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((( Hi )))

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Oh dear, continue your story when you are ready, welcome to DS :))

Hi Mike. It's always nice to hear a little about people's history. I hope you are doing well now and it's great to have you here posting on DS.

welcome to the neighborhood.

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What does your Username mean "poisomike87"...?

Born in '87, called Mike Poiso ?

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Hi and welcome.

Well now that I am awake and coherent I will post my first admission, and create a new reply with every other admission

First off, my nickname was born when I was in 7th grade, we all decided that we where tired of the regular instruments and we needed to create our own.

Mine was the poisobass, it had 8 strings and you played it like a piano but to hit the higher notes you had to bang it with your head.
Well that idea stuck with me, and plus... Once you start using an Email address for a long time you cant really stop because of all the people email you thru it.
Now the mike part stands for my first name Michael and the last bit means I was born in 1987, Now I would not normally put that on the end of a user name, but somehow somewhere there is a person with the yahoo add of poisomike so now it has become part of the whole me online thing.

Ok where was I
BTW, I was put on these meds when I started 9th grade not 8th, my brain was half asleep when I was doing those last sentences.
Ah, Zoloft and the beginning
So I was put on Zoloft for a week and went back to therapy, after telling the doctor that nothing was working I was put on
He kept me on Zoloft and put me on depakote saying that my moods should level out after a few *days* (BS)
So the list now is depakote, Zoloft, adderall xr, and clonidine
I stayed on these meds for a few weeks while my doctor was on vacation, I come back 3 weeks later. I am doing semi good so he says that is *great* (BS) and I could go 2 weeks before another visit.
Finally I slump into a huge depression and come back a week later and I am placed on paxil and taken off of the Zoloft.
Talk about a downward spiral.
Well, putting be on paxil triggered some serious mania, I was stacking so much work on myself that I was being crushed by it. I decided to take a day off of school because I felt *sick*
Well, sitting in the living room I see the car sitting in the driveway, somebody did not use it to get to work.
Hmmmmm.. I think I could drive it.
So I grabbed some keys and hopped in, started it up, put it in drive and immediately drove it into the new garage door.
Now the hours after that are extremely hazy, I remember putting the door back together and moving the car back.
Then I came home and sat in a corner. For what seemed like a few minutes but was 2 hours.
I got up and decided that I was not worth the trouble of living with anymore, and the best thing to do was incapacitate myself or just die, so I thought of the various ways to make myself dead or semi dead.
I could jump out the window, but that would probably not kill me, and would hurt like a MF
I could run my self over with a car, by placing the car at a top of my street with a piece of wood on the clutch and place my head in front of the wheels, to graphic.
I came to the conclusion that there was no true way to take my way out of the picture the easy way, so I decided to do it the hard way.
I was sitting on the living room couch watching comedy central live when I noticed the bottle of Tylenol sitting on the counter.
I grabbed a glass of tea from the pitcher in the fridge and sat down on the couch with the bottle.
Handfuls at a time I took the entire bottle.
Then I wander around the house.
This is when I started to hear stuff in the back of my head. I was arguing with myself so to speak.
*****taking a quick break between this to compose my thoughts*****
Well I convinced my self that Tylenol was not the way out because it would just make me sick and I would die a slow death.
So naturally I called 911
They come pick me up pour ipecac syrup down my throat and make me drink some water.
Get to the ER and they make me drink more water. Then I was told to jog in place until I had to vomit **Graphic** well I did and did a lot, then I had to drink 3 cups of activated charcoal.
My mother arrives and she does not know what to say, I dont say anything.
I was transported to Hyland behavioral health center wearing my shoes without socks and hospital scrubs.
I arrive there and am amazed at this building, from the lobby you would think it was a hotel, it had a big ceiling and a cheap chandelier with couches all over the place.
Looks can be deceiving.
(If you want to see the front of the building here is a link to their website http://www.stanthonysmedcenter.com/healthcareServ/otherServ/behavioralHealth.asp#inpatient
)
The lead me into another room with chairs surrounding the walls, it looks like every other waiting room.
I sit and wait with my trusty bucket to take care of my heaving.
Finally I was ready to be taken to the unit.
I am lead thru the solid steel doors that have to be buzzed open.
Taken to the elevator that only goes up and to go down you need a key.
I was taken down the hallway (I guess I will describe the layout of the place as I reference it a lot)
OK here we go
Hylands layout+++
Ok in my opinion when you are an adolescent patient bouncing between hospitals you come to find what hospitals are better then the others.
Hyland was like the Ritz Carlton of behavioral health centers in the St. Louis area.
They had a cafeteria that served real food, a nice gym, nice rooms, always clean towels, good snacks. I mean this place was Cush.
Ok now that everyone knows that I will describe the layout

