Oregon State Hospital. It was one of the most horrible psychiatric hospitals in the United States
I feel like a lot has changed but certain things haven’t. I was in the psychiatric unit for teens at sacred heart children’s hospital in Washington when I was 17 and I feel like they treated us so badly. The staff would yell at us, remind us where we were and had no sensitivity about our conditions. But then I went to a long term treatment facility at the same age and it was called tamarack and it was the best. They treated us like normal kids and we would get to go places and visit family members at home which they called going on pass. I had the best therapist there. I got so much better. But when I was 24 I was hospitalized again at sacred heart for a Scuicide attempt and the adult psychiatric unit was so much better than the one for teens. The staff was so nice and they helped me a lot. They were kind and sensitive and never yelled at us and were amazing. So a lot has changed about hospitals but things like just doing the job for money remain the same. I say if there is a person working at a hospital that doesn’t like being around sick people they should leave and get a different job. That is what more than half of the workers in the teen unit were like. They just wanted money. But in the adult unit they treated us with kindness and respect like physically sick people were treated. Even though mental illness doesn’t show on the outside we are sick on the inside and should be treated the same way. So if any of you go to a psychiatric hospital be sure they treat you the way a sick person should be treated. If you aren’t report it.
Having worked in the Mental Health field, alot of advancement has been made, but patients are still treated like they are not human and people are falsely diagnosed all of the time.
They love pushing out those meds. But don't forget to take off the nicotine patch with that nightly Haladol and etc. 😂 I was diagnosed with schizoaffective during one of my stays and continued my outpatient treatment as such with bipolarity. It was actually the head MD that saw me my last hospitalization who looked at me and said "I don't think you have schizoaffective. Based off your chart and symptoms, I think most symptoms you have can be answered with PTSD." I've been forever grateful of that one doctor. Based on that diagnosis, I have been hospitalization free for almost 2 years and have lived a mostly normal life with coping skills, correct medicine and addressing the trauma. It took that one doctor to look past what the others saw and just stuck a label on me and prescribed numbing meds.
Exactly like that in prisons so I’ve heard.
@Hubert Harmon thank you ❤
Yeah psychatrists really just throw adderall at children
@@ghoulishtoad it's about money for 95% of the prescribers. They get kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies for prescribing the flavor of the week. It's nothing more than a clinical trial, and if the patient complains about side effects they are just dismissed as being crazy.
While the treatment of people with actual mental illness has progressed in the past 100 years it is still woefully lacking.
Most certainly.
I just commented about that issue via my own experience being committed, years ago, and it not helping. The only thing that would end up helping me would be my own self-treatment, which took years to figure out.
Yes, better camouflaged towards the ignorant to seem "progressive."
The first few therapist I had were awful. Didn't take me seriously, said I had "situational" depression and wouldn't prescribe me medication, and then told me I would never get over my depression. Wtf?? It took three years to finds the right doctors to help me.
@@skyden24195 Same, only way I started to become better was get off the drugs they gave me and work it out myself.
I was once in a short term "behavioral health" facility because I suffer with depression, anxiety, and ADHD. My physiatrist put me on a medication that was obviously too high of a dosage which caused me to have frequent panic attacks. So her idea of helping rather than taking me off of the meds was for me to attend this facility. The patients were way worse than I was. They would talk to walls/themselves. Randomly laugh, scream in the middle of the night and I had to beg for a room by myself because I didn't feel safe. All the patients were disgusting some haven't showered in more than a week etc. I will say after attending this facility for not even a full week it already causes me severe nightmares from time to time and request panic attacks just thinking about it.
Wrong placement 😢😢😢😢
There are still psychiatric hospitals today that operate just like prisons. When I was 14 I asked my mom to bring me to a hospital because I was having panic attacks. I was brought to Brentwood behavioral center in Mississippi.
It was a prison. Solitary confinement. They strip searched me every day and night. When you did get to take a shower, after literally 3 minutes, they would bang on the bathroom door telling you to hurry up. I never was able to completely wash shampoo out of my hair. The food was awful. The doctors and nurses never spoke to you about anything unless they wanted to accuse you of something. The doctor had less than 5 minutes with me and he misdiagnosed me as bipolar. He put me on antipsychotics that gave me terrible side effects… it was a nightmare. Do your research before you even step into a mental hospital because once you walk in, they will force you there with lies and law loop holes
The "faking it until you get out" struck a chord. I was send to the psych ward 2 years ago for a mental breakdown, and I basically said that I was having a bad day that day just so I could get out of there. It was a shitty experience overall. I was stuck in a bare beige room for 8 hours with no other people/contact to the outside world and it led to yet another mental breakdown. By the time I got to intake, they snapped at me and gave me some sedatives which I don't even know what they were to calm me down. They didn't give me my meds the next day either.
Psych wards have come a long way, us mentally ill folks still have a long way to go before we're treated like people, though.
Im sorry you had to go through that, i couldn't imagine that, i wasn't treated the best when i got sent to A&E, but it wasn't as bad as.. This, i wish you the best of luck
i was sent to one in 2016 and as soon as i got there the other residents told me to just fake feeling better so i could go home so instead of getting the help i needed i just pretended i was having a “bad day” and was fine now. i was in there for 2 weeks but once i got out i realized they didn’t actually help me with my issues they pretty much just babysat me and it took years for me to fully work through everything
@@L0rdOfThePies Thanks yo, sending you well wishes
@@samanthacooley2192 Ugh, I feel that definitely. Sending you many many well wishes!!!
This is similar to my experiences when seeking help. Especially recently. If anything I plan to kill myself before I open up to anyone again. I hate the way psych hospitals treat me.
I suffered a traumatic brain injury while living abroad 4 years ago, and when I arrived back in the States a week later (I was alone and didn't know what had happened yet), they 'involuntarily' put me in a charity mental hospital in New Orleans. There were literally no windows, no clocks, no doors on the rooms, the bright florescent lights couldn't be turned off, the a/c was kept around 58 degrees (to 'prevent infection') but you were given no blankets (just a sheet). There were about 15 'prisoners', and 3 of them wandered in and out of all the rooms (with no doors) at all hours of the day and night, screaming and throwing feces... if you managed to fall asleep/not freeze, you just woke up to a man hurling sh*t and insults and raving.
