The Best Positive Tips that You are Not as Crazy as They Say You Are!
How A Perfectly Sane Person (Whatever That Means) Was Accidentally Placed In A Hospital Psych Floor, and Had to Convince The Medical Staff That She Didn't Belong There.
“This newsletter serves a demographic of highly intelligent readers, deep thinkers, life hackers, preppers, survivalists, and those with an interest in mental health awareness. I especially focus on those with a passion for ideas, critical thinking, strategic game theory, and a desire to understand the world around them. Readers of my posts are usually tired of being patronized elsewhere by fact-less, opinionated know-nothings, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news.
“Knowledge is power, wisdom brings meaning, contentment, and happiness!”
The Life Strategies Playbook & Mentoring Program is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
———————————————————
———————————————————
On a personal note: Please excuse grammatical errors, typos, repetition, and any general nonsense, and such in this post. I am getting a bit older now, and I have about 20,000 pages of information that must get published before I leave the mortal coil. I simply write and publish more than my humble editors are able to correct. If you find enough errors you are welcome to contact me about being an editor of my work.
Thanks for sharing this newsletter with your friends and associates - Join us for daily tips on personal development at our free Self-Improvement for Beginners Group and Forum
Click Below or cut and paste the URL to Join our group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/455029215769173
———————————————————
A 4 - Minute Read
This is a story of how a person was diagnosed with mental illness because no one paid her the right attention while others paid a simple answer on a questionnaire too much attention. Just because some overworked clinical psychologist in some mental health clinic decides that you have a mental disorder, that doesn’t mean you do.
My world has always been an eccentric one, and thanks to many guides, mentors, teachers, and guardian angels, nine of my eccentricities have gotten me in much trouble, other than a lesson or two, here and there that needed to be learned and not repeated.
Having written a best-selling book on Healing Depression Naturally a few decades back, I am always interested in any story related to the emotions, the mind, and the healing of either or both.
https://www.amazon.ca/Healing-Depression-Naturally-Lewis-Harrison/dp/0758205384
Thus, this story, written by Lisa Kang a few years ago and posted on Quora.com really caught my attention. I really feel the need to share it, especially for those of you who have struggled with mental and emotional issues.
Six or seven years ago, I was mistakenly put in the psych ward. After about eight hours of sitting in their lobby, dressed in scrubs, with no access to my personal belongings but plenty of access to apple juice and bad TV, I was able to convince the staff to release me.
The evening before, I had been experiencing recurring heart palpitations, and because there is some history of heart failure in my family, I panicked and called 911. 911 recommended I call the paramedics. The paramedics couldn’t find much wrong with me, but were bound by law to take me to the emergency ward of the hospital. I’m self-employed and have cheap insurance that doesn’t cover much, so I asked to be taken to the county hospital.
After being admitted to the hospital emergency room, a nurse checked me in, asking me several questions as what seemed to be a matter of procedure. I remember being asked if I had any medical conditions, if I’d taken any drugs, if I felt safe at home. One question was, “Have you at any time in your life had suicidal thoughts?” Not, “Are you having suicidal thoughts?” but, “Have you had ever in your life had suicidal thoughts?” I wanted to be honest and said, “Yes,” because, yes, I’d had some difficulties with depression in my life and though I’d never attempted suicide or had serious intentions to do so, I have had some thoughts. I have also had thoughts of socking people and dancing on tables in restaurants, but had never done those things and probably never will, but I would have answered, “yes” if they had asked me if I had thought about these things.
They took some chest x-rays, and had me wait an hour or two to be checked by a doctor. The heart palpitations were to become a part of my life for the next few years, and were most likely a symptom of hormonal imbalance. At the time, though, they were something new, and the emergency doctor, not being able to find anything wrong with me, decided that I was having an anxiety attack. He told me that they’d like to have me talk to their psychiatrist - something that would take me about 10 minutes. So I waited for their psychiatrist - for about 10 hours, sitting on a gurney all night in the hallway of the emergency ward of the county hospital. Because I had answered “yes” to that question about suicidal thoughts, they put me on suicide watch, meaning I had to have a nurse supervise me at all times, standing outside the door when I needed to use the restroom.