The adolescent unit- coming through the doors you are greeted with a hallway, this is the girls side of the unit, males are not allowed on this part of the unit. Walking forwards on your left is the Personal Items room, next is the laundry room, and once you reach the end of the girl side you see the quiet room. (Rubber room, seclusion room, whatever the hell you want to call it) this is where you go if you are violent, suicidal, or homicidal. It has a plexi-glass window that looks into the nurses station. In the center of the unit lie's the nurses station and the common room. And if you keep walking passed the nursing station on your left you will see the second quiet room and a little further down you see the activity room. Now you are on the male side of the unit.

Quiet room- a matte gray room with walls made of the same material as a gym mat only much thicker. You would think that they would put the padding on all sides of the room except they leave the tile floor uncovered. The doors on the quiet room can only be opened by either being buzzed out or in case there is a fire.

Common room- This is a large room with tables arranged in a C shape. In the front of the room you see a dry erase board with the days activities and schedule and who is what level. And because Hyland is a part of St. Anthonys hospital you have a daily prayer which is displayed in large letters above the board. The prayer goes like this
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot Change
The courage to accept the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference
In a closet in the Common room a refrigerator that holds juice, milk and Ice cream. In the cabinets above the fridge are individual bowls of cereal. Those are for snack time. (Kind of like kindergarten except you are locked on a unit and fed meds)

The activity room- First time you walk in her as a first time patient the other patients come up to tell you that if you stand up close to the wall you are off the camera. (Always good to know) inside is a room with a TV inside a cabinet, a foozball table and a bunch of chairs. For such a large room it looks almost bare.

Patient rooms- When you walk in there are two beds roughly the size of a twin mattress; you have 2 desks and small closets recessed into the wall. Each room has a bathroom of normal size, complete with shower, toilet, and sink. And on the walls you have 6 sets of towels which is a luxury compared to other places that you only get one towel a day. The best part of this place is the view out the window, when you gaze out the window you see a pond with ducks and other animals. It looks even better when it is frozen with snow.

Cafeteria- the cafeteria is a large room with very long banquet tables and a kitchen line in the next room. There is a piano in the corner and a patio outside.

ECT room- Hyland is one of the few remaining psychiatric hospitals that still perform ECT (electro convulsive therapy, to get to the gym you have to pass this room. It creeps me out when I have to walk past it to get to the gym.

Gym- regular looking gym has a volley ball net. I have played so much of that game I will never play it again.
This admission was one of the least eventful and easy going, I met a few people that I would run into for the next 4 years
Now the thing about psych hospitals which is what I will refer to them from now often is that there are not enough of them, so if you have people that should be in a long term hospital bouncing around the short term places then you will run into them on several occasions.
And I did,
I was discharged a week later with prescriptions for seroquel, risperdal, paxil, depakote and adderall
Well I will start now as this is now 5 pages in word

Greetings and salutations. Hope your experience here is resourceful and supportive

Welcome to Daily Strength. Mighty glad that you are here and that you are sharing your story with us. The telling of our story often helps. So, please do continue. Until next time.....

You had a decent place it sounds like. I have been to government funded rehab/mental illness clinics and speak of minimual funding I would have LOVED to play any type of sports activities lol. I finally got some insurance "no have lost it" but I had a 4 day manic episode trying to change the world and tear down the government lol. I was admitted to a place at the local hospital. It was better but still your place sounds nice...

trust me, this was one of the good stories


I stayed in Boys and girls town Missouri A juvenile detention center because my insurance would not pay for inpatient care.

I was in a state run psychiatric hospital for 9 months,

This is the tip of the iceberge

lol.

I have been in and out of hospitals around 13 times