I ended up being there a week, and I was in far worse shape after 'treatment'.
Even if you're worried about someone you love, do not buy the standard line that 'it's harsh but will do them good ultimately.'
Sleep deprivation, verbal and physical assault, complete lack of daylight (or even time-of-day knowledge) have never helped a person become 'more sane.'
Wow thanks for sharing your story. I am so sorry that happened to you.
@@rhiannonbeth4352 The concept of 'mental health' treatment is riddled with 100-year-old outdated practices of torture--drug people up with chemicals and 'see what happens', take some notes, and if that doesn't work, try another random torture 'practice' like sensory deprivation, circadian rhythm interruption experiments, house them with violent offenders with no protection (even doors) and if they complain about anything that happened afterward, you can just say 'well, they're crazy.'
If someone you love, in your family or friend circle is suffering, find out what actual methods the facility plans to employ to 'remedy' such a situation as they're diagnosing your loved one with. Ask uncomfortable questions, don't accept evasive/dismissive answers from doctors or staff, tell them to contact you to approve each treatment before they enact it, and (miserably uncomfortable and awkward as it is), VISIT those people while they're in the hospitals. See the other 'inmates', get a sense of rapport between staff and patients, and LISTEN to what those inside report to you. It might sometimes be exaggerated delusional ramblings, or it might be the actual truth. There is a lot of intellectual sadism rampant in the community of 'psychiatry'... whether intentional or just a matter of 'medical practice' that's become habit regardless of efficacy.
I'm okay 4 years later, but there were people there longer than me, and they weren't doing well, and their families and friends can be endangered more by people being released back into their homes after suffering severe trauma on top of psychotic/mental disorders.
It feels like we should know better at this point, y'know? I can't figure out if people just 'don't think about it/hope it won't happen to them' or if they really are unaware, but mental health awareness is on the rise, so saying something now felt more important I guess.
Sorry if I rambled :P Thanks for listening :)
After reading your initial comment & then reading your reply to @Rhiannon Beth, I was floored by how you have managed to concisely & eloquently express what I, after 24 years of dealing with the 'treatment' of mental illness, couldn't. I hope everyone reads everything you wrote here, it's so well stated & your advice is, in my opinion, rock-solid. Thanks.
@@K.J.734 Oh wow--thank you so much... I feel oddly speechless suddenly :)
But that makes me feel better. I worry about over-sharing, but i've started to err on the side of 'It becometh every man who hath been warned to warn others'. It was quite literally inhumane, and they really do make a concerted effort to keep people from reporting/being taken seriously, so it feels obvious that they know it's questionable, but then also their training tells them to basically 'disregard' physical/emotional responses to distress in patients, so maybe some really 'do' believe they're doing something 'helpful'? IDK.
I'm sorry if you've had to experience any of this... it's cruel to torture people who are already weak and susceptible.
I hope you're doing alright now?
Hi Ingrid, I'm doing fine now, thank you for asking. Thanks for your very kind words. I guess, although it's a long story, all I can say is that I wouldn't want to have to go through it again (needless to say) but, despite some of the care that I've received, I made through with a fair portion of my sanity. I don't recommend it though. 🙀 ✌
Been in the mental hospital 3 times and have to say i met some of the biggest hearted people in there yes its a rough world but that doesn't mean you have to be rough on yourself if you need help. Peace and God Bless from Saginaw Michigan.
I could tell you all some stories. Up to the early 1970's this was it. One of their brilliant treatments in the early 1960's was insulin shock treatments. Alot of people died from that. Many of the people running these places were more mentally ill than some of the patients.😢
I’m a mental health nurse and am aware of the old school treatments. My heart goes out to those who suffered at the hands of barbarians
You understand that mentally ill can be barbarians too right?
What world do you live in honey?
The world's most dangerous people suffer from mental illness.
@@LassieFarm girl plz
Actually what I felt 😢
@Steffen Steffen She didn't do it! I think you need to Apologize! Very Rude!!
They didn't see themselves as barbarians. They saw themselves the same way you see yourself.
I worked in the mental health system in the 80s in Texas for many years. I saw things that still give me nightmares. More suicides than I can count and despair on an industrial scale. It was absolutely medieval. I finally had to find a different line of work to keep my own sanity intact.
Aha yea people that are mentally ill sometimes commit suicide honey.
And that is not someone else's fault - it's their fault because they are the ones doing it.
'This is called "responsibility" and you are an adult, and you also worked there - you should be able to figure this out.
@@roserevancroix2308 obviously, you have never worked in such a facility. Try getting a little empathy for your fellow human beings. They commit suicide because of their mental illness and lack of any therapeutic assistance.
@@roserevancroix2308 Gee - how to win friends and influence people! A person needing to patronise others must be far from happy.
@@roserevancroix2308 Clearly you have no idea how mental illness works. If it were as simple as 'responsibility', they wouldn't be mentally ill you heartless, ignorant scum.
@@roserevancroix2308 wthhh, yes they do kill themselves by their own hands but its the environment that influences them. a regular stress free person even with mental illness would not feel suicidal. its the environment that influences people. try to be more educated next time
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is actually still used today. It's used as a treatment for things like manic depression, schizophrenia, and other mood disorders that have failed other lines of treatment. The difference is that ECT today is done under sedation and constant supervision. The individual is not subjected to receiving the shock therapy and the subsequent seizure(s) whilst fully conscious and we (obviously) have a much better understanding of the correct voltage and frequency to use during the procedure.
It is actually incredibly successful for some people and can be a life-changing option.
Mental Hospitals from 1900 have changed a lot. It starts with self-care, self-esteem, self-needs, and self-respect. Thank you for allowing me to share.
well that's nice to hear
"He had been an idiot since birth." Hmm, I know a few people like that...
i just wanna know how they got my damn medical records.
