Travels Through Psychiatry

  Since I was 18, I’ve been on psychiatric medications, so that’s 40 years sometimes on just one or two meds, sometimes not on any, sometimes on up to 7 at once. When I was younger, I didn’t experience noticeable health problems with them, but by my mid 40’s physical problems started. You may write off some of this as aging, or say I’m stretching to connect the dots, or that such adverse effects are unknown or uncommon, etc. etc., but I live with all this, and it’s important to note for others who might also, or who may as they continue taking psych drugs. For me, the worst health problems surfaced with a psychiatrist who treated me from 2014 to 2019 for bipolar disorder. She kept adding meds, or trying new ones, or prescribing to treat adverse effects. My mind was in a whirl, and at the same time I felt incapacitated, leading to frustration and self-injury, ending up with me in many psych units where more psychiatrists thought they could fix things by changing up or adding to the

  Yes, my county did put an ECO (emergency custody order), a temporary detention on me and I dealt with being locked on a psych unit for the past week. I realize that even though stating what lead up to the police taking me from my home and into psychiatric custody adds context, I prefer to keep that private, so don’t ask. I argued against psych hospitalization but the evaluators ruled that it was in my best interests, and so I was held.  In these times of covid and variants still running about, there were some differences in the protocol for patients on the ward. Before my admission, despite being fully vaccinated, I had a covid test. I had to mostly stay masked, wear a hospital gowns and pants, and had to use hospital toiletries, barely any personal items allowed. The reasoning was that these measures might allow less virus into the environment. Luckily the unit had private rooms, not shared. And I was on the premier unit for my area, meaning there was more concern for patient well-b