# Somebody called me from a psychiatric instutition saying she's held against her will. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429 "2013-09-09T19:04:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LovesBeagles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@LovesBeagles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LovesBeagles)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/41 "2013-09-09T23:56:24Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Uh, I work in the medical field and to me that phrase would mean something like “Before you leave, we need to figure out something you can do to make your situation bearable” or even “Would you like to freshen up in the bathroom so no one sees you looking like this” or something similar. Well, I can’t read anyone’s but she was convinced that he was going to commit her right then and there. I used to work in the medical field, too, so you have my sympathy on that. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/42 "2013-09-10T00:00:18Z")
> [@LovesBeagles](#): > > I used to work in the medical field, too, so you have my sympathy on that. Uh, no need - I really enjoy helping people with their health. But if you’re glad to be out, that’s good. ---
**Author:** ![LovesBeagles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@LovesBeagles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LovesBeagles)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/43 "2013-09-10T00:02:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What a lucky coincidence that she was a medical writer, a former runway model _and_ a runner, otherwise you wouldn’t have a tale to tell, would you? It was also quite fortunate that she could also read minds, getting all that from such an innocuous sentence. She was in her early 40’s and had been around. She had also been an actress, a singer, a medical transcriptionist, a bartender, a Playboy bunny, an alcoholic who could drink any man under the table she said–I never saw that because when I met her she had been clean and sober and in AA for five years) and probably a few other things she never bothered to mention. However, as far as I know, she was not clairvoyant. That was not an innocuous sentence. It was threatening. ---
**Author:** ![LovesBeagles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@LovesBeagles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LovesBeagles)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/44 "2013-09-10T00:06:38Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > A woman held against her will was allowed daily visits from a non-family member, and this woman trusted her business to a rival(friendly or otherwise)? Might I suggest that adding details to your stories don’t help you? > edited to add: Don’t you think they would have put two and two together-missing pages from her log, and your daily visits? We knew each other for about three years before she helped me get started in her business and we had a completely different focus on that as well as completely different types of clients so there was no conflict there. We even shared our messengers that we hired together and coordinated from our different midtown offices. It was not a log in the sense that you must be thinking. There were no predated pages. It was just a plain notebook with plain lined paper on it so there was nothing for the guards to notice. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/45 "2013-09-10T00:06:55Z")
> [@LovesBeagles](#): > > Once they’ve got you, they’ve GOT YOU and they aren’t letting you go until your insurance no longer covers your stay. My friend had great insurance. She called her insurance company and told them that she was being held prisoner against her will for no reason at all and ordered them to NOT pay for her stay there. Skipping ahead, that worked and the institution never even billed her insurance company for her stay there. She followed up with her insurance company the day she was sprung just to be sure they would not pay the hospital. They knew they did wrong and they could tell that my friend was a trouble maker so they didn’t fight it. Let me get this straight - they held her for a month without billing insurance because… they’re assholes? And they made her fight her release in court but didn’t even whimper to the insurance company and insist that “of course she’s going to protest, she’s crazy!” Some psych ward staff may be assholes, that I could believe, but they’re not stupid assholes. Inpatient stays are expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/46 "2013-09-10T00:07:03Z")
Why exactly were you having to smuggle out pages of her diary? She wasn’t in prison, she was even, by your admission, being allowed daily visitors. Smuggle from whom? The staff? Why were they supposed to care? Doesn’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/47 "2013-09-10T00:07:10Z")
> [@LovesBeagles](#): > > She was in her early 40’s and had been around. She had also been an actress, a singer, a medical transcriptionist, a bartender, a Playboy bunny, an alcoholic who could drink any man under the table she said–I never saw that because when I met her she had been clean and sober and in AA for five years) and probably a few other things she never bothered to mention. > > However, as far as I know, she was not clairvoyant. That was not an innocuous sentence. It was threatening. In what way was it threatening? Did he twist his waxed mustache and laugh maniacally? Did an ominous shadow cast a pall over the proceedings? Did he have a pair of handcuffs in his fist while glancing over at a straightjacket hanging in the closet? ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/48 "2013-09-10T00:07:49Z")
I would avoid all the bureaucrats and contact my local NAMI chapter and ask them who would be best to talk to. They likely know who are the useful agencies and who are not in that State. [http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Your\_Local\_NAMI&Template=/CustomSource/AffiliateFinder.cfm](http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Your_Local_NAMI&Template=/CustomSource/AffiliateFinder.cfm) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/49 "2013-09-10T00:11:24Z")
> [@Thylacine](#): > > I would avoid all the bureaucrats and contact my local NAMI chapter and ask them who would be best to talk to. They likely know who are the useful agencies and who are not in that State. > [http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Your\_Local\_NAMI&Template=/CustomSource/AffiliateFinder.cfm](http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Your_Local_NAMI&Template=/CustomSource/AffiliateFinder.cfm) Would this be the same NAMI that receives considerably more than half its budget from pharmaceutical companies? ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/50 "2013-09-10T00:13:57Z")