@@donHooligan 🤣
One even became president!
@@kuzzbillington6392
Black people aren't idiots.
#BlackLivesMatter
@@lucascoval828 I don’t think they were talking about Obama
Why lucky me being a depressed young adult these days, I can just sulk on the internet.
I was thinking the same thing
There are people and places that can help. I suffered for a long time, but I found my peace. Don't give up, I believe in both of you! Peace and love.
Mitch, you are out. There are people who never get out.
Ikr
@@mitchdroese84 thank you. I suffered severely for a better part of a decade, but I feel a bit better now. Take care!
I've been in a mental health facility for the better part of a week for depression. The conditions were sanitary, the staff was friendly for the most part, bed checks were every 15 minutes throughout the day and night, and the food was standard hospital fare from the main hospital cafeteria. It was an okay respite, but I don't recommend it unless you have no other choice. Things have improved in some ways, but in others not so much. The mental health patients are under lockdown 24/7 until their release. They have no access to the hospital gardens or outside spaces. It is absolutely a last resort situation.
Next time I feel like my depression is getting too much to deal with, I think I will just book a holiday instead. Sometimes a little fresh air and sunshine is the best medicine.
I’d like to note that strip searches are still done to this day upon admission to mental hospitals; especially for those who have history of sexual abuse (like me), the procedure is traumatically painful. They’re also carried out on children.
I worked in mental health for years, and while at Eastern state psychiatric hospital here in WA I had the opportunity to go through their small museum. It was fascinating. And creepy af.
Eastern state is a joke. A notoriously Understaffed and abismal place. Washington state ranks so poorly for mental health literally the bottom 10 in the entire country 💀.
I subscribe to a TH-cam channel by The Proper People, urban explorers who often visit abandoned asylums, and I gotta tell you, they’re all creepy places, and it’s scary to think of what happened within those walls, and the fact that in some cases, the asylum being visited was operating until very recently.
@@amyfisher6380 I may check that out! I can only imagine how creepy abandoned asylums would be. I was just at Eastern for a work meeting, so I really only saw/walked through administrative and public areas. And as much as a history nerd as I am, I jumped at the invite to see the museum. They even had antique lobotomy tools, an old electro shock machine, and an admissions book on display- with a shockingly large number of patients admitted for ‘barrenness’ and self stimulation.
My mother was a CASA worker and had been there several times because one her patients was living there for molesting his sister. I think it was that place anyway.
@@arlietamejia3489 OMG! That is so sad. I wish it shocked me, but it doesn’t. Poor Paul and Blanche!
as someone with both physical disabilities (i am a wheelchair user) and mental illnesses, it’s so scary to think that had i been born even 70 years earlier, i would have been permanently institutionalized for my entire life. my thoughts go out to each and every soul who suffered in one of these horrific places.
Literally. Same.
When I was 18 I was depressed and ended up going to a mental hospital in NJ. It was so terrible. They had a preist strapped to a wheel chair screaming. I room with a guy banging on the door to let him out. They give you too much meds. When I saw the doctor I told him that I was fine now and was ready to leave. I realized that there is no help and too keep my feelings to myself.
I worked at a State of Florida Mental Hospital for 25 years a long part of that as direct care staff, I started in 1984 when I was 25 the older staff told me stories of how it was in the 1950's even how they use electric shock treatments, restraints, and other things that was clearly abuse and it is consider legally abuse now
electric shock treatments were still used here in Slovakia in the early 2000s. Dunno if they are still used, the friend i knew that was treated with e.s. commited suicide in 2004.
@@andreamolnarova2185 Electroconvulsive therapy is still used here in the States, and it can be a true God-send for people with treatment resistant depression. It's really not as bad as it sounds, but has been vilified by movies and much of society in general.
When I was in the pyschward for 3 days, I just stayed in my room the entire time. It just basically felt like a hospital that you weren't allowed to leave.
-Screaming at night, yes.
-Patients standing in the corner for hours without moving.
-Some would randomly start urinating while walking the hall(since we were all nude under the hospital gown)
The room I was first placed in was at the end of the hall, quiet, big, and I was alone. But after 3 days I was put in a room half the size, with 3 other people. And one of them would go HOURS saying, "she knows", over and over and over again until the sun would set.
Let me tell you... you have to have a strong brain to get yourself out without succumbing to lasting mental damage.
spooky
@Cel Mac ^_^
For me I’d get to a point where I’d dread any sense of quiet/calm, because I knew that someone was going to start screaming/fighting/causing chaos. It’s gotten to the point where I have trouble with silence, because of that and I get extremely anxious. That and not wanting any sort of over abundance of white. Psych wards change you in so many ways.
I stayed at a children unit at a psychiatric hospital for a week. It wasn’t this extreme. Yes, there were yelling, screaming, and one argument that happened, but there were no people peeing in the hallway. We had our private bathroom and a “private” bedroom. But overall it was a really surreal experience
@@endergamer7483 no one deserves what happened to you. I'm sorry it happened
My evil grandmother threw my aunt into an institution when she was a kid. My aunt didn’t have a mental illness my grandmother was just abusive and cruel.
Omg 💔
Sad 👀🤭
My friend Linda who just died was thrown in state hospital after her disgusting brother flipped out about home health aide in her apt who walked off with some funds .Linda already had Parkinson disease and had into slipped into this delusion world...I saw her before they euthansiadd her ..what kind of family member throws a family member into state hospital in the name of treatment when there is trust fund....I vile research psychologist brother that's who ..
In my case my grandmother abandoned her all children ..Some developed personality disorders and other alcoholism...One even abandoned his own children.
my great grandmother was put in a mental institution. it was the 60’s so I assumed it wasn’t quite the same as this but it makes me feel so grateful that I don’t get treated like a criminal because of my neurodivergancy. I often (rightfully) complain about being treated poorly for being different but we have come a long way from treating people this way.
My great grandmother spent most of her adult life in an asylum, her daughters were split into different foster-homes. Still every woman from that side of my family has multiple mental illnesses. But I’m not sure if it’s just hereditary, or environmental.
