Anonymous 2 continued...My family, having familiarity with only one "mental illness" Bipolar Disorder, decided that was what was wrong with me. I didn't meet criteria for involuntary hospitalization that night, since no one was able to say I was dangerous.
[A series of events followed, which were either misunderstood or misinterpreted byAnonymous's family.] My husband told hospital staff, and wrote on an "Application for Temporary Mental Health Services," that I had attempted to commit suicide by trying to jump from a moving car and had threatened to kill people. He was not questioned by anyone about his allegations. In fact, what had happened was that, the night before, on the way home from the hospital, I had asked my husband to be quiet or to stop the car and let me out to call a cab, which he refused to do. I was in the back seat and opened the car door in an effort to get him to stop the car or to stop yelling at me. When he didn’t stop the car, I gave up and closed the door. Later that night, after we got home, I said, “If have to stay in this house and listen to you for one more minute, I’ll probably feel like I want to kill you!” After I’d said this, I immediately left the house and spent the night with a friend.
With this "evidence" of my dangerousness and the diagnosis he had chosen for me, my husband was able to have me committed. I was initially kept in the acute care hospital for 13 days, while hospital staff waited for a court order to have me forcibly medicated.
[Anonymous was subsequently informed by her court-appointed attorney that she had been given a "furlough", and she was released from the hospital but required to visit a psychiatrist of the court's choosing. She was also told to return for a hearing on a petition for an order to administer psychoactive medication.]
When I left the hospital, I was given a Social Service Aftercare Form identifying the type of discharge as "Dismissal of Commitment [by] M.D. Believing myself to have been released from commitment, I felt no obligation to visit a psychiatrist I hadn't chosen or to appear for a hearing I had not been served notice for. The court apparently didn't agree, and ten days later I was picked up by constables and returned to the hospital where I was readmitted. I was never given any paperwork from the court.
[Anonymous's examination by the resident psychiatrist when she was returned to the hospital described her in glowing, upbeat and "normal" terms. The attending psychiatrist signed this positive report, made no amendments to it, but nonetheless kept her detained. He spoke with her for fifteen minutes the next day and decided to keep her confined, based on his perception of her prior records.]
Eight days after this second hospitalization began, I was court ordered to receive mental health services and to submit to forced medication. I was kept for an additional 13 days, injected with Prolixin until I suffered an acute dystonic reaction which convinced me to orally ingest the drugs the doctor wanted me to take, and I was finally released with my husband's diagnosis still on the records and a referral to the county MHMR facility, so I could continue to receive medication for my “chronic mental illness.”
[A series of events followed, which were either misunderstood or misinterpreted byAnonymous's family.] My husband told hospital staff, and wrote on an "Application for Temporary Mental Health Services," that I had attempted to commit suicide by trying to jump from a moving car and had threatened to kill people. He was not questioned by anyone about his allegations. In fact, what had happened was that, the night before, on the way home from the hospital, I had asked my husband to be quiet or to stop the car and let me out to call a cab, which he refused to do. I was in the back seat and opened the car door in an effort to get him to stop the car or to stop yelling at me. When he didn’t stop the car, I gave up and closed the door. Later that night, after we got home, I said, “If have to stay in this house and listen to you for one more minute, I’ll probably feel like I want to kill you!” After I’d said this, I immediately left the house and spent the night with a friend.
With this "evidence" of my dangerousness and the diagnosis he had chosen for me, my husband was able to have me committed. I was initially kept in the acute care hospital for 13 days, while hospital staff waited for a court order to have me forcibly medicated.
[Anonymous was subsequently informed by her court-appointed attorney that she had been given a "furlough", and she was released from the hospital but required to visit a psychiatrist of the court's choosing. She was also told to return for a hearing on a petition for an order to administer psychoactive medication.]
When I left the hospital, I was given a Social Service Aftercare Form identifying the type of discharge as "Dismissal of Commitment [by] M.D. Believing myself to have been released from commitment, I felt no obligation to visit a psychiatrist I hadn't chosen or to appear for a hearing I had not been served notice for. The court apparently didn't agree, and ten days later I was picked up by constables and returned to the hospital where I was readmitted. I was never given any paperwork from the court.
[Anonymous's examination by the resident psychiatrist when she was returned to the hospital described her in glowing, upbeat and "normal" terms. The attending psychiatrist signed this positive report, made no amendments to it, but nonetheless kept her detained. He spoke with her for fifteen minutes the next day and decided to keep her confined, based on his perception of her prior records.]
Eight days after this second hospitalization began, I was court ordered to receive mental health services and to submit to forced medication. I was kept for an additional 13 days, injected with Prolixin until I suffered an acute dystonic reaction which convinced me to orally ingest the drugs the doctor wanted me to take, and I was finally released with my husband's diagnosis still on the records and a referral to the county MHMR facility, so I could continue to receive medication for my “chronic mental illness.”