Tales from the Mental Hospital

June 8, 2004 10:25 PM

Tales from the Mental Hospital. "I fought them the best I could, but it was no use at all. I was rather quickly overpowered and dragged inside. A smart person would have just given up at that point, but at the time I was by no means a smart person. I started pulling and struggling to get these guys off me. This only made the situation worse, as I was forced down onto the floor of the wing so the nurse could come and administer the ever popular needle of Ativan into my ass cheek. I continued to try and fight, until a rather large fellow named Abdullah decided the best way to keep me down would to be to use his knee to pin my head to the rug."
posted by UKnowForKids (14 comments total)

It's posted under a section called "Comedy Goldmine," but it's not exactly an LOL kind of piece. Although the piece focuses more on the people the author met in various mental hospitals, what's most interesting to me is the look it gives us at how he dealt with his situation largely through cruelty, and how he seems to be half-aware and half-oblivious to the pain he caused these people.
posted by UKnowForKids at 10:29 PM on June 8, 2004

We're so going to get busted.
posted by drezdn at 10:33 PM on June 8, 2004

DDOS in 5....4....3.....
posted by eyeballkid at 10:45 PM on June 8, 2004

Not to turn this into too meta- of a thread, but this is a regular front-page article from Something Awful, not a super-top-secret forums post that has been mysteriously made available to the public so that we can have a mere taste of the wonders that are available for the low, low price of $9.95. I seriously doubt this will cause any kind of a shitstorm. (Although I hadn't read the full MetaTalk thread about Keyser's post, which was pretty interesting. Buncha crazy dicks over at that Something Awful ranch.)
posted by UKnowForKids at 11:15 PM on June 8, 2004

Um... what's the problem here? The link was interesting... what am I missing?
posted by silusGROK at 11:17 PM on June 8, 2004

Actually it started out as a forums article, but was "promoted" to a front-page article. "Comedy Goldmine" is a semi-"Best Of" from the forums.

Its cool to link to frontpage articles, just not ones that people post to the forums and ask "dont share this outside of the forums".
posted by mrbill at 11:29 PM on June 8, 2004

Its just text, perhaps less than 50KB, the whole thing can be hosted anywhere if these people have a problem mefi linking to it.

Copy, paste, upload.
posted by skallas at 11:40 PM on June 8, 2004

Also, reminds me a lot of how Philip K. Dick described the mental institution he was in in the book V.A.L.I.S.
posted by skallas at 11:43 PM on June 8, 2004

I'm glad n3cro wrote this. Most people have a strong aversion to mental health institutions, but an account like this proves how neccessary they are to keep disturbed individuals like this off the streets and in safety (hopefully with some rehabilitation).
posted by Down10 at 11:46 PM on June 8, 2004

I was in a psych ward (voluntarily) a couple of times for severe depression. Incidentally, that's why most of the people were there. Okay, well, actually, there was a seperate, violent ward that I didn't have anything to do with, so I don't know about those folks.

Anyway, this will sound a bit intolerant of me, but it was my observation that every person who complained that they should be let out (of those who were there against their will), shouldn't have been. I mean, every darn one of them would do all the wrong things. Like throw tantrums, yell, whatever. I kept thinking, "you know, if I wanted to be let out, I'd be acting exactly how the doctors and nurses want me to act." Seems to me that anyone who is highly motivated to be released but doesn't have enough sense and self-control to play along is almost by definition not fit to be released. The irony of someone picking up and throwing a chair while demanding to be let out greatly amused me.

Anyway, all in all, my experience was a very good one. Everyone was really nice, it probably saved my life, and I met some nice people. It was really cool how all the patients were very concerned about each other—people tended to be concerned more about others than themselves, actually; though that's probably typical for depression. And I was in such a bad state and in a bad life situation, and so at the end of my rope, that being there where I had no concerns other than getting help in a very controlled environment, made me feel (much to my surprise) very safe. I actually have good memories of the place for that reason, I think.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:53 PM on June 8, 2004

I bet those guys from the somethingawful forums can't get a photo of my house.


I really bet....$50, any takers?
posted by pemulis at 11:55 PM on June 8, 2004

Blood has been shed. I never knew they'd be so efficient?!?!
posted by pemulis at 12:04 AM on June 9, 2004

if i was getting ativan in the ass cheek i'd hardly be depressed. it's a paradox, no?
posted by quonsar at 12:26 AM on June 9, 2004

My little hospital experience was when I was fifteen. Complete with Haldol in butt cheek. I vowed to myself I would do whatever it took to get out, and to stay out of such a place. That is one promise I have managed to keep over the years, thankfully.

Having said that, many amusing things happened over those three days, but I was too overdrugged to really fully appreciate the humor.
posted by konolia at 12:57 PM on June 9, 2004