I think both. I think we can be genetically predisposed but where did it begin? Most likely generations of trauma, passed down.
Brain chemistry
Likely both. Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger.
I'd be interested to watch a video about what Germany was like after WWII.
Same. I just finished watching the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.
Depends on East or West lol
@@slavsupreme5129 I knew a veteran who was my school teacher. According to what he told us, when he deployed to Germany in 1946 or 1948, he said that he saw bombed out buildings across the border in East Germany. Fast forward to the 1990s when he was able to visit reunified Germany, he said he still saw bombed out buildings.
Check out The Armchair Historian, he has a great video on life in East Germany.
My grandparents immigrated to the US from Germany in the 1960s. My grandma who's still alive escaped from East Germany into west. I've visited Germany a few times and most recently was 2013 and you don't see anymore bombed buildings from WWII.
This was a little over 100 years ago. Now that’s mind blowing.
What's the matter you don't trust science? LOL I thought doctors were infallible above reproach above corruption 🤔 🤣🤣🤷♂️
121 years ago
@@joeyjohnson4826 If you think people genuinely think that youre dense as fuck
Not that long ago at all! It’s crazy how much stuff was normal 120 years ago hell even 50/60 years ago 😓
@@ghoulishtoad you could have fooled me buy all the hysteria I see in the world today one f****** doctor tells you to jump you ask how high?.... the man has not even practiced medicine in over 30 years. Scientific tyranny is the new church. Images of the CDC the new Pope. We should all be screaming and crying a new Amendment separation of Science and State. Simply going about my anecdotal observation perhaps your world is different.
A lot of these things still happen today. Every patient I've seen was there involuntarily (I've been inpatient to many facilities many times). We are forced to strip down and to be looked at in every nook and cranny of our body. We have several to a room, 3 or 4 patients in a room isn't uncommon. The food is horrendous. I got terrible food poisoning to the point i was barely conscious & could not sit up or move at all. We receive horrible treatment. My last hospitalization i was refused my right to see a doctor while i was having 10 seizures a day and having heart issues. I was told i would receive no medical treatment until i left. I never spoke to a therapist. I was left in my own puddles of vomit and drool especially at night. I was supposed to be a line of sight & have staff watching me at all times but i wasnt. No nurse ever checked out my self harm to see if it was infected or anything. They knew about it too. There's screaming at night and we are forced to do many things. We are still hit & restrained. So many things goes on behind those walls its amazing its even fucking legal.
The only differences are that there are less patients in a facility & more staff. Those with physical disabilities are not sent to psych wards. They have more tight security systems. Yes, every door is locked but in a fire exit doors automatically unlock. The wards certainly aren't as dirty as they used to be, but I'd be surprised to find a place that didn't have mold in their bathrooms or near the vents.
I was inpatient too. Strip searching, staff belittling and triggering reactive patients on purpose for entertainment, too little food for all and still being shamed for eating too much. Plus trying to give you medication, while refusing to educate about them.... Yeah...
And being tied to the bed was also part of it..
My Grandpa was a nurse at Bellevue in New York during the 1950s and the stories he told us about the “treatments” they gave were absolutely terrifying!
I would like to know more, can u tell me more about it?
@@klaraix1058 I wish I remembered more and unfortunately he passed away in 2009 but he said they did all kinds of stuff that we likely wouldn’t today like intensive shock therapy, lobotomies etc. They genuinely thought they were providing their patients with cutting edge, top of the line, life saving treatments. My grandfather was a nurse, a pharmacist - he even donated his body to science! They just didn’t know! Sorry I can’t remember more!
My grandmother was a patient there during that time.
@@mab790 really? That’s wild!
As a mental health nurse, it breaks my heart to see not much change. Especially with the patients experiences at night time 😔
Aha, yea eh poor people.
Ask all of those people that has been killed molested abused and destroyed by them as well.
And see how they feel or are they not important?
@RoseRevanCroix You obviously have not struggled a day in your life 🙄
I spent 7 months in a psych ward when I was 15 and it was barbaric enough. I was their involuntarily. I would’ve been taken off my mum if she hadn’t signed the admission papers. I had anorexia and the treatment was pretty much just a feeding tube and a lot of people telling me I needed to eat and performing non-consensual medical treatments. I was properly medicated or even properly diagnosed. You couldn’t say no and put up a fight- if you did, you’d be forcibly sedated and put in a seclusion chamber. Thank goodness they gave up on me and sent me home to die (really) and left my mum to find me a treatment team. Thank goodness she found the team she did. They are still caring for me to this day and always will.
SAME, dude i cannot even begin to express how fucked up the "treatment" for eating disorders is, when i was in a mental hospital for one they wouldnt let us move or fidget out of fear that we were "trying to burn calories", i was denied my adhd and ocd medication, i was forced to sit almost completely still for 5 hours without medication because i didnt finish a meal. its beyond fucked
Yes news-flash genius - people are usually sent to psych wards involuntarily.
Because they are a danger to themselves or /and others.
Should we wait until they come knocking on the door and say "please lock me up" or?
Maybe we should try that with prisons too, just wait until the murderers come there by themselves!
How people like you even get dressed in the morning is a mystery to me. Why are you allowed to vote?
@@memeyartist5591 where tf do yall live??? Damn..
I'm so sorry you had to put up with such inhumane treatment. I am anorexia to but have gone to a team that is empathic and loving. It's working and I'm confident I will be cured. Sending healing to you and you are so worthy ❤️
WTF?! Which parent sends his child to an asulym for anorexia? This never happened in my country. People here just go to therapy, but definitwly not to mental institutions.
Random fact: My high school was built in the 1880s and served as a psychiatric hospital up until the 1990s when it was renovated and partially rebuilt into a school. You can definitely tell it used to be a hospital, but the building is surprisingly nice - it still has the original clock system, reliefs and Corinthian-style columns.
