Hacker News Reader

Comment by RavZterz | Hacker News Reader

Agree with you. Being committed is the same as being in jail. They take your belongings and lock you in a room with a guard making sure you don't leave. Then you stay there at their discretion. I understand the reasoning in that if you hold someone off from suicide it should subside hopefully but it's all guesswork.

I keep seeing articles about a new suicide booth in Switzerland and the rate of euthanasia increasing in Canada... I understand people don't have a solution, but it feels like the experts aren't even trying. I think some good advice is to treat therapy like medicine and realize it might not solve the problem and there are real risks involved. I don't want to turn anyone away from therapy, but it isn't for me.

View on HN

> I understand people don't have a solution, but it feels like the experts aren't even trying.

This is definitely the vibe I get from the mental health establishment. There's so much hot air about "awareness" and "stigma" and telling people "there is help", but that's essentially just marketing. That's not going to do much for someone who's seen a dozen therapists and tried as many medications to virtually no effect, or someone who found the "right treatment" and can hold down a job now but still feels like shit most of the time.

I was taken involuntarily to a hospital.

I was immediately presumed guilty and cursed at by nurses. Looked down upon by cops. Laughed at when I asked for a signed warrant or consent before acting.

Oh yeah, I wasn't there for a mental health hold. A cop claimed there were drugs up my ass. Literally.

They found nothing. Never got an apology. Just a bunch of judgemental assholes that assume if you're being evaluated for something it must be true. Even when discharged they marked "overdose" on my paperwork.... I was stone cold sober and was only there because some officer apparently thought I fit the profile of a drug smuggler. The medical workers didn't want to admit they were wrong so they just marked it as an overdose when absolutely nothing was found, including never performing a tox screen (it would have been negative). On the way out the doctor bragged about how he was monitoring closely to try and find a way to hold me longer, with the implied threat being he had hoped since whatever preconceived notion he had about me being a drug smuggler had no evidence that he could punish me instead by involuntarily committing me.

I was admitted "voluntarily", and it wasn't a whole lot better. I went willingly, and then when I started having second thoughts they basically told me to either sign the consent form or they'd do things the hard way. I didn't face any direct abuse, but the whole framework was organized around achieving compliance, not remission. Some people working there seemed to actually care, but they also had no actual power to improve things.

It's not a great situation to be in, and I absolutely would lie to a mental health professional to avoid going through it again.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com