|
|
|
|
|
|
by ThrowawayP
2220 days ago
|
|
|
> "We don't throw people into psych hospitals unless they're at imminent risk of successfully committing suicide - we don't do admits just for suicidal ideation." Right, which still means that the patient has to very carefully manage what they say. If they are prone to exaggeration, colorful metaphors, or are feeling just absolutely miserable enough to say something they don't really mean out of pain or anger, they may spook the clinician into putting them into an "psychiatric hold" (e.g for California: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5150_(involuntary_psychiatric_...) which can last 72 hours or more. Remember, just like half of developers are below average, so are half of clinicians and you won't know which is which until it's too late. All of this is not to say that people suffering from mental illness shouldn't seek treatment. Just know what you're getting in to and how to get out of it if need be. |
|
|
Except that last one, because that last one actually correlates with bad outcomes.
You're warning people to "know what you're getting into," but clearly have no idea what you're talking about. You may have experience with this, but clearly not from the clinician's side.
Let me give you a real example:
We look for /actionable/ ideation. You'd be amazed how many patients, expressing suicidal ideation, say something like "Oh, I'd just walk into the ocean and drown." Or, "I'd jump off a mountain and die" (living nowhere near a mountain). Etc. They express unrealistic or unachievable means of committing suicide that exhibit a pre-occupation with "dying", but not the process of death. Ceteris paribus, this is a reasonably low-risk person.
Other folks, far less, say something like "Oh, I'd take a gun and shoot myself. My dad has one in his closet." It's realistic, it's achievable, and he could do it in an impulsive moment - that person is a real risk.
(Caveat: these are obviously artificially constructed sentences to illustrate the variable under discussion. Please don't nitpick the exact wording/presentation in bad faith. Patients never spit out in one sentence "Oh, I'd take a gun and shoot myself, that one my dad has on his top shelf at home." )
Note that from the various speculation people have thrown out on this thread, not one has mentioned concrete achievability. Because, shockingly, people coming up with catastrophes about why they shouldn't seek help are really not the best sources of information about what care actually looks like.