'A Day as a Psych Ward Patient' | Dr Syl's Psychiatric Analysis 

I’m actually headed to an assessment for inpatient today. I’m very nervous due to medical trauma. The way she documented her stay was definitely destigmatizing. She did a great job. 👍

This does remind me of some very strange rules I've encountered on psych wards. Like having a cork board, which was allowed to have a maximum of 3 tacks. Which of course prompted a competition amongst patients to see how many tacks you could add before anyone noticed 😅. But also knowing which nurse would get angry if you wore short sleeves, because of scars, and which one got angry for wearing long sleeves, because you might be hiding something. Or doing soapstone carving as a creative activity, but not being allowed a chisel. So we'd end up aggressively hammering rasps and files onto this brick. It's a strange micro universe, a ward..

I wish more doctors had the empathy and compassion showed by the doctor in this video but they often don’t, making hospitalization so much more traumatizing. Thank you Lauren for sharing.

I think the frustration that I have felt in interactions with mental health services here in the UK is that if you have insight and you're aware that the thought patterns you're having are negatively impacting your lives or the lives of others to the point that they're an illness, you're not taken seriously. Throughout the entirety of my mental health crises and journey, I have never been taken seriously, even when I was voluntarily hospitalised as I was able to function relatively normally with my mental health issues because I had typically found ways around functioning.

Lauren does interviews with medical professionals and others. Maybe you two can do a collab or something?

I've suffered from treatment resistant major depressive disorder, severe anxiery, and OCD and BPD for over 25 yrs. I'm now 68.I just lost my therapist of 2 yrs I have no support system now at all, no family or friends. My anxiety and depression never go away. I have no relief periods. It's a terrible way to live. Nothing has ever helped me. I try to sleep 12 hrs so I have less time to be awake and think.

Dr.Syl...I feel like you will be a great asset within the psychiatric community.Your compassion and enthusiasm towards mental illness is invaluable.Thank you.

I’m really glad she was allowed to record. I think she’s been very respectful about it to those around her. And also I think that her doing the recordings and communicating to her followers may have helped her process everything that’s happening to her while it’s happening, and helping her to verbalize her experience.

Religious prayers should not be a part of mental hospitals, especially with phycotic patients who have issues with religious things anyway.

Really interesting…I’ve seen people record their stays at psych wards but when I went in September 2019 after a hard autistic meltdown, they ended up taking ALL of my devices. My stay was interesting. I feel like a LOT of people have a story about being in a psych ward. I’m really glad people are starting to speak out more about their experiences. It feels really violating a lot of the time depending on the hospital or staff and experience.

Thank you for this. I've been hospitalized for major depression and loss of reality three times. I know what it's like to have someone walk in every 15 minutes all night. One hospital I was in had been built as a Catholic hospital, but later was merged with a very known university hospital. Part of the merger involved keeping crucifixes in all the rooms, 8 am prayer service, and visits from the resident chaplain.

Hey doc, I'm a med student and also a patient who struggle with various mental illnesses, primarily OCD and depression. Thank you so much for taking the video seriously while also laughing when something funny happens. My biggest fear is my medical team taking everything so serious and like it's the end of the world. I always appreciate when my therapist or psychiatrist laughs with me. It takes some of the pain and uncomfortableness away. ❤

I am an Australian psych advanced trainee with lived experience, and a big fan of Lauren's. My opinion; if Lauren was unsure if she'd ever had an MRI brain, I would definitely do one. I've seen more than one patient with a diagnosis of FEP/ Schizophrenia (one of those longstanding) who were found to actually have underlying pathology on neuroimaging when it was eventually done. There's no radiation on MRI of course (provided the person doesn't have any contraindications to MRI) and I think the cost of the test is worth the yield when you consider the significance of the potential findings. I'd be willing to put my money where my mouth is and pay out of my own pocket if it was my brain! Just my ten cents worth. I'd be really interested to hear what Lauren thinks of this.

I can tell that you’re an excellent doctor. Your patients are blessed to have you! Congratulations on 27K!

You talked about the importance of the first week out of hospital, what are some of the main things that often go wrong and what measures can be taken to manage and reduce those risks?

