• Shawn
    13.2k
    Hey guys and gals,

    I tried committing suicide two weeks ago, and was institutionalized for 7 days. Some of the people I met in my psych unit were the most caring, compassionate, intelligent, and warm people I ever met in my life. As I am writing this I am crying.

    I never bonded so deeply with anyone else and actually felt normal in an institution. I know that it was a one time thing to get to meet those people; but, I don't know what to do now.

    As strange as this sounds, I felt happy in a psych ward.

    Does anyone know how to go on?

    I'm not considering suicide, so please don't worry about that.
  • Nils Loc
    1.4k
    Does anyone know how to go on?Wallows

    What is the alternative to not going on?
  • Shawn
    13.2k


    Voluntary commit to an institution?

    I'm not making this shit up.
  • Nils Loc
    1.4k
    Voluntary commit to an institution?

    I'm not making this shit up.
    Wallows

    Do they really keep you or isn't this always a temporary situation. Or are you talking about jail?
  • Shawn
    13.2k


    No, not jail. Just to a psychiatric hospital.
  • Nils Loc
    1.4k
    The community college I attended is right next to a state run psychiatric hospital and I can tell you I'd never want to be committed there, or work there for that matter.
  • Shawn
    13.2k


    I guess I gazed into the abyss for too long.

    Yeah, I saw a person eating their own shit. I saw thing you know.

    How do I decompress without imploding? Cuz that's how I feel at the moment.
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    I guess it will take some time.

    I'm so fucking tired right now.
  • Pfhorrest
    4.6k
    I know we've had some arguments here before, but I just want to express my sympathy for you Wallows, and wish you the best of luck. I spent most of the last year trying to figure out how to go on living, myself. I wrote a whole lot of my thoughts on the topic in the last essay of the book I spent the past year writing, but to summarize some of it I guess:

    - Develop a vision of a hopeful future, however improbable it may seem, and do what you can when you can to inch however slowly toward that.
    - Try to accept the things that you can't do anything about, and not to want things it's impossible to get
    - Realize that feelings of hope and despair, meaningfulness and meaninglessness, are often entirely illusory, and can change despite no change in circumstances or beliefs or knowledge. Consider purely physical causes of those changes, like sleep, exercise, diet, weather, etc, and consider medical solutions too (medications, etc).
    - Cultivate feelings of meaningfulness and hopefulness by doing something productive for yourself, or helping someone else, or learning something, or teaching someone. In short, let good and truth flow through you. Even if it's just a little thing: clean up your desk, or patiently explain something to someone on this forum, etc.

    Best of luck.
  • RegularGuy
    2.6k
    Some of the people I met in my psych unit were the most caring, compassionate, intelligent, and warm people I ever met in my life.Wallows

    I have found the same thing in my stays on psychiatric units. No one is more empathetic and caring for people who are down and out than the mentally ill.

    Personally, I get agitated having to spend extended periods of time with “stable” people. Here in Wisconsin, there truly aren’t that many “stable” people, just a lot of religious fundamentalists and angry alcoholics. Both of these groups need treatment, but they don’t know it. They make life a living hell for people like you and me, and they call us “weak” and “psychos”. In reality, you and I, Wallows, are the strong ones because we know how people truly think and feel, and we are always aware of this, while those other people live in their solipsistic bubbles without ever realizing how their behavior affects those around them.

    Stay strong. You are a beautiful person.
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