Hello everybody! Sorry I haven't made a blog in a couple of days my anxiety and depression is getting the best of me and have been trying to stay busy to combat it. Ended up getting a new phone and new number due to the new decade. Been working a lot and did a major clean up of my room and also moved some things around. Had my first doctor visit last Tuesday and it went well. He is weening me off of one of my antidepressants and going to put me on another one soon. He also gave me some meds for my anxiety too. Would have been a lot quicker at the doctors office if I knew I had to pee in a cup. Spent an hour drinking as much water as I could just to go to the bathroom.
Anyways for todays blog we will be going over once you're in the psychiatric hospital.
Once you're in the hospital you should make the best out of it. Chances are you will be there for about a week. You see a psychiatrist once a day for about 4 minutes so you should make the best of that and talk to him if something isn't working the way you feel it should. Note antidepressants normally take around 4-8 weeks to fully kick in and have a full affect on you so just be patient with those meds.
Next if you decide you don't want to be there any longer you can try to leave AMA or against medical advice. You will have to go to the nurses station and request one of those forms though. By law a psychiatrist has 24 hours to assess you and make a ruling if they need you to stay or not. But before you do all of that you will want to check with your insurance and see if they will cover the stay of those days you were there. Normally if you AMA the insurance won't cover your stay there so do check with your insurance first. If the doctor feels that you need to be there they will take you to court and you will have to talk to a court appointed psychiatrist and if they feel you need to stay there they can keep you in there for around 2 weeks as far as I know. Normally if you want to leave I'd suggest doing an AMA around 4 days in; that way it'll give you a better chance of getting out since you probably won't be suicidal at that time. Personally I've never done this before and wouldn't do it to begin with if I go to a hospital I want them to help me while I'm there instead of wasting my time wanting to go home.
Note for smokers if you smoke try and find a psychiatric hospital that isn't connected to a regular hospital due to the fact you probably won't be able to smoke at one of those. They do give patches out though if you're at one that doesn't allow smoking though.
In conclusion you're there to get better and get help. I'd suggest to go to all the groups you can and participate in your recovery. You deserve to get better and you are worth it!