I absolutely love the amount of empathy you bring to these videos ❤️ I think all too often people lose touch with the fact that other people are also going through things and realizing that really takes away the stigma of mental illness someone isn’t “crazy” they are struggling mentally and you are seeing the symptoms

In case anyone is curious... In Canada we don't have the same kind of clear divide between public and private hospitals that you have in Australia. Our hospitals all receive the vast majority of their funding from government, , and often have a lot of government appointees (especially with tertiary care / university health systems). But almost all are still legally private organizations with their own board of directors and internal policies. Also, constitutionally we actually don't have a formal separation of church and state, (unbeknownst to most Canadians who aren't lawyers.)...the Catholic prayer thing would only be illegal in a hospital if participation was mandatory. as a condition of treatment. I definitely don't personally it's a sound practice, especially in a psych ward where religious delusion is a routine thing. But yeah...completely allowed. Bizarrely enough. And...I could not agree more. Lauren is an ICON. Incredibly courageous.

I love following her and her path with her illness.

Hi, I was a palliative care nurse in two acute care hospitals in a Catholic hospital system in the USA. The "prayer time" was something they did 8am and 8pm everyday. However, they did not strictly hired Catholic chaplains for their spiritual care team who was in charge of the "prayers". Mostly it was more like reflections or words of encouragements. I found it very strange at first, but eventually a bit to help pause and reflect during the start of my shift. In addition, our hospitals were built in the model of Erie Chapman's "Radical Loving Care". The idea of building a "Healing Hospital". Part of this idea is not having unnecessary overhead announcements which can disturb patient's peace. I guess they believe that announcement was necessary.

Just a short comment to Dr Syl. I really enjoy these videos. I know you are still a student of Psychiatry but you seem to have a lot of insight into the people and their problems in these videos. I also appreciate your gentle manner. Keep making videos for us all to enjoy and learn from.

I delivered two babies in a Methodist hospital in Texas. I am religious but that is not my religion. There were no mandatory prayers. I think I am grateful.

I loved this video and the commentary is so insightful. Dr Syl you are an awesome man with so much compassion towards patience.

Love Lauren. She is so intelligent and articulate. It’s heartbreaking to see her struggle and I want to reach out and give her a big hug. My grandmother had schizophrenia and no one ever discusses it or her. It’s so insightful for someone like me to understand what she went through

My experience has taught me that mental illnesses aren't static and you're lucky if you don't have to return to a hospital. Its an ongoing process. Telling patients otherwise can sometimes be misleading. Its better that folks are prepared for whatever they might encounter. Lauren has been hospitalized multiple times.

This is such great content. I’ve followed Lauren for a few years and she’s helped me understand mental illness so much. I started studying psychology a few years ago now as a mature age student and now finding your channel and commentary with educated knowledge and experience is fantastic. I look forward to learning more from you.

Thank you for this video. I wish all psychiatrist were like you. Thankfully, I have one of the good ones. I hope everyone finds a great mental health doc. It makes such a difference.

Those words, ‘I personalise’ mean so much and speak of this doctor’s integrity.

I’m so grateful for Lauren’s bravery and willingness to help so many people by showing how navigating through these tougher times can be done.

I'm only at 9:20 but I wanted to mention that in Canada the law is that only one party needs to consent to a recording. It doesn't require consent of all parties.

Such helpful and empathetic commentary! Thank you!

I have also been involuntarily detained with the window in the door - I found it comforting that people were looking out for me. We could lock the door so other patients could not get in but staff could unlock it if necessary. We had a 'outdoor' space in the middle of the unit that allowed smoking ( which was great for me).

that prayer bit probably sucks for patients w| religious trauma. :0/

It gives me hope that there are still good people wanting to go into psychiatry. We have had our fill of not so good ones. The good ones seem to burn out and move on. Best wishes in your studies!

it is so utmost important, that she shares her awareness of her surroundings and her consent to publish content from this place.. It's nearly unbelievable.... Been there, done that .. not for the same reasons but for my very own reasons.. I really like that she was able to show and convey .. that, going in to a psychiatric clinic and any other psych ward, can be a safe haven for a person in uncertain waters... Regardless of what those waters are made in the first place.. ;)

