What can you do if your therapist or GP say that you must go to hospital but you dont want to?

[Shock]

Heres the situation:

I am often overcome with thoughts of suicide. I have acted on them in the past, but obviously not succeeded. I want help for this. Its not a nice feeling wanting to die all the time and I want to get rid of it. To that end I have seen several GPs, psychologists, counsellors and psychiatrists. Occasionally, I am honest enough to say that I plan to try again. Their reaction is to call the police and have me put in hospital.

But I dont want to go to hospital. I have been and found the experiance far worsens my condition. Besides, if I stay in hospital a day, or week, or month what difference does it make when I get out? The staff and doctors in there do the same sort of things as the people I see on the outside. Its just a far more depressing living condition.

So, how can you discuss your plans for suicide and not lie about them?

[Jo3]

Hi Shock

What I was trying to explain was that when we are depressed our thinking is not straight. I know what you're saying about being the same person but the thoughts and behaviour is really not you; it;s the depression talking in your mind.  (well, that's how I have had it explained to me by my psych)

I understand that your problems are yours alone; I;m not saying that we are all the same and that one coping strategy will help everyone; because it won't.  

I was only giving you some advice and thought I was helping.  

Good luck

Jo

[Chris_B]

Hi Shock,

I posted an example of a blank safety plan in the Suicide Prevention forum in the thread 'Coping with suicidal thoughts'.  There are a number of options in there that it encourages you to fill in based on your own circumstances, aside from calling a helpline or going to hospital.

Do you have friends or family around that you can talk to or be with when you're not feeling good?  Is there a place of your choosing that is safe where you can go for time out?  When you're feeling in a well state, can you identify what the good things are in life that keep you going - these are all the sorts of things that can go into a safety plan.  

What are some of the things that other people do to help distract or tide them over when feeling overwhelmed, aside from calling helplines or services?

[Stephen123]

Hi, first please let me say if I upset you in any way with my post I humbly apologise I did not mean to offend you in any way, I probably should not be trying to post again as I do not have any inkling into self harm and I,ll say again that I am completely out of my depth here. I have this belief that on this forum issues should be dealt with people that have first hand experience with the issue.( Child abuse should be dealt with by people that have been abused. Psychosis dealt with by people that have experienced psychosis etc...) to me self harm is an incredibly scary issue fuelled by intense emotions. I have lived with an image of self harm on myself for 20 years but luckily I know that I would never carry out that image. I have been psychotic and placed into the back of a paddy wagon and been made an involuntary patient in a psych ward. It wasn't a pleasant experience by any means but today I am thankful that the magistrate and the police took those steps because I was not myself and I could have harmed myself or other people during that difficult time. Shock I wasn't going to reply but I think you deserve more than that. I hope you are looking at this post as a healthy debate about self harm. I am shitting myself here hoping that I don,t say the wrong thing but like child abuse I believe self harm is the most serious issue in mental health and I believe those two issues should be confronted by people that have experience with them. Nobody wants to be treated like a second class criminal, the first time I was taken away in a paddy wagon as I,ve said, with handcuffs on, but the other times I had a nice ride in an ambulance with police escort and when I,m myself again I would not want it any other way because somebody could have been hurt. I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you shock, I really am trying to help and understand. 

[Stephen123]

Sorry for responding again Shock but this thread has got me buggered. Here you are reaching out for help and here's me trying to justify my beliefs by telling you what I,ve been through. I guess I,m just trying to justify my ability to post on this ultimate issue. The thing is you raise the ultimate mental health issue and I,m baffled. I,m sorry after 20 years of therapy the best I can come up with! I,m not going to insult you with what my therapists gave me as coping mechanisms, I,m sure you,ve heard it all before, (thoughts are just thoughts that can,t hurt you, cbt, mindfulness etc...) shock I think you are in a place that is the ultimate negative. You can,t see that the doctors and police are just trying to help you the only way they know how. I can empathise with you somewhat because I was taken away by the coppers and locked up like a mental patient for my own safety and for the safety of those around me. I can,t empathise with you on the self harm issue because I have never tried it and I would not dare give any advice on this issue but maybe you could educate me and others on this forum as to what needs to be done to help people defeat the ultimate issue. I think you are the one with the answers to the ultimate issue Shock unless there is another suicide survivor on this forum that can offer advice. I hope I don,t regret posting this post!

[Pinkkiwi]

Thanks for your post. I have had a similar experience with police & emergency services making my circumstances far worse.
After a welfare check requested by a friend who couldn’t get hold of me, the police broke into my house after I didn’t answer the door (I was asleep) . I explained I had major mental health issues I was getting help with and working hard to overcome but after previous visits to ED this would definitely cause more trauma and panic. After half hr of pleading not to go & to let me sleep the police proceeded to handcuff me & drag me out into an ambulance like a criminal. I had bruises all up my forearms from

the handcuffs & was charged $1000 for this ambulance trip.

I am left questioning if telling the truth about suicidal thoughts is worth the hell of this kind of treatment.