Overheated, then Overtreated: My 10-Day Involuntary Hold

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While I have traveled solo in Italy, Austria, Greece, Thailand, and Cambodia, I have never before traveled solo during a pandemic. It presents its own unique set of challenges, especially with regard to heatstroke/heat exhaustion. It’s not as if, for example, one might simply walk into a McDonald’s or a public library and avail themselves of the free WIFI and air conditioning, let alone a chair. This fact was never more true than in late June/early July 2020, when I left typically cool and cloudy Cape Cod to visit nearby Rhode Island on a personal/professional quest to see how area resorts and tourist areas were responding to the challenges of reopening. A professional waiter for the past 14 years, and occasionally lead trainer, I myself was still on furlough.

Unfortunately, as I hinted earlier, the weather on ‘the mainland’ was surprisingly sunny and hot, and I was ill-prepared for the sun’s intensity. I was doing a lot of walking, which is my usual custom in such circumstances, much of it lost in thought as I attempted to work through a complicated screenplay idea that had presented itself to me a week or so earlier, and I figured, why the heck not? (Had I known then that I could be “sectioned,” i.e., committed compulsorily to a psychiatric hospital on a whim, and as a direct result of this one decision, my conscious decision to do so would have undoubtedly been much different.) Caught off guard not only by the heat and the sun’s intensity, but also by the dramatic differences in the way in which not only neighboring states but also neighboring towns were responding to the challenges of the pandemic, and admittedly not hydrating as I should have, I fell victim to heatstroke/heat exhaustion.

Absolutely desperate for shade and a place to sit down, even if only for a moment, I walked into an unknown person’s yard. Unable to find either, and temporarily confused by the sun and heat, I entered the home instead. I sat down for a few minutes, and then wandered around, soon realizing my mistake. I left, only to encounter the home’s owner as I did so, and I can honestly say that I have never felt more embarrassed in my entire life. In an effort to forget and quickly move on from the experience, I resumed walking with the intent of figuring out where I was in relation to my car, with the goal of returning to it and subsequently my hotel, when I was suddenly surrounded by three police cars with sirens blaring.

A health and safety check ensued, which, as far as I know, I passed. Their assessment, from what I was later led to understand, was the same as mine: heatstroke/heat exhaustion. I was then taken to the local ER, where I assumed that I would be given fluids and a long lecture on the importance of drinking water, applying sunscreen while traveling, not stepping in poison ivy, etc…. I’ve always been a bit of a peripatetic walker, especially while traveling. Providence, Rhode Island being an ideal city in which to do so, on account of the architecture, and seeking, while on vacation, to make as much hay as possible while the sun shines, or in this case doesn’t, I do sometimes stay out all night. Especially in areas such as Downtown Providence or resorts such as Walt Disney World, which I believe to be relatively safe, perhaps never more so than during a global pandemic shutdown.

This was not to be the case, however. The ER doctor asked if I would agree to a CAT scan, despite my not having so much as a headache, and I, having long been interested in all things brain, especially split-brain research, and very eager to see a picture of my own, enthusiastically agreed. The doctor returned, telling me that they had found a bleed in my cerebellum, and asked if I would agree to be transported to a nearby hospital for treatment, and I of course said yes. Surprised, however, by the utter lack of symptoms such as headache, nausea, or difficulty thinking or communicating.

I awoke eight or so hours later, surprised to find myself not dead, but instead, trapped inside what I consider to be my worst nightmare: a hospital bed from which I could not get up without setting off an alarm. I’d been put to sleep somehow, during which time (I later learned) I’d been given additional scans. Deprived of food and water (and perhaps most importantly, visitors), but still exhibiting zero symptoms, I began to grow increasingly frightened, especially after having looked up the hospital on my phone (my belongings were nearby) and noting the caliber of reviews posted online. This is not good, I remember thinking to myself, somewhat presciently.