So thankful my son is born in today's time. He has sensory processing disorder that causes him to jerk, stim, and make auditory noises a lot. In any other time he would be considered as a patient. However in today's time, he is smart, a great student, loving, and sensitive. He has so much to give to the world. I can't wait to see what he grows up to do, with or without his responses.
"Congenial idiocy. He'd been an idiot since birth"
Damn that's a good roast
😆 😆 that was hilarious.
😂😂😂😂😂
😂
😭
I would have been locked up because I’m an unmarried woman, asthmatic, have ADD, have depression and anxiety. Hell just one of those things would have locked me up in a mental ward at that time
Same
Whoa you sound like a drag, no offense 😳💖
@@TheINFJChannel how rude
@@TheINFJChannel whoa you're incredibly out of line, full offense 😳💖
NO TF U WOULD NOT 💀
I went to the psych ward 2 times both for 7 days each time and for the first time in my life felt stability and safety I wished I could stay longer tbh and it was NOTHING like this at all. We could pack our own clothes, we got to go outside and do group stuff and actually meet 1 on 1 with doctors to actually help. There were two bathrooms in the small building that housed 10 patients and it wasn’t bad at all. My favorite thing was honestly the very first time I went I cried in the shower and was actually allowed to. It was incredible ❤️ not all of them are bad look up SummitStone they are amazing ❤️
That's because of Nelly Bly. I have been to a good one myself but it doesn't negate the bad ones.
I went to a mental hospital and those 4 days were agony, and I feel like those 4 days did more damage to me than it actually helped me. I have Bipolar 2 btw
Asylums still exist in the form of psych wards in hospitals. I can confirm they are still horrible in todays age. The only person to make me cry in there was a nurse and the only help I received was from fellow patients.
I have never read a statement/ summary of a psych ward that rang more true than this. I was bullied by my nurse and given comfort and friendship from other patients.
Very true I got bullied and tormented by a nurse and the patients were all nice and supportive
Its no wonder many of these asylums are still haunted to this day. Imagine all the abuse and horrors that took place in.
yeah all of the ghost stories about asylums no wonder.
@@willhuey4462all the vengeful spirit
If it doesn't kill you it'll cure you but you'll have PTSD and many other issues...
My great great grandfather was drowned in a bathtub in an asylum by the workers. On Halloween.
He was admitted for depression, anxiety, and alcoholism.
Carl Gustav Jung once wrote:
"Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life"
Amazing. I would love to read this book. Do you know where this was written?
Jung was brilliant and so far ahead of his time. Some of his ideas and writings have opened wide doors in me.
@@sagesarabia5053 This quote is from The Red Book: Liber Novus by C.G. Jung.
8:21 "A standard diet often included five prunes."
*shows seven prunes*
M O O N that spells Prunes...
In Nellie Bly's book "10 Days in an Insane Asylum.", she comments on how the more "Normal you act. The crazier they [doctors and nurses] think you are."
This is absolutely horrific. I remember learning about this in college studying to become a nursery teacher, which is where I also met my boyfriend who has Aspergers syndrom. We've also talked about this subject together, thankful that we live in a time where we can be together❤
We really aren't too far from the asylum era in regards to treatment of mental illness. While we do have medicines and therapies, we still throw our mentally ill In jails and prisons. The police force across the country is ill equipped to handle mental problems. They are simply not trained for it. If we had a form of mental hospital where people could be sentenced and get their medicine every day and be under doctor's care, our correctional system wouldn't be as overloaded as it is.
its a simple as this, nobody gives any f's for mentally ill.
Very true. Unfortunately for those in need, it's about money, not the patient. Jails get money for each inmate they house, just like public schools get money for each student being present. In most states it is the same amount.
The world didn't care then and the world doesn't care now. Mental illness is awful. Television and movies portray the mentally unwell as crazed and homicidal. We really haven't come very far and now we are doing a u turn.
Honestly this video didn’t surprise me. I don’t know that humans will ever be able to understand mental illness.
When does family take accountability for the people that they create
What is it always fall on society ?
The fact is you can't save them all
The focus needs to go to the people that want help and providing protection from those who don't and are a danger to the public
I was hospitalized twice as a teenager for severe depression, and twice after 25 for severe postpartum depression. Being treated as an adult who at that time recently had a baby, I definitely experienced better treatment. Every case with every individual is different.
Back in the 60s my Aunt had the shock treatment, which made it even worse, everytime I saw her, she look like a zombie, she became a vegetable, and she lived 11 years like that until she died.
It is actually still a good point to test a few diseaces before putting the patient into mental health ward. For example urinary track infection is a very common reason for elderly people's weird behavior. As the infection is cured, behavior comes back to normal too. (In fact I work in mental health field and sometimes you can see that the person is weird in a wrong way compared to his/her normal, and that might be caused by UTI too)
I was a home health caregiver meals, meds, cleaning Etc. I had a lady one day started acting weird and I told her son I am positive she has a UTI. I was ignored and so I let my boss know what was going on. Well I was right. It’s weird how the body deals with things.
My father in law was given electric shock therapy in the 1950s for epilepsy, absolutely barbaric to do that to a child whose brain was not fully mature.
This was in Canada, disgraceful.
Was he indigenous?
@@sleeplesshollow4216 no, he is not.
How horrible
What happened to him after that?
Apparently EST is still a thing at night... Strange.
My sis got sent to a mental facility one time when she had a breakdown. One of the employees there made fun of the cuts on her arms… In addition to this, another person there got a hold of a razor and slit her wrists and everyone had to witness. They were treated just as much like prisoners then as previous asylums, our system hasn’t changed much at all unfortunately.
First you write that one of them got a hold of a razor and slit her wrists, and then you write they were treated as prisoners, and you see no link between these two statements whatsoever? So what do you think we should do, let people like that out and give them free razors or...? Or should we use magic and make all their problems go away?
i remember when i put myself in hospital for an overdose (i was only 14-15) and i had this doctor that was belittling the shit out of my mental state, and before he left he said 'now i'm going to help someone with more important problems'
Slit your sister's wrists or their own wrists?! That's absolutely horrible. I hate ableism so much. It's a scourge.