I would love to see your reaction on the third video as well! I'm an avid viewer of Lauren's content and I'd love to see your professional perspective like in these last two videos

Just found this channel because of your reactions to this person's experience in a psychiatric ward; it's been interesting to hear your comments on things. Although I have zero experience in this realm, several relatives of mine have had inpatient stays at different points in the past, some with tragic results (albeit about a century ago in one case). More recently , two or three relatives hospitalized with probable bipolar all had the exact same reaction: Refuse to eat, claiming the food is poisoned. Accuse the staff of stealing their belongings. In some cases, they'd even deny past hospitalizations and diagnoses. Maybe none of this sounds outlandish to someone who works in this space. On a lighter* note, I wonder if you're familiar with the vast body of work by Maria Bamford talking about her experience with mental illness? She talks about OCD all the time and I think Bipolar II and why it's important that she let her friends and family know when to intervene (when she starts talking fast and/or when she tries to claim communication with high-ranking moral and ethical figures). I would love to hear your response to her bit called "Psych Ward," but understand if responding to comedians making their mental health struggles *very* public is not what you do. Thanks again for your content!

The issue with telling someone “if we do this right this time it’ll be less chance you’ll have to come back” is great in the short term for hope, but if they relapse then they’ll just wonder what they did wrong the first time. I do love the “it’s not forever” part though

Thanks for you videos, I've just come across your channel tonight and it's gold, you have a real authenticity to how you're expressing everything, I love that and it is so needed in this space. I can see you on QnA or The Project or something in the future. I was hospitalised 8 years ago at 24 years old with delusions and other psychotic symptoms. It's still hard to look back and understand that these were actually delusions. Sometimes i wonder if it was a mix of real and delusion. Like what actually happened.. I have recently requested my medical documents to help me get some closure. I feel very lucky I found a good career and relationship shortly after the two month stay. If not for those two things I don't know where I'd be today. I'm sure there are many people in Australia also in reflection at the moment because of what happened in Bondi. It really frightened me and makes me worry. Conciousness and mental health are so tenuous.. So glad to see your content again, thank you ✌️

Love your videos they are so good and informative and informs us how difficult mental health is.

Thanks for this. Good luck to Lauren, from a fellow Canuck on the other side of the world who is dealing with some pretty intense depression anxiety stuff. Interesting to see a bit of what it's like in hospital.

Great thanks, enjoyed this blend of Lauren and Dr Syl

Hi, thank you for your channel! This client is so brave and helpful. I am a mental health counselor in the United States and it’s just impossible to know everything I want to know to care for every client. So your channel is really helpful.

Having religious trauma it would be really harmful for me personally to have to endure or even hear it. I would be more defensive, reactive, and I would be starting each day with unnecessary triggers that wouldn’t be helpful.

This is gold ! Thank you Lauren x. ❤🙏

Great video from Lauren .your assessment was fantastic as I’m also Australian and It’s interesting to get an understanding from you about the system here vs Canada

In my experience in psych wards in the US, the wards are not built for schizophrenics. My last ward had huge windows everywhere, and my paranoia was such that I often had to suffer or try to hide behind a wall or chair or table. I was lucky enough to share a room with a very nice woman who asked before opening the curtains on her side of the room and never leaving them open at night when it's easier to see into lit rooms.

My father, who was a thoracic surgeon, told me that psychiatrists have a unique ability to ascertain a patient's general IQ level. Here, being no psychiatrist, her's is well above average. Her understanding of communication and syntax is impressive given all the psychotropic medications she is enduring.

My stay was ok. I was also withdrawing from alcohol. I stayed about 11 days. Food was good, beds were AWFUL, nurses were luck of the draw (some trying to deny prns when they felt like they were on a power trip), people were mostly nice and mostly stable. A few exceptions. I didn't want to be there, but looking back it's not the worst thing that ever happened to me. If I felt like I needed to go back, I would.

Can you do a video on the link between mental health illnesses and past trauma? What are your views/ thoughts?

