In this thread, a discussion is going on about a poster who claims to be able to see a ghost. She has mentioned that in the past she had a few spells where she felt and faint and saw lights.
Discussion of the nature of skepticism vis-a-vis paranormal claims is not relevant here. The question is: If the person who claims to see ghosts goes to a hospital, asks for a brain scan, and tells the doctor she can see ghosts, what power does the doctor have to send her off to Arkham? What if the brain scan comes back, there’s a tumor or whatever, and the person still claims the ghost is paranormal?
I think all the doc could do is write a referral, but better safe than sorry. What says the dope?
IANAL and IANAD, but as far as I’ve ever read or been told by health care professionals, the bar for commitment is really dang high. You have to pose an immediate danger to yourself or others. Here’s a site that talks about civil commitment in Oregon. A Google search might reveal such information for other states as well.
These days, I think you’re more likely to find people who are severely delusional living on the streets and homeless than commited to an asylum. Meenie7 has this ghost thing going on, but doesn’t begin to approach the level of delusion I encounter in some of the homeless people I bump into. I think she’s safe from being confined against her will, and would be wise to look into this–even though I imagine the thought of telling a doctor about Marcus is uncomfortable.
I can relate to feeling crazy and being scared to tell a doctor. I have a health problem that can leave my hands and other extremities feeling numb–kind of like they aren’t mine. When it first started happening, the doctors didn’t believe I had a medical problem based on all of my other symptoms. So I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them about weird sensations about my hands not being mine. Eleven years went by before I finally found a doctor who knew what the they were talking about and I was diagnosed. Armed with a proper diagnosis, I found the right experts, one of whom explained that the sensation was created by my muscles clamping down on nerves. It was a physical problem, not psychological. But dang, those were eleven lonely and at times scary years, worrying I was nuts.
Meenie7, I hope you do look into this. Better to know for sure where you stand, and I kind of think your posting about it is a sign you’re ready to find out where you stand. Then you can decide how to proceed, based on a position of knowledge.
I looked up what the specifications are in Connecticut, where I live. In part, it says:
So, I don’t really think they could put me in the hole since I’m not impaired by it in any significant way (concerns about me not making any “real friends”/being a giant loser/whatever aside.)
Yeah, I think it would be fine, Meenie7. Really, with the state of health care these days, you practically have to beg someone to keep you anywhere overnight. It’s all about outpatient care and controlling costs.