Finally, in the early morning, after my having waited all night, a psychiatrist came and talked to me for a few minutes. I remember his asking me about the “yes” answer to the suicide question and my assuring him that I was not at that time in any way suicidal. I thought that was it, and I could be released from County hospital, but instead, after waiting another hour or so, I was put on a wheelchair and given a police escort while wheeled to the psychiatric ward.
I hadn’t been told that the hospital was bound by law to bring to the psychiatric ward anyone who said “yes” to that question about having suicidal thoughts in ones lifetime. I thought it was a big mistake and told the nurses in psychiatric so. They had no sympathy and confiscated all my belongings and asked me to remove my pants and shirt, as both had drawstrings on them and were therefore potentially dangerous to me. They put me in scrubs. They told me I could make a call from their phone. I called my brother’s family.
They sat me down in the lobby, where I was surrounded by what were apparently homeless people. They told me because so many people had been admitted that night, it could be up to 72 hours before I could speak to a psychiatrist for review. It was the middle of the work week, and I had to get to work. I complained to a nurse, telling her I didn’t belong there, and 72 hours was an unacceptable period of time to wait to be able to have someone make that judgement. She looked at me wearily and replied, “It’s eye-opening, isn’t it?” But she or another nurse was able to have me be seen sooner. When this was announced, all the “crazies” in the room stopped their rocking, yelling, rambling and silent introspecting and turned their eyes towards me. I heard someone ask, “Why does SHE get to be seen earlier?”
I waited about five or six hours, observing the people around me, watching TV, drinking apple juice and eating bread. (As I am a vegetarian, I wasn’t able to eat much of what was provided for meals.) Finally, I was able to speak to a nurse. This one was sympathetic and actually listened to me. By that time, I had had some time to think about what had brought me to the hospital in the first place and told the nurse I thought I might have been having some sort of hormone-triggered problem. The nurse, being a middle-aged woman, understood and agreed that that may have been the case. She agreed to let me seen that morning by a psychiatrist.
I waited another hour or two to speak to the psychiatrist, who agreed that I should not be in the psychiatric ward. He requested my release. When they called my name to be released, again what seemed like all the other people who had been admitted stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes towards me. Someone asked, “Why does SHE get to be released early?” And I wondered, indeed, why do I? What makes me any less ill than many of these people?
Few times in my life have I felt my privilege more than that day. I called my sister-in-law. I got my clothes and belongings back. I was given literature on finding help for depression, and I was free - with a $8,000.00 bill - $6,000.00 for emergency services and $2,000.00 for psychiatric services. My insurance company was able to reduce the bill to $6,000.00. My doctor told me next time just call her, doesn’t matter what time it is, and have her give an opinion first. It was as an expensive lesson on how dysfunctional our medical system here can be.
Thanks, Lisa. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up after reading your story
The Takeaway
In my own life, there are three quotes related to mental health that I always keep in the back of my mind. Each makes me smile in a different way when I encounter crazy shit in the world that everyone else thinks is normal.
1. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”
2. An extraordinary person needs to act insane to themselves to appear normal to everyone else”
3. Life is not a place where you learn lessons. It is really just a message board. If you don’t get the message, you’ll have to learn the lesson.
——————————————————————————————————————
Author: Hey there. My name is Lewis Harrison, and I am a proponent of and for, Pragmatic Prepping, Sensible Survivalism, Liberated Life Hacking, and Intentional Living. I am a writer, teacher, and results-oriented life coach. The author of over twenty books, numerous self-improvement, and personal development courses, and the former host of a talk show on NPR Affiliated WIOX91.3 FM, I can be contacted directly for my Life Strategies Playbook Courses, general coaching, for coaching/mentoring in prepper/survivalism or just how to win the game of life, at LewisCoaches@gmail.com