I am subscribed to Lauren’s channel so I had seen her vid. It was interesting to hear your take as well. It amazes me how different mental health hospitals are in other countries as compared to the US where I live. I’ve stayed in hospital where we couldn’t go outside let alone grounds privileges. Also no hair ties or clips, no hair products or deodorant with alcohol, no shoe laces, no watches or jewelry. No books. No markers or crayons. No visitors in your room; in fact you must sit across from your visitor at a table and no touching. There would absolutely not be allowed outside food. I think this is a if one patient can’t have something then no one can approach.

There's almost no way of proving wrongdoing by a doctor - especially if made by a psychiatrist, without a recording of the conversation. Doctors can write whatever they want on your files and the next doctor almost always believes the lies that the doctor before them wrote. I had to diagnose myself and find the right medicine for it to actually work, after one doctor years ago who asked leading questions and only on one topic. I still think that I never should have gone to the doctor because of my depression. I got worse for many years because of that decision.

Thank you this was very informative.

she's so amazing. i enjoy her channel

Dr Mark Cross a few years back made a fantastic series of life in the ward. ‘Changing Minds’ was a great insight into an Australian psych ward. The patients were a true representation of mental illness. Check it out if you have time. BTW, I have late onset schizophrenia & love your videos! Keep them up please!

I like that you do a summary report that the patient can record. As when im sick, i struggle to remember what is said. I wish more Psychiatrists allowed this.

Yes, a video upon her return home would be great! Very interesting and informative. Thank you

I was hospitalized in the early 90's (short stay) at 15? I love how open things have become ❤

Well covered thanks

I recently found this channel and LOVE it! I was curious if you could make an indepth video about cptsd and the milder dissociation that can go with it. I can't find anything on that. Just the extremes of it 🙏

I am Canadian and find it very very odd that the hospital has catholic prayers disrupting the patients. I also don't think that she's ever had any CT or EEG testing and Canada doesn't have an insurance structure. It is public health care here. Lauren is amazing and I am super impressed by her all the time.

Thank you so much

The psych ward is where i learned i can't have earplugs of any kind. I get ear infections after two nights. Sleep was impossible. Religion should absolutely NOT be forced in a mental institution or shelters. A LOT of people have religious trauma and as others have said, it can really mess further with psychosis. You shouldn't be able to force anyone in desperate need to participate in your religion to get help. I do not care if it's private, because in the US, you often don't get a choice of where you get to go and that catholic hospital might be the only one within a hundred miles. And i believe every mental health institution in the US is private (fact check me, please). At least all the ones in my state are.

Just found your channel!Love it. Much better then Dr.R**. One thing You bedroom is really nice but if you will raise the blue part of your curtains as much as you can up to the ceiling,it will elongate your window and look more elegant or loose it all together.I do interior design work so it’s kinda driving me crazy😉thanks for you program

As the mom of a now teenaged child with early onset bipolar disorder with psychotic features; I can confirm that it sucks. Not in a "aw, that's too bad, sugar" kind of way but in a "I am very grateful I am not you; that is awful" kind of a way. Everybody agrees that it's awful, but meaningful change is not quick nor is it everywhere. Yepper, one of the ways I know my guy is on the downward spiral is sleeping. He HATES and FIGHTS sleep and the less sleep he gets, the closer he gets to psychosis. Given that sleep deprivation itself can cause psychosis, it's no wonder that good quality sleep is vital to good mental health. Hand in hand.

Aside from the religiousness of the hospital, that facility seems super nice. I've never been in a hospital that allowed phones, outside food, or getting some fresh air outside, much less unsupervised leave.

In sheer desperation created ear plugs using dampened tissues and placed my pillow over my head. I still feel like i’ll never quite recover from that. It was NO healing at all.

Hope you will do this for the follow up videos!

Found you today and really enjoying your videos! Just some feedback for the reaction/commentary type videos - turn the audio of your voice up to match the waveforms of the video you're splicing. I found with this one I had to turn my volume up when you talked, and turn it down when it went back to the video you were commenting on. ❤

Different to my first time. I didn't want to be there, became angry wanting to leave, had my head slammed into a concrete wall, punched several times, thrown to the ground, pulled back up and my arm forced behind my back nearly breaking it. Frog marched to cell and chucked in totally naked. Metal shutter on window, one mattress and thin blanket, large prison cell door. I woke up in pain the next morning scared out of my wits. This and much more is why I have no empathy and compassion for other human beings. None whatsoever. I will do whatever is needed to survive. My memory of being locked up in the secure ward at a psychiatric hospital aged 18.

