Obviously, I don’t know what meds she was prescribed while there, or what, if any, she takes on a regular basis.
But I do know that if you refuse meds or food (or for that matter, showering, getting dressed, attending therapy, etc.) you’re considered ‘non-compliant’ and you will not be released as quickly, especially if you have no family or friends around to help. If you want to get out, you need to show some responsibility for your behavior.
Again, I am not a doctor. I’m just an EMT (read: Glorifed Taxi Driver ) who has seen various aspects of the psych world.
I’ve dipped my toes into that pool, myself (actually, I was probably wading in shin-deep waters) and I agree it takes compliance to make those fuckers give you your liberty back. Still…not sure I’d just take something…at least not without a clear understanding of what it was. Additonally, she may not have had an appetite after such an ugly scene. I also don’t believe that temporary hysteria automatically leads to bat-shit (though it can). I think everyone jumped the gun. Also, do we know if she really has a history of suicidal behavior? That could change everything…
Missed the edit window: I should clarify that I’m certified in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and know some of Delaware’s EMS protocols. I’d be willing to bet, however, that no matter where you are (in the US, at least), cops can’t take people directly to psych facilites. Patients must be medically cleared first, and then they start the whole song and dance of finding a place with a bed available and that accepts your insurance. You do not want to have a breakdown with no insurance. The state-run places that have to take anyone, regardless of insurance coverage, are NOT nice.
The few times that we did go to NJ for transfers, I was ready to freak out over those stupid jug-handle left turns and the fact that I’m not allowed to pump my own gas.
AFAIK, they will always tell you exactly what you’re taking and why. I’d refuse meds as well, if no one would tell me what it was and what it was for.
Various psych drugs (anti-depressants and anti-psychotics) can affect people in very different ways.
General password comment: I’m a software manager, and have been slinging bits for a living for 30 years or so.
Annie did the right thing in not giving out the password over the phone to a former co-worker.
Any company with a sysadmin can override passwords; in fact usually when an employee leaves, certain passwords are reset to prevent “accidental” access.
Annie has no way of knowing if this is a legitimate request. What if she gives Scruff the password but it turns out that Scruff is not supposed to have it. Now she has committed a malicious act against the company.
Possibly. OTOH, it is possible that she was prescribed something to calm her down and allow her to sleep, and she refused to take it. And my assumption is that “refusing to eat” is somewhat different than not having much of an appetite. IYKWIM. And again, once she took the advice of another patient and started eating and sleeping and taking her meds, she recovered enough to be released within a few days.
Plus I imagine she was saying in the psych ward many of the same sorts of things she was saying earlier in the thread. I would bet that a good many people in psych wards who legitimately belong there also express the belief that their admissions are all part of a sinister plot involving vindictive authority figures. And vow revenge.
Personal email accounts are not the property of the company.Right to prvacy and all that stuff.
Not here in the UK, to gain access would require a warrrant, it is tantamount to a search of personal posessions.Your managers cannot even go into your personal locker without your authorisation unless there are outstanding curcumstances, such as death, long term absence where you are not avalable to send around a personal representative.
A company can require an account holder to allow access only when the employee has representation present at all times when the account is being accessed.
Of course, the company can then go for dismissal, but would almost certainly lose in an employment tribunal, unless there were some other reasonable evidence of wrongdoing, which then would involve the police.
All the same, anyone using a company email account for anything other than company business is a fool.
Good point, though they may look very much the same. Give a patient a tray of food and two hours later it’s untouched, what happened? Is the patient being beligerent? Or just not hungry? I’ve known several people, including myself, who were in recovery after surgery and basically ordered to eat. After surgery a big sumptuous meal with all the fixin’s – as made by a hospital kitchen – is about the most sickening thought in the world. After a friend’s surgery, her attempts to eat caused her to vomit.
“I have no problem with alcohol” is exactly what an alcoholic would say. So would a tea-totaler.
Question – what did Annie mean by “freak out”? You have to admit, it’s a rather vague term. Screaming, yelling, physical violence? The manner in which one “freaks out” probably has a lot to do with it.
If I were making the decision (I’m not) I would consider if “refusing to eat” came in conjunction with “refusing to sleep” and “refusing meds”. Especially if I had the benefit of knowing (which the intake counselor may not have had) that lack of food and sleep for the previous 36 hours contributed, in the patient’s opinion, to the meltdown(s) that triggered the admissions.
Heavens yes, and this is part of the Kafka-esque atmosphere mentioned above. But I think you have to look at the context in which the statement is made. Someone saying “I have no problem with alcohol” while calmly nursing his third and last beer of the evening along is one thing. The same statement from someone in a chem dep ward, having been admitted after getting into a fight in an alcohol-induced rage, is another.
Same same, almost. “No thanks - I couldn’t eat a thing” after major surgery is one thing. “I am not eating your slop, and don’t think I am taking your poison either!” and then wandering the halls at 3AM muttering how you are going to get '“that bitch who put me in here” sounds a bit different.
Again, a lot of this is my assumption, but not all.
But she also just said they asked for “passwords”, a phrase that’s meaningless on its own. And if they’re asking for passwords to a personal email account, she wouldn’t have to give it to them in the US either.
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
…could technically be construed as a refusal to eat. It could also be construed as someone being fucking tired of being pressured to eat when they’re stressed and upset and not hungry.
) who has seen various aspects of the psych world.
Now she has committed a malicious act against the company.