Hospitals Can Really Help
It’s important to remember that hospitals are often a good place for people with bipolar disorder. Many people hear the words, You have bipolar disorder, for the first time when they are in the hospital. It’s a safe place to get such life changing news.
I know this is how it was for me. My partner Ivan went into the hospital in 1994 before I had any idea of what bipolar disorder really meant. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder I (one). The next year I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder II (two) and spent time in a hospital day program in Seattle. So many people see the hospital as a bad place- I see it as a healing place for those of us with this illness. Of course, our goal is to create a plan so we do not have to go back, but a stay at the hospital is nothing to be ashamed of.
I have to remind myself of this when I get really sick. I don’t want to go to the hospital. Like many people, I see it as failure! I astonish myself with my OWN stupidity.
Bipolar disorder doesn’t care how smart you are or how well prepared you are to manage the illness, it can still hit you like a sack of bricks and you have to get professional help.
It’s an illness and hospitals are often the only safe place when the mood swings are raging!
Julie
This is St. Remy where Van Gogh stayed while under treatment from his amazing psychiatrist Dr. Gachet.
I think hospitals can be amazing if they are attached to a university or if they are connected through insurance. They can have art therapy, movement therapy, sensory therapy, and group as well as individual. However if you are poor and you go through the county hospitals are essentially just prisons and you sit around all day. The nurses yell at patients when they get symptomatic and the schedule on the wall is fake. You rarely have any type of therapy and mostly sit around in the day room watching tv and reading year old magazines while you wait for pills, or food, or to go outside. Cigarettes, quarters for the phone, and dessert become currency. So it isn’t just about being ashamed its about being in hell mentally and literally in these places. This has a lot more to do with the bad rep hospitals have then shame.