I've been hospitalized three times, the latest one last year. And the boredom is sooo real. I play chess when I'm inpatient. I never play chess normally. I even forget how to do it in between. I'm a selective eater and the food is a real problem for me unfortunately. Never had any treatment while in. Observation while the meds are changed. Sometimes you find a nurse you like and can talk to, sometimes you dont.

Hello there. I'm a Canadian and I do not have any particular medical condition. The last time I went to a hospital was a very long time ago. However I may be a little bit more familiar with the Canadian healthcare system. A few things to know : we do not have private hospitals. The Canada Health Act is prohibiting or at least strongly limiting the use of the private sector for essential medical care. We do have doctors operating private clinics outside of the public system but all of the costs are reimbursed by our public insurance card. There are instances where doctors will overcharge because the government will pay. There are other instances where they will offer non essential care not covered by the public healthcare plan because they know that you have a private supplemental plan. In her case, I do not think that they did a an imagery because they wanted to charge more for the insurance since hospitals are usually not supposed to seek for profit care. The government is funding them. Maybe there is a particularity in her province (because the healthcare system is administered at the provincial level) stating that hospitals need to hit some performance targets that may act as an incentive to offer useless and time consuming care, but I do not think that they want to overcharge her insurance.

It's relatively easy to ensure that doors gently close rather than slamming. The hospital administrators simply do not care.

I understand personalized treatment and I think it's good that those patients who can handle having phones are allowed to have them. At the same time, I think some understanding of what the nurses have to deal with is in order. Unless your hospitals are very different from those in the USA, doctors are not on the units for 8 hours at a time and are not having to deal with the hour to hour behaviors of irritated patients who are seeing others use their phones when they can't. The comparison to different medications is not very apt, in my opinion, because it's far less public than phone use.

Family is so important for recovery. I knew my Mom was having psychosis & I had to call a mental health line to have social workers come & assess her themselves(twice in the same day😑) when I visited her the next day, she didn't even recognize me. She was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

I wish I had a positive experience in the mental health ward in Queensland...it was so traumatising that 5 years later when I found out my friend was working temporarily in the admin there it triggered panic attacks followed by a month long major depressive episode.

The only time they investigated my head as an in-patient was after I had a seizure on one of my first walks outside and came back in an ambulance with a concussion and I had trouble trying to explain to the ER people that I was already in the hospital.

A person should not be forced to pray but definitely they should be encouraged to do so, especially in this type of situation. We humans, battle not with flesh and blood.

I spent 2.5 weeks in the behavioral health unit & it was bittersweet. I felt safe & secure getting treatment & a diagnosis, but we weren’t allowed to have our phone, we had to ask for our own clothes from home, we weren’t allowed out of the ward to go outside(Some people had been there for 3 months without one breath of fresh air). We had group 3 times a day for an hour & then we were left to our devices. I spent a majority of my time doing crosswords & getting my blood pressure taken every hour. We were all lumped in together, males separate from females. I genuinely don’t remember my first 3 days because I was so drugged up to calm my anxiety/panic attacks. I made some good friends but I hope I never have to go back

I have PTSD and ADHD. I got a sleep pod for Christmas and it’s changed my sleep for the better! I also wear a Bluetooth headband to listen to my meditation recordings.

I struggle with depression and anxiety and have been hospitalized like three times for suicidal thoughts ( the last time for five days under passive aggressive threat of involuntary hospitalization, which I ended up going in voluntarily to avoid any scenes with police ). Started off in a thing they called "The Fish Tank" ( which at least had a tv ). After 2 days, they saw I was calm and cool so they moved me to a quiet room right outside "The Fish Tank" where I already wasn't allowed a phone, no longer had access to the tv ( even asked if I could go BACK into "The Fish Tank" during the day so I could watch tv with the couple of people I had started talkin to but NOPE ). Visits were 15-20 minutes max because it was during covid, only 5 10 minute breaks a day to go out for a smoke ( during the coldest week this winter, which one night this nurse decided to go outside to supervise us without a coat during a polar vortex which basically forced us to cut the break short because I'm not a piece of shit ) and nothing but hospital beeps, the occasional outburst by somebody being brought in during an episode or while on drugs ( including one lady who literally had to be detained because she tried stabbing a nurse with a plastic knife and two separate times where these girls came in and spent a day and a half yelling at the nurses until they were sedated only to repeat the process a few hours later ) and of course my obsessive negative thoughts to keep me company which increased my anxiety, which increased my depressive state and thus my suicidal ideation. All I have to say, is after the last time.. I'm NEVER goin back ! They won't take me alive !!! lol

