| First, I'm sorry that you had to deal with all of that. Second, I am not an apologist for the emergency mental health care system. I agree with you about it for the most part, and I think it's me that introduced the word "dehumanizing" to the thread in describing it. If I somehow got bit by a radioactive Zuckerberg and had unbounded funds to tackle public policy problems, emergency mental health care is the one I'd tackle. Third, it is absolutely not my contention that anyone dealing with any kind or level of suicidality should admit themselves to emergency care. Suicidality, depression, and anxiety are complicated subjects and --- I strongly agree with everyone else who's said this --- they're also taboo issues that millions of people struggle with quietly and without institutional "help". My contention is merely this: IFF you find yourself in circumstances where you have lost control of your thoughts or have impeded judgement to the point where you or a trusted friend are immediately and urgently concerned that you might harm yourself, THEN it is much better to submit yourself to the almost invariably unpleasant and often dehumanizing emergency mental health care process than to try to gut it out alone. This is especially true of sudden onset problems like PTSD. Severe PTSD is a motherfucker of an illness and if you don't have the experience and self-knowledge to handle it yourself (and many sufferers do not, since it tends to come at you out of nowhere), you shouldn't try. |