@@roserevancroix2308 we should be treated with compassion like the human beings we are and not belittled and further abused.
@@louise.x03 hugs. I've heard similar shit.
I've worked in state hospitals for years and some of the things described in the video are not that far from what still goes on in the institutions today...sadly.there are many things I can never erase from my memories..no matter how much I wish I could.
Would you be okay with sharing what you saw?.. what cruel world we live in
@Saida Lopez let's just say that most of what was described in this video, still goes on today. With the exception of purposefully injecting diseases into the patients, lobotomies,etc..but basically the rest still goes on. I have also worked with both patients and staff who were in an institution called Willowbrook. If your not familiar with it, search Willowbrook, the last great disgrace, here on TH-cam. It's a damn shame..
As someone who has been an inpatient for my mental health struggles multiple times in my life, I acknowledge how far America has come (in a positive way) with mental health treatment in 2022. However, there is certainly still room for improvement (to put it lightly). In my opinion, America’s healthcare system needs A LOT of improvement in general, and those suffering with mental health conditions are often put on the bottom of healthcare administrators’ priority lists.
My friends and I visited an asylum/ rest home as a "school project." We were met at the door by Dr. (forgot his name), a very pleasant and knowledgeable man who took us on a tour of the entire facility. The poor patients who had been born with severe mental illness of various kinds which made them unable to care for themselves were housed in large rooms much like the ones we see here where they were hand fed, washed and diapered...Truly wretched. Only at the end of our tour, when the good doctor sat down to entertain us on the piano, did two attendants come, each grab an arm, and escort him back to his room. "He likes to give tours,, but he's not now, nor ever has been a doctor" was the only explanation we received. I think they should have put him on the payroll. :- )
I love it when people remember their ( regressive memories of } reincarnations . Shocking though to think your friend ( a school child ) was allowed to visit a psychiatric hospital 🏥 in the 18th century , think of the dangers of the patients ~ the " troublesome " children , the "idiotic" man Or the independent women with strong opinions of her own 😱 . ♑️✍️😏🇳🇴🇦🇺
That a story in book
I've always worked nights in the psych unit at our hospital. I love it because you NEVER know who's going to walk through that door voluntarily or involuntary and it's a learning experience. They're human beings and we all go through emotionally exhausting moments/mental breakdowns/depression or addictions. If you aren't saying you need mental health care then you must know someone who does. So sad to see people were treated this way back in the day...but now just look at prisons & jails as the new psych wards.
Sounds like you’re the perfect person to work nights in the psych unit ❤️
Ion know why kids dont have natural sympathy for working parents when i was 4 i already knew and understood the situation was in and had my respect even when i knew i was hurting from my own family issues
Whenever people complain or do not believe in contemporary medical science, wanting to keep away and with the old times treatments they better be real, and get some reading done of what is pastime treatments were used.
Thank you for your effort of enlightening..with your quirky humor! I enjoy it a lot.
Mental illness and personality disorders become mixed up. I said my mom was crazy but after years of trying to figure her out, she was a covert narsascist with over laps into borderline personality disorder. Very difficult person to get along with. Nothing would have helped her because she would never admit she was wrong
Same
Yep! Same experience here too.
Females
She kinda sounds like an ex-president we recently had..
@@howiegruwitz3173 I used to think that too, that it was primarily a female thing but male narcissist definitely exist. It just might present differently as there are so many different family dynamics. The most disturbing imo is a mother figure narcissist and her son. Creepy sh*t there if you wanna read up on it. My Dad was as easy going as they come. My mom always used to tell me 'Your JUST like your Dad!' as tho it was a bad thing. I used to think 'Thank God for that' 😂😂😂
I wonder if many of these doctors where also sadistic psychopaths
They definitely were!!
Many were as today
Most likely
Moths to a flame.
Flies to honey.
Sociopaths to vulnerable prey.
They were!!! Believe it!
A+ video!
Fascinating video, very eye-opening to see what the asylum culture was like at the time.
Some of these things still happen...Last month I was in an inpatient facility, involuntarily, that was co-ed, with manually locked doors, locked fire extinguishers, small rooms (with roommates), cots for beds, no privacy, screaming/violent patients, restricted diets, no outside time, and patients who had been in and out of facilities all their lives because their parents couldn't/didn't want to deal with. At least we weren't abused by the techs, maybe neglected, but that was the extent of it.
Two people in my family had experience with asylums in the 70s,one was a porter and one was an accidental patient for about two weeks. The porter didn't last long because the non stop screaming terrified them and he saw the nurses do awful stuff but no-one cared if they were told. The patient was dared to jump in a river and seen as suicidal because of it and said they saw people completely fine locked up with completely mentally lost poor folk and they were incredibly lucky to have parents who came to get them
My grandfather Donald Bray was the head of the Oregon state hospital till 89’. He was a humble man who preferred to be behind the scenes. When they were filming “one flew over the coo coos nest” they asked him if he wanted to act as the doctor. He simply said “I’m a doctor not an actor” The role then was then given to his secondary Dean Brooks, and now a days that’s who is mainly remembered unfortunately. Donald Bray was a humble man who worked tirelessly to put an end to mentally handicapped children being forcibly removed from households/mistreated. I’m not sure he would really want to be remembered as a figure head or idol, rather he would want to be remembered in the echoing positive changes he made. This video included a lot of difficult things to watch, yet something beautiful to note is the men, women, and people who worked tirelessly throughout the years that helped shape better mental health programs. We still have a long way to go, but hopefully through learning history we can try to break the cycles and not repeat our past. Thanks again for spreading awareness!
This is so scary 💯 I haven’t been to mental hospital since a year about because I got schizophrenia
Man, when I had to go to a mental hospital for attempted suicide I had great time. I was like a vacation. The staff was nice, and I just did puzzles the entire time. I was in the middle of getting my house to ready to sell, and that was only happening because I had been living with my sister. We had a massive falling out, and I just snapped one day. The doctor put me on an antidepressant, and it really helped. I also went to therapy.