There are situations where you have to weigh up the risk between the radiation from a CT scan to the consequences if you do nothing. It's not mental health related (though def triggers my depression) but I have a rare disease where I form kidney stones regularly and the stones are dense and only show up in a CT scan. They can be spotted in ultrasound, but the full size isn't always clear. It's always a struggle between making sure I have regular checks to make sure they don't get big enough to do more damage or block something and making sure I don't get too much radiation exposure :(

Very interesting to see how different places run. Ive been in 3 different facilities and each were very different. Staffing changes can also create a difference within the same setting. I wonder if the tainting of food/items originate internally or if they have become elevated experiences of paranoia from historical instances or media portayals, especially now that we are starting to learn trauma can be generationally linked to our dna? Simalar to nature vs nurture where one exists naturally but life has a definite impact to further drive the feeling to a larger level. How much is natural how much is externally based? Either way, very proud of everyone who is putting in the work, shout out to great folks like you who are encouraging and helping/supporting folks for the right reasons, and hope we can get to a point in time where we dont have a mass stereotype/judgement within our lifetime. Better coverage to boot too.

During my three hospitalisations in the UK, (during which I suffered the intrusion of ten minute, and then fifteen minute-ly check ups in my room with a bright torch being shone in my face) I suffered severely from sleep deprivation, and considering the medications they put me on, which knocked me out, this was extraordinary. However, throughout all of my hospitalisations, I was happy to discover that cigarette breaks outside were considered the norm, and necessary for people on psychiatric wards. Now, though, the NHS has seen fit to ban ALL smoking EVERYWHERE on hospital sites, and I dread my next hospitalisation. I literally don't know how I could get through the boredom, the humiliation and the frustration of life in the confines of a psychiatric ward, in the company of many people who are even more disturbed than I am. Fortunately for me, during the pandemic when I was last hospitalised, I was rapidly given a "Section 17", which meant I could go out for frequent walks around the hospital grounds, and even visit my home for extended periods throughout the day. Without that freedom, I might have found the experience a lot tougher.

We love Lauren!!!

My 60yo husband is bipolar with Parkinson-ism, Schizoaffective disorder and currently hospitalized (week 3) after a 2-week stay inpatient mental health. He had major psychotic event, couldn’t sleep, medication resistant. In hospital They did many tests: daily blood, EKG, CT, then MRI of brain because he was resist to anti-psychotics causing his CK levels to rise dramatically (32,000!). They found a small recent stroke. They are looking at dementia with Lewy Bodies as a reason for his persistent oscillating moods, violent delirium, delusions, hallucinations, visual/spacial decline, and cognitive impairment. A small stroke in someone battling undiagnosed & untreated dementia can have greater impact than the general public.

I have a question! How is your voice an asmr situation? 😂❤ I'm going tomorrow to my Dr .. and last time I've been there I was afraid of asking what is my diagnosis.. but this woman helped me feel like yeah it doesn't matter what it is I'll live good with it 😊

Question: How do you deal with chronic s******* ideation in hospital patients? It always results in a weird detente between me and the staff so that I can leave. Her hospital stay was so different from mine. I didn’t even “earn” my clothes back for a few days, because I was on suicide watch. It was a small unit, so everyone was on similar restrictions. ❤

Laren is the best!

I agree re recording but she doesn't really record anybody. There's a quiet response, but you really only hear Lauren.Lauren is in Canada so I don't think they do the whole over investigation for insurance purposes. I have epilepsy, and all my CT scans are identical. I loved this video, was hospitalized in my 20s. It was way nicer than where I was (US private).

