How Many Psych Units?

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I’ve been in psych hospitals a lot, sometimes by choice, more often by force. Honestly, I’ve lost track of the exact count. My succession of psych unit stays started when I was 17 and (hopefully) ended with my last one when I was 56.

Nobody needs to be in psychiatric hospitals this much.

This chronological listing is the best I can recall, except for 2016 through 2019 when I kept an actual record. Most of the units were in the northern Virginia area, except during the 2000-2003 period when I lived in the San Francisco area. The ones in purple were the voluntary admissions. All the others were on psychiatric detention, also called 5150, also called a hold, also known by other terms, none meaning you decided to go in yourself.

 

1980-1981

-Fairfax (once)

-Arlington (2 times)

1986

-Northern VA Mental Health Institute (NVMHI) (once)

1989

-Georgetown (once)

-St. Elizabeth’s, District of Columbia (once) for 2 weeks, then transferred

-to NVMHI for 2 additional months

2000-2003 (these were all in northern California)

-Alta Bates/Herrick (4 times)

-Mt. Diablo (3 times)

-Fremont (4 times)

-St. Helena (once)

-John George (4 times)

-Telecare Solano (once)

-Fairmont (3 times)

2006-2010

-Adventist, in Maryland (once)

-Dominion (2 times)

-Dominion, again (3 times)

-Linden Oaks, Illinois (went for 30-day self-harm treatment inpatient program)

-Psychiatric Institute, District of Columbia (3 times)

2016-2019

-Mt. Vernon (5 times)

-Dominion (8 times)

-LAMPS (7 times)

-Fairfax (3 times)

-Spotsylvania (2 times)

-Chippenham (once)

-NVMHI (2 times)

2021

-Fairfax (2 times)

 

During the times of massive amounts of hospitalizations, I was on too many meds with too many different psychiatrists adjusting and changing them. Now I’m not on meds. Fingers crossed I don’t see the inside of a psych ward ever again. Who really needs this kind of constant hospitalization, and why didn’t a psych professional ask, during all that chaos, if the wacky medicating might be at the heart of the problem?


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