Good to hear you had a good experience in a mental hospital. My experience in a behavioral hospital wasn’t that bad when I had psychosis. Meals were great!
Not good to attempt that then happy u went
If you weren't insane when you went in, you would be soon enough! Sheesh!
Sadly there is no study on the efficacy of institutionalization...
The irony right. The institutions made the patients insane
That’s true
@@jjtru21 oh yeah
My doctor asked me if anyone in my family suffers from mental illness...
I said, "NO, We all seem to enjoy it."
Doctor: 😐📄
@@egios9466 Doctor: "there's the door."
@@dvdv8197 Doctor: Get your family here we got some *barbecue* at the facility.
Lmao
😂🤣 sounds familiar
I’m a psych technician currently at a hospital in Denver and the stuff I see on a daily basis I could write books about, both good and bad. I get to be there for people at their worst though, and I was once a patient myself who had a horrible time so I understand some of their pain. This isn’t a career for 997 out of 1000 people, and even people who are made for it still have hard days.
my great aunt spent well over 40 years in one, her children thought she had died decades earlier because her husband had told them that, they were hysterical when one recieved a government letter saying she had died in her 80s in an asylum. all those years they could have visited her or got her out but they didnt know she was alive. same thing happened to actor cary grant apparently but he found his mother in her old age and rescued her.
Alot of these “crazy” patients were undiagnosed with Autism and other developmental related disorders. Fortunately behavior analyst came it and took care of the unwanted “insane” people. It really is a sad story how these “doctors” would not want to treat any of them.
Mental disorders is not something you can cure honey.
And meds doesn't help shit those are just a scam to rid naive morons of their money.
What we need to do is to remove dangerous people from the society so they don't hurt other people.
Behavior analysis is just a different flavor of torture
When did autism get recognized and seen more as how we see it today?
I'm doing research on asylums, so this video is timely for me and will be extremely helpful. Thank you!
You should watch Bedlam (1946). Not only is it a phenomenal flick, but it’s also a chilling depiction of what life was really like within the asylums of yore. I can’t find any evidence of this atm, but I feel the female lead is loosely based on Nellie Bly. 🤷🏾♀️
Good luck with your research!
good luck with your research
I recommend the book Theaters of Madness by Benjamin Reiss. I used that as a source in a small paper, and it was very useful.
Research complete
People think that this stuff dont happened now but it does I have been in and out since I was 11 I'm 25 now I was sent to another one in 2019 and they abused the hell outta us they treated us like animal's refused us medical treatment when clearly needed it.
Really great video!
Other patients coming into your room and staring at you, a lady crying for death, and another just saying the word murder…yep sounds like a Monday at the inpatient psychiatric unit
I’m somewhat of a frequent flier at my local mental health hospitals. I’ve been committed 8 times in the last 7 years. Honestly, while treatment has improved, still a lot hasn’t changed. The food is horrible. Other patients can really disrupt your own healing. I’ve had other patients sneak into my room and steal my clothes and shoes; I’ve heard people screaming and crying all night; I’ve been unwittingly involved in a fist fight between patients; I’ve seen a person hallucinating and fighting with their hallucinations; and there is all kinds of sexual acting out, to the point of being creepy. Also, electric shock therapy is still used, though it is much improved. And one thing confused me; the video made it sound like involuntary commitment was a thing of the past but that’s not true. 6 of my 8 hospital stays have been involuntary meaning I was a danger to myself or others and was deemed too incapacitated to decide for myself regarding my own treatment. I was sometimes the patient screaming and crying all night.
In the interest of full disclosure, I suffer from bipolar, panic disorder, PTSD, borderline, and an eating disorder.
So yeah, some things have improved, but an awful lot of stuff hasn’t. The mentally ill are still treated like pariahs.
I may be bipolar or have depression I want you to know that you are not alone
Your story sounds like mine, unfortunately. 4 times hospitalized, 3 of them involuntary. Bipolar and PTSD.
You sound like my sister. A wonderful talented beautiful sister but never underestimate the power of the mind
It beats going to jail i guess. (I've been to both)
Yes another lady got my clothes out of the dryer. I had just escaped sex and labor or trafficking and literally had 1 pair of pants. I went to get the nurse so she could get the pants off. 👖 When the nurse told her to take them off...she urinated in them while laughing and saying I was lucky she didn't have to shit. She physically threatened me. That was my 3rd time. Horrible treatment.
I've been committed to mental hospitals, a few short-term and the others residential, and in my experience the short-term ones are worse. I had seen several people scratch their wrists raw while staff stood back and watched, meanwhile a docile patient was body-slammed to the ground and injected with sedatives. There was one person who'd rub his shit on the walls and he attempted to make sexual advances toward some of the staff and other patients. You'd often hear a mixture of crying and screaming at night, and violent fights would break out between patients. You had about fifteen adolescents on unit at about any given time, all confined to one room when it wasn't time for meals, sleep, or the one hour of physical activity they allowed us to have in a musty old gym. Occasionally we got to go outside, but not for very long. Everyone was immediately put on Seroquel, an anti-psychotic used also as a sleep aid. It caused me to have bizarre, intense dreams and I'd wake up feeling as though I hadn't slept at all.
I was sick and in definite need of treatment for what I was going through at the time, but being put in an environment like that was certainly not conductive to my mental health. At that point, I just had to fake that I was fine until I was allowed to leave. (That did backfire though because I just kept getting sent back to different facilities and for even longer periods of time. I am glad to say that, years later, I'm doing a lot better!)
Oh, bless you & so glad to hear…I really mean this! 😊😊😊😊
What a scary time to be alive. Great video.
I work in a mental health center, and they have changed the layout tremendously. It has comfortable living areas, and the food isn't that terrible. I even eat it at work along with all the other staff. This "school cafeteria" concept helps make the patients feel a common ground with everyone.
In this history report, the emphasis is on how many hospitals existed. They still do! This is because most patients, if removed from their natural dwelling place, were admitted to a mental hospital they will transfer and transfer repeatedly to all hospitals for care and rarely return back home due to horrible memory loss and issues of cast judgements. Please, if you ever get to know a mental health patient who says they are recovering well, please treat them with the most kindness you know how because they deserve to be treated as such.