Yes but as they have the money they have the resources and may as well be used. They should know of the consumer advocacy systems in each area and how to contact them. I was not suggesting joining them or giving them money. ---
**Author:** ![LovesBeagles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@LovesBeagles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LovesBeagles)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/51 "2013-09-10T00:16:20Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Let me get this straight - they held her for a month without billing insurance because… they’re assholes? And they made her fight her release in court but didn’t even whimper to the insurance company and insist that “of course she’s going to protest, she’s crazy!” Some psych ward staff may be assholes, that I could believe, but they’re not stupid assholes. Inpatient stays are expensive. Yes, psych hospital assholes are apparently assholes. I didn’t talk to her insurance company myself. She did that and she assured me that the insane asylum never put in a claim for her incarceration. I did not ask her to take a polygraph on that. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/52 "2013-09-10T00:22:53Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve tried a bunch of phone numbers that totally don’t work for the state’s social services department What state are we talking about, here? What numbers have you tried? I agree, checking with NAMI is a good idea for asking for contacts. I mean, whatever else they’re good for, they might have correct phone numbers. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/53 "2013-09-10T00:32:49Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > That part I bolded is really odd though. Patients have a right to make and receive phone calls. Most every psych ward I know of has at least one pay phone for this purpose. IIRC, it’s considered a basic human right. Maybe she lost her phone privileges for some (likely very good) reason? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/54 "2013-09-10T00:38:54Z")
> [@LovesBeagles](#): > > No, no slip. You misread. That’s exactly what I intended to say. > > To be more detailed, my friend kept a log and every time I went to visit her, she slipped the folded pages to me while I had my back to her watcher I put the pages under my blouse or in my pocket and I got the pages out of the prison. I visited every day or two. She owned a business and I kept her up to what was going on with it and took checks for her to sign, etc. She continued to make all decisions about her business and I helped carry them out. I knew what to do because I had a very similar business of my own. In fact, we were friendly competitors and helped each other out. She was in a place that was as you describe, and was allowed to have visitors? I’m skeptical myself. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/55 "2013-09-10T00:58:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > In what way was it threatening? Did he twist his waxed mustache and laugh maniacally? Did an ominous shadow cast a pall over the proceedings? Did he have a pair of handcuffs in his fist while glancing over at a straightjacket hanging in the closet? I don’t mean to derail the thread any further, but even if a medical professional said that to me kindly I’d be getting out of there _immediately_. I’d be scared as heck that he meant being held, even for a mere few hours. It’d turn me into even more of a nervous wreck. Nothing like the threat of being institutionalized to scare the pants off me. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/56 "2013-09-10T00:58:37Z")
**Zsofia** : is there anyway you can fake craziness, thus getting yourself locked up there also? Seems like a situation best investigated from the inside. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/57 "2013-09-10T01:30:51Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Maybe she lost her phone privileges for some (likely very good) reason? Like, maybe calling people who don’t know her all that well and saying she’s being held against her will…:smack: I missed the part where she’s pregnant. In my work on psych units I have seen women have to temporarily go off their Meds and become floridly psychotic, only to do a complete 180 to sanity when they can restart them. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/58 "2013-09-10T02:26:53Z")
Sounds like someone’s been watching a bit too much _American Horror Story_. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/59 "2013-09-10T02:41:17Z")
Well, she was being held against her will. That’s a true statement. Playing little passive resistance games with the staff and refusing to admit there was anything wrong with her probably helped keep her there. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429/60 "2013-09-10T02:50:02Z")
Okay, hold up with the Beagles shit. Let’s get back to the phone thing - should I actually be concerned about that? She was definitely sick before. Either that or she lost weight, shaved her head, wore scarves and wigs for a few months, and was out for ages just because. I hadn’t thought about it, but yeah, you’re right, that’s kind of shitty about Personnel to give him my name. But then that would NOT be the shittiest HR issue we’ve had. Or that I’ve had, personally. Didn’t even register. I just want to make sure she’s okay and getting the care she needs. The whole thing was just incredibly upsetting - I couldn’t even process what she was saying, and then I realized it was “(Zsofia), I’m so glad I got you! I’m being held against my will in (town!)” and I thought, oh shit, this is it, this is the unforgiving minute, this is life or death and she’s in a bunker somewhere… took quite a bit of, er, the Reference Interview to really understand what she was telling me. ETA - **kayaker** - brilliant plan, but it’s several states away. 🙂 ETAA - she SAID she’s pregnant. I don’t know how old she is but I rather thought she was, say, 45ish? But my older coworkers think she’s younger. I think they’re just getting to the point where anything under 50= young - in addition to the cancer treatment she has that thin crowfoot eye skin, plus little things she’s mentioned - I just think she’s at least 40 and probably older, which with the heavy medicine lately seems unlikely she’d be pregnant. Although that could totally explain the issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-called-me-from-a-psychiatric-instutition-saying-shes-held-against-her-will/668429.md?page=4)