Posted by Lyrical13 on January 1, 2004, at 11:25:22
In reply to Re: therapists sticking up for one another » Medusa, posted by Poet on December 29, 2003, at 12:07:25
It could be that your current therapist doesn't have first-hand knowledge with Unethical Institute...may just know of them by reputation or familiarity with the name. Maybe hasn't heard first-hand experience from folks who've been treated there. I agree with previous person's post on bringing up issue in tx. I had a very bad hospitalization experience and this caused me to be very wary of meds, pdocs, etc in general. Finally in 1996 my endocrinologist urged me to go to a pdoc who was a friend of hers because she said I had more than blood sugar and thyroid problems...it seemd like there were brain chemical problems too (panic attacks were the symptom at the time) Best thing I ever did for myself and have been in treatment since.
Unfortunately, it's difficult as mental health patients to always trust that you will be believed. THere are people who will be skeptical of what you say because of your mental health issues. Those folks are turkeys. It's hard to stick your neck out when you don't know if your tx is one of the turkeys or someone you can trust to believe you and help you vs taking Unethical Institutes side.
I have been struggling with this for 10 years. I just recently told my therapist about past bad hospital experience and to my relief she said it sounded like I was a victim of a very unethical and bad practice (basically, I was in a hospital for exactly 30 days (what my insurance covered) in a place that later was under FBI investigation for insurance fraud. Really. My dad got a letter (his insurance paid for the hospitalization...I was a college student at the time) This was in TX at a time when I was hearing stories of Psych Institutes in TX and CA who were admitting pts just to get their insurance money even when they really didn't need to be admitted. When people are putting you on antipsychotics and accusing you of being paranoid and you say that you shouldn't be there etc etc, it's very hard to make folks believe you. Very distressing and frightening experience. But I played the game. Took my meds and went to my groups and decided "what the heck. I'm stuck here...might as well process some stuff about my parents divorce, etc etc" After I got out I got off the meds (they had me on Lithium...which really whacked my system, an AP called Navane, Benedryl for the side effects of Navane (closed up my throat, felt like I was choking) and then even tried to get me to take a med for sleeping when I was already knocked out from teh other meds and falling into bed exhausted by 7 or 8pm. Very scary since the person in the room next to me was recovering narcotics addict, alcoholic, borderline personality and was friends with another person in there with multiple personalities.. a couple of his personalities were satanic and they wanted to kill my next-door-neighbor...I was afraid he would get the wrong room and kill me. Thankfully he was soon shippped off to the state hospital.
But I digress. The bottom line is, there are unethical people and practices out there. Some folks won't believe you but some will. I've been through a lot of tx to deal with trauma from my whole hospital ordeal. (BTW, the way I got admitted was that I passed out due to crashing from low blood sugar...was hallucinating and saying some crazy things...went into teh ER by ambulance and woke up a couple hours after I had passed out..not sure how long I was out but I do remember feeling when the IV was put in my hand and starting to come around after I was in the hospital. Still not sure what exactly happened to me because recordds have been "lost". Sheriff and CMH pressured me to admit myself to psych hospital. I was by myself at college an hour away from home...the dorms were closing down (I was an RA and was one of the last few folks there helping to shut down the dorm) everyone was leaving..moving home...hospital staff told me that my mom's line was disconnected (even though I had just talked to her at that number the day before) ....here I was by myself with nowhere to go...these 2 authority figures are telling me that if I don't check myself in to psych hospital the judge will admit me and I won't be able to get out...eventually reluctantly checked myself in...amazingly, when they gave me a sandwich I started to feel much better and my head started to clear....)
Anyway, sorry to get off on such a tangent. I meant this post to be short and sweet and helpful to you by relating that I had a bad hospital experience and I WAS believed my mental health professionals eventually. Now I feel like crying. A doc I had at one point thought I had PTSD...if I do, it's probably the result of that whole month...actually several months following that...of hell. Very sad now. Will go find my husband for hugs and reassurance and talk about this in tx next week.
L13
poster:Lyrical13
thread:294255
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031221/msgs/295350.html