Eleven days passed. Ten of which were spent on a locked ward (the door is not actually, physically locked, but neither can you leave), eight in the Neuro Stroke Unit, and two in a group psych ward. My “bizarre” behavior of wandering around unaccompanied, and having entered the aforementioned home, was here being viewed as indicative of mania, according to the ward psychiatrists.

I am 50, a homeowner, with a $325,000 house, a 10-year record of $1,700-a-month mortgage payments, and two cars (a Honda FIT and a Miata), all of which I’ve been successfully paying for on a single woman’s salary. My highest-risk behavior? Perhaps more often than I ought, I do drink diet root beer. More so, lately. I follow an anti-inflammatory diet, take pharmaceutical-grade fish oil, and every two years, I have my blood tested to ensure that my AA/EPA fatty-acid ratio is within a very narrow range (1.5 and 3). I exercise regularly, I don’t smoke, I rarely drink, and I am so opposed to the use of substances that I personally choose not ingest anything with caffeine, save for the occasional dark chocolate almond or nonpareil. My one “addiction” (if it can even be called that) is to potato chips.

“If I am manic, let alone bipolar,” I later said to a friend upon my eventual release, “then I am the highest-functioning individual with mania/bipolar disorder in all of recorded history.” Also, I have a master’s degree in psychology, and I literally own a copy of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as its use was taught in one of the courses I took in graduate school.

Nevertheless, throughout the entire nightmarish ordeal, the doctors on the ward subjected me to every neurological exam (“Touch my finger, then touch my nose.” “Who are you?”) that they could possibly think of. So much so, that there came a time where I could practically take myself through the entire exam unaided, and I swore to myself that next time I traveled, I would remember to pack my name tag. Their inability to find any neurological evidence via these exams, and my lack of any headache, nausea, vomiting, etc., presenting as happy, smiley, and ranking my pain as “0” on the 1-10 scale, quickly approached a level of total and utter ridiculousness.

Throughout, they pressured me to take Zyprexa (an antipsychotic so powerful that it is also used as a first-line treatment for schizophrenia), and Lisinopril, a medication used to treat high blood pressure), which I thought odd as my blood pressure is consistently low. Also an MRI and a lumbar puncture. All four of which I refused, asking to be allowed to return home in order for the issue to be addressed by my primary care physician. My repeated requests were denied. Every morning I would shower and dress in the clothes I wore when I was brought into the hospital, a blue and white dress with a blue pashmina, hoping that this might be the day I successfully negotiated for my release.

Upon discharge on the eleventh day, I returned home to a lawn that hadn’t been mowed (they had taken my phone away from me), and a cat that fortunately was not dead, but only because I have a guest staying with me in my house for the summer. Within days, paperwork and bills began arriving from the hospital, my share totaling almost $4,000. (So much for my trip to the Vesuvius region of Italy, which I had already begun planning! Goodbye ancient cities of Pompeii, Naples, Oplontis, Stabiae, and Herculaneum!)

The diagnosis for which I lost 11 days of my life? A “stable, non-bleeding arteriovenous brain malformation.” So stable, in fact, that upon my return to his office a week-and-a-half later, my doctor advised me that no change was needed to my usual activity level, which often includes two to three 50-mile bike rides a week and at least one, sometimes two, three-to-six-hour kayak trips.

My other diagnosis: Bipolar Disorder: Current episode manic, mild with no psychotic symptoms. Classified in the report as “apparent,” due to the lack of observable symptoms, which were explained in the report as being due to my taking magnesium as a migraine preventative. (Then why the heck prescribe an antipsychotic as powerful as Zyprexa?) But what they didn’t know, of course, never having bothered to ask me such questions, is that I have only been taking magnesium for two of the past 50 years, so the absence of symptoms of bipolar disorder (mania, a major depressive episode) prior to then remains a mystery. (A textbook example of mania: the patient quits their job, and returns from the nearby pet store with a car full of aquariums, having devised a new way for fish to breathe, convinced he will now become a millionaire. And, in order to qualify as mania, an episode cannot be attributable to the physiological effects of a substance or another medical condition.)

