are patients in psych. hospitals forced to take medications?

When I was 15, I was sent to a privately owned (by its psychiatrist) ward, and threatened with involuntary injection of Ziprasidone. I should note that I wasn't being violent or threatening by any stretch of the imagination.

Later on, I spent a year in a residential treatment program owned by the same guy. If you refused to take a medication, security guards came, took you to the ward, and you were forcibly injected.

Self preservation dictated that I take it without the violent aspect being forced on me, and as the Ziprasidone/Geodon (a bipolar/schizophrenic med) was not suitable for a depressed schizoid, I had a rather averse reaction.

Basically if you are in a psych hospital involuntarily you are forced one way or another. They're not likely at all to let you out if you aren't taking the medications they deem appropriate for you. Which really is a self-esteem killer.

Every time I was in the hospital I let myself be a test dummy for psych meds of every kind. I never thought I had a choice, I thought I HAD to take them. I once got a little out of control, threatening suicide, and they threatened right back with an injection of something else (probably ativan), so I calmed down. So I know if you're a danger to yourself or others they can forcibly inject you with something, but I was never told "you have a choice whether to take this medication or not." So I would be sick all the time from so many different meds being tested on me by the shrink, not able to figure out what was wrong with me. It's actually pretty sickening now that I think about it, and I never did think about it until I read this thread. Weird...

IThinkSo wrote:Basically if you are in a psych hospital involuntarily you are forced one way or another. They're not likely at all to let you out if you aren't taking the medications they deem appropriate for you. Which really is a self-esteem killer.

I was going to say this but you already had. At one of the wards I was at they pretty much made that a known fact...take your meds, follow our rules, you'll get out. Do otherwise and expect a long stay.

You'd better believe they are! It was in the '70's when I first was hospitalized against my will. At some later time, while I was on
psychiatric medication, I was told that if I didn't take it I would 'end up in the hospital' I knew that this was psyhiatrist codespeak for 'You will be put in the hospital against your will'. I was hospitalized for my second time in 1980, where I personally witnessed several patients forcibly injected with Thorizine for merely rerfusing to take their pill medication. In recent months (I have now been out of the hospital for 17 years, following my third forced hospitalization), I asked my psychaitrist what would happen if I stopped taking my drugs; she told me that I would lose my Social Security check. This is, of course, what a psychiatrist *can* do; as for whether it's 'legal' is a different matter.

IThinkSo wrote:Basically if you are in a psych hospital involuntarily you are forced one way or another. They're not likely at all to let you out if you aren't taking the medications they deem appropriate for you. Which really is a self-esteem killer.

Absolutely. You WILL be forced, and I might add that you will NEVER be released from a mental hospital unless and until you establish a long history of consistently taking your meds willingly, and furthermore, if you have ever in your life refused meds being forced on you, you will probably never be free from a so-called "Least Restrictive Alternative" court order to take meds for the rest of your life. And guess what. Right back in the mental hospital if you don't take your meds according to the court order.

So if you refuse meds once in your life, you will never, ever escape from the mental health system.

Nobody should be forced to take medication, but in a situation where someone is seriously going to hurt himself or another, then some type of sedation would be needed. I work with Dementia and let me tell you, it is no different than working in a mental hospital! These people will throw fits, have psychotic episodes, try to escape and everything else you can think of. Many of them do not understand what their pills are and they'll refuse to take them. I'm talking about all their pills, not just the ones for Dementia. We are allowed to crush them and put them in their food. I've often felt guilty doing so, but then again it's not that they know what the pills are for and they are refusing them because they feel they don't need them. They refuse the pills because they honestly have no idea what they are. We are not allowed to do this with any patient who really understands that they are pills.

I got commited to a psych ward at my local hospital. I was brought in for screening and the 2 doctors were divided on whether I needed to be held for observation. Well the one doctor won out saying he wanted to play it safe due to the circumstances of which I was having trouble wth 2 different neighbors in a muticultural neighborhood where I live and they weren't sure if it was paranoia because I'm being treated for depression and taking smaller dosages of antidepressants or whether I was actually having trouble with them (which I was). Apparently taking ANY psych meds qualifies one as being 'crazy'. So although I was not ill or having a breakdown the doctors weren't sure after the police requested the screening so I was committed. BTW when in a dispute of any kind never mention to law enforcement that you're being treated for any psychiatric problems because they will have you screened more likely than not to play it safe. Now Keep in mind I wasn't sick so the first thing I asked the doctor on the pysch ward after getting transferred from the psych ER holding area was if I had a right to refuse medications. He said I did as long as I didn't act out in any way that indicated that I was a threat to myself, staff, or appeared psychotic or aggitated. So I was glad to hear that because I knew I shouldn't have been there in the first place and planned on being calm and 'normal'. After 10 days of voluntarily taking my usual meds upon my request which was only 20mg of Paxil + 1.0 klonipin I was released and never was forced to take meds while there. They did ask me everyday if I would take an anti-psychotic but since I had no history of psychosis I politely refused. I left on the same meds I came in on, that I'm on right now, and never received ANY treatment at that hospital such as therapy, group therapy, or nothing! I ate 3 times a day, watched tv, and slept and was discharged to my home where I eat, watch tv, + sleep It cost the tax payers at least 20 grand to have me stay there. But yeah in my state you do have the right to refuse meds in the hospital, but get weird while in there and they will force medicate.

Like someone else mentioned if you're committed to a state hospital they really do want you to take meds BUT if you refuse and you don't exhibit any signs of psychiatric problems they will have to relaese you eventually. How long your stay is going to be, whether taking meds or not, probably depends on what you did to get there in the first place, how you behave while there, and your past history.

There is no more fundamental human right than the right to bodily integrity. A hallmark of most legal systems is that innocent people are protected from anything happening to their own body without their consent. According to an article in the DePaul Journal of Health Care Law: "True consent to what happens to one's self is the informed exercise of choice, and that entails an opportunity to evaluate knowledgeably the options available and the risks attendant upon each."

The definition of rape is having something put in your body by coercion or force.

-- Sat Nov 05, 2011 11:04 pm --

co·erce   /koʊˈɜrs/ Show Spelled[koh-urs] Show IPAverb (used with object), -erced, -erc·ing.

1.to compel by force, intimidation, or authority, especially without regard for individual desire or volition: They coerced him into signing the document.

2.to bring about through the use of force or other forms of compulsion; exact: to coerce obedience.

3.to dominate or control, especially by exploiting fear, anxiety, etc.: The state is based on successfully coercing the individual.