My grandma was actually a patient there in the 80s, and the Oregon state hospital is also where they filmed One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
The grandma managed to find love despite being sent to a psyc ward? Dang either she’s good at keeping secrets or her husband was a very understanding and supportive man
This video was absolutely necessary and I thank you for educating others about how treatments were back then. It’s appalling to see and hear, but as many have stated: things have improved, but society still has a long way to go before those with mental health problems, disorders, etc. get the actual treatment and help that they need.
I can speak from personal experience. I still suffer from occasional suicidal thoughts and severe depression and my anger still gets the better of me sometimes, but years of self-control and suppressing my own feelings out of fear of being thrown into the psyche wards again have kept me silent.
We try different approaches to cure people now, and I don’t believe it’s any less humane than electroshock therapy or ice baths. It’s called medication now. Sometimes it helps, but most of the time they just sort of experiment on you until (if) they find the right dosage.
I didn’t forget that place I was sent to and I still don’t trust doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses or even anyone who works at hospitals because of the “advanced mental health treatment” I received.
Suffering in silence is perhaps the best self-treatment for people like me: but I’m fully aware of how much stress it puts me under. It’s probably the reason I started losing my hair by age 18, the reason I ate so much in my teens and early twenties, the reason I had no friends after high school and the reason I hate people and have no pity for humanity anymore.
That said, however, to all of you who suffer in silence with me: I do care enough to tell you that you’re not alone in your silent battles. I think about you every day, even though I may not know you personally: and I hope you find even the smallest of victories today. You deserve a chance to be happy. Stay strong and never give up on life, no matter how bad things may seem. You’re worth every breath you take, every heartbeat and every thought given or had.
Thank you 💚 i needed this today.
Wow, thanks. I have the same distrust over so-called mental health professionals after my own experiences in and out of psych wards and hospitals. I have been out of them for around 19 years now mostly in part that I keep it all in now and very fortunately found a a very understanding, caring husband. I only take one antidepressant now. I have had several different diagnoses. And most of them were wrong. Basically the only ones that make sense to me is Major Depression and HSP (Highly Sensitive Person). It does feel like I'm the only one in the world who feels like this. If you get put into one of those places, lie through your teeth and try to do what they say if you want to get out. I probably have PTSD from being in those places too. I'm glad I've met a kindred soul.
If you really hate people & have no pity for humanity anymore, why the long post & your heartfelt words at the end? Seems like you're being a tad hard on yourself. Good luck to you.
Thanks for covering this. People have historically treated disabled people such as myself like dirt. Glad it is slowly improving
I have been in an institution. Sometimes, it did seem like a prison. If someone got "too out of control", they were put in a padded room in solitary confinement. I always did as I was told to as to avoid that situation. Yet, compared to what was described here, it was much more humane.
For autistic children now, in the 21st century, treatments include compression vests (straight jackets), Sensory pod swings, and spinning similar to the 'merry go rounds' on playgrounds to help them ground and center. We did this for our son and he loved it. The vest soothed him and helped him be able to concentrate. The swinging and spinning were things he did on his own without the aids, but we did use them at a sensory processing dysfunction 'gym' that helped him immensely.
I have autism myself (at 51) and need a weighted blanket to sleep. The compression helps me to relax and feel safer and more comfortable.
I wonder how many children had autistic traits and parents had no idea back them what to do for them!
I must also say, you were really 'kind' in this. I've been in the "Behavioral Therapy" section of the hospital three times. All three voluntary due to my bipolar. I kept thinking they could help me HAHAHAHAHAHA at least in my city they let people go still in their hospital gowns only to have the person still in their gown go to the veterans memorial bridge (called the suicide bridge) and jump, just to stop their suffering because the hospitals can't/won't help them. My last stay was so abusive by one male head nurse I had him removed from the floor for the duration of my weeklong stay. It may be 2021, but the abusive is still just as real and horrific. One young man was in a room locked from the outside, with metal bars on the tiny window and was in the dark all the time. He howled nonstop for the entire week. there were also the screamers. three ladies that they just let scream all day and all night.
There was nothing to do but sit in your room and watch tv. you were fed barely warm slop that gave me food poisoning from the hard boiled egg that had sat out for hours. Nope you DO NOT want to go to these even in the modern age. Nothing has really changed except they want to just pump you full of pills that the side effects are worse than the illness!!
Yikes. That food poisoning thing is awful
People used to be chained, raped and beaten in these places. Even murdered.
Ohio ??
@@gina9832 NY
Unfortunately in some states in the US parents are still legally allowed to “baker act” or force their child into a psych ward with little to no reason. I myself live in one of those states and my own parents have threatened to send me to one purely because I am having a severe panic attack because of something like a sensory overload.
That happened to me and it made it so much worse I had severe social anxiety and panic attacks and they treated me so so badly
I have ancestry who owned a mental hospital somewhere in the north of Spain. About 2 years ago we visited it, and it was absolutely terrifying. There were a ton of teeny tiny cells with metal doors and framing, food was delivered by a small opening, just like in a prison.
How heartbreaking that ANYONE is treated this way,Now or in the past😢
Coming from someone who has been in a psychiatric ward, it’s still like being in prison. Just like prison reform has improved, so have mental hospital wards. I have severe clinical major depressive disorder and horrible social anxiety and couldn’t stop crying because I wasn’t on the right medication. I was made to go to the restroom on camera, shower with the door open so anyone could walk in on me, sleep on a cot flat on a big wooden box. I was horribly sick to my stomach from the awful hospital food that wasn’t even exactly food, and had to hide my diarrhea because it would mean staying in the hospital longer. I had to summon enough mental energy to get out of the hospital to go home after several days (even tho I voluntarily checked myself in) and was finally given back my personal belongings and my own clothes, left and stayed in bed at home for two weeks after because I was so scared and had ptsd from my time there.