@DrSyl - At 13:57 you talk about over-investigation re: her CT scan, and I had a couple of thoughts: first I wonder if she might have misunderstood which scan she was going to get, e.g. CT, MRI, PET, etc., and second in response to your comment about insurance-funded testing, she's in Canada and the socialized health care system doesn't suffer from the problem where hospitals and doctors try to milk insurance companies; if anything they under-test because politicians like to direct funds to more glitzy stuff than boring scanning machines so they can get re-elected.

I've been an inpatient several times, both hospital and Crisis homes Bipolar 2. My last stay which had been years before this stay. Also happening right near the beginning of the Pandemic. I had started working from home. Since I didn't know how long that would last I paid for my brother in law and sister for come and enclose my garage. since they had both lost their jobs. Also, both of my daughters were set to graduate. 1 graduated with her Dr of Veterinary Medicine and my second with her bachelors degree. So we missed that and a lot of other things were going on. The event that my sister triggered felt like at that exact moment someone had taken a gun and shot me point blank in the head. I have never experienced anything like that before. That evening caused me to have what I can only explain as flashbacks maybe like LSD. I was talking with my therapist just recently and was trying to determine if this incident could be described as trauma or Psychosis. I was curious if emdr (like a tactical intensive therapy) would help resolve the emotions and psychiatric difference I am experiencing. My therapist does not do EMDR. Since that event my life has never really recovered back to my normal. I would really be interested in you input.

I'm glad that she thinks so clearly and that she is able to verbalize so clearly in a calm and very rational voice. And it looks like they allow her to wear her own personal clothing whatever the top is that she has on as well as makeup and a wrist watch well that's wonderful. The medications must really agree with her because she shows no outer signs of being sedated. If I didn't know better I would take her for a psychiatrist, rather than a patient yes cameras voice recorders cell phones are all no-nos in a psych ward I can't imagine that they held a gun to her head and said you must attend religious services here. If this was taped in the United States she would have a good argument to sue the hospital for infringe infringing on her rights to not engage in any particular religious practices become a part of any religious service I hope she found a good lawyer after she was discharged to sue the hospital for infringing on her civil rights. And I'm still so surprised that she's not having to wear a hospital gown and socks. She looks so normal. The doctors must be total idiots to order a CT scan of her brain. Did she or someone on her behalf sign an agreement to let the hospital do whatever they want to her? Did any staff member or patient notice that she was talking to herself from outward appearances so often when she spoke into the microphone? Maybe if they saw her talking to herself when actually she was speaking into the microphone that they thought she was truly having hallucinations.,?

Dr. Syl, I think she's in Canada (her accent is Canadian).Hugs to her!

BTW, I found a channel (or it was recommended to me), and it's pretty fascinating. The (young) guy's name is Stephen and his dad makes frequent appearances. They ask questions i've never heard asked re schizophrenia (visual differences, auditory problems, headache, etc.) and is doing really well. The channel is "Surviving Schizophrenia". I think it's an amazing channel.

It’s definitely not as intense as this, but I have a few videos explaining my symptoms of trying different ssri’s if you need more content to react to. I know it’s very common to be on that type of medication

I really love your videos, the way you explain stuff is epic. Could you please speak a bit louder, hope you understand it... BTW LOVE your content

No one should be forced to pray, but u should be respectful of where u are and those around you

US hospitals don't allow patients to have their phones. It's a lot of deprivation. You also can't document problems with your stay. I think that should change. I've also never heard of anyone getting any kind of leave from a psych ward and I've been to many.

I don't have any diagnosis of a dilusionary illness but I do experience phycotic episodes, once ending in a month long visit in mental hospital. I only remember a week. But the week I do remember had prayers every morning and on the Sundays they had a prayer circle meeting. I *apparently* was extremely religious during the 3 weeks before and once I got back to a stable mindset I snapped at them (because I have extremely bad religious trauma)

Please do the follow up video about Lauren. I saw the initial one she did and it was concerning as she knew she was unwell but said she didn’t have an appointment with her mental health practitioner for a few weeks. So in psychiatric hospitals can you self refer?