What possible explanation is there for this bizarre and completely unexpected turn of events? Especially in a country such as this one, which prides itself on being a place where these sorts of things never happen? The answer is perhaps as simple as money. The parent company of this particular hospital reported a $35-million-dollar loss in 2019. Had the hospital simply treated me for heatstroke/heat exhaustion, they would have made next to nothing. But 11 days in the hospital (10 on a “locked” ward), a CAT scan, an EEG, an EKG, an MRI, a lumbar puncture, a COVID-19 test upon admittance, and prior to discharge, Zyprexa and Lisinopril; well, I’ll let you do the math (it’s about $20,000). Something to consider when planning your next solo vacation during a pandemic, especially if you are thinking of visiting Rhode Island. Caveat viator.

 

 

 

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

44 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Kristen,

    I had a fellow golf club member perish in the heat about a week ago (he and his wife, both in their 70s). People have been quite concerned about the way they left. My attitude is that I’d prefer this way rather than being force drugged with chemical handcuffs, being tied to my bed and left in my own fecal matter for hours on end by staff that will beat me senseless for complaining. We call that ‘care’ where I live unfortunately.

    Caveat viator.

    Too true in my State, where they have found ways around the laws protecting the community and are enabling arbitrary detentions and acts of torture to be called ‘mental health care’. Great if your a doctor or an organised criminal (or both) because there’s a lot of money to be made.

    Your insurance cover ECTs? Because when were talking about a lot of money to be made, the drug dealing is not where the action is these days. Despite the dismantling of the legislation allowing us to know who it is that is prescribing ADHD drugs to 1074 “patients”. You should see how quickly people will empty their wallets when you come at them with an electric cable with the wires stripped at the ends. Anything, just get them to stop are the words that come to mind. See Garth Daniels articles here on MiA.

    Glad someone with the ability to write has documented their experience in this regard. Many are way too traumatized (and will be retraumatized for complaining) to be able to document their experiences.

    Good luck getting to Italy. Naples is particularly beautiful.

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  2. “’If I am manic, let alone bipolar,’ I later said to a friend upon my eventual release, ‘then I am the highest-functioning individual with mania/bipolar disorder in all of recorded history.’”

    Well, according to my family’s history, and my medical records, all those of us who have a family history of multiple Phi Beta Kappa members and multiple Olympic athletes, are “bipolar.” The intelligent, physically fit, healthy, but well insured, Americans are the ones the too greedy medical community believe have “bipolar.” You’re in good company.

    And a child abuse covering up psychologist, who recently had delusions of grandeur that I’d sign an “art manager”/thievery contract, because he wanted to steal all my work and money, due to his belief a “Chicago Chagall’s” work might be worth something some day.

    That psychologist told me that the social workers should be trying to drug up the best and brightest American children, because they got 100% on their state standardized tests, to “maintain the status quo” and “to get all the money in the hands of a small number of banking families.”

    Since he apparently didn’t understand, those of us who come from the non-bailout needing or taking American banking families, know all about the crimes of the globalist banksters, and don’t stand in support of their crimes.

    Absolutely, “bipolar” is a BS “diagnosis.” It’s an “illness” whose symptoms are created with the antidepressants and ADHD drugs, as Robert Whitaker credibly pointed out in “Anatomy.”

    And the supposed treatments for “bipolar,” the “schizophrenia” drugs, the antipsychotics, do indeed create both the negative and positive symptoms of “schizophrenia.” The negative symptoms are created via neuroleptic induced deficit syndrome. And the positive symptoms of “schizophrenia,” like “psychosis” and hallucinations, are created via antidepressant and/or antipsychotic induced anticholinergic toxidrome.

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  3. We live in the world of conformists (consider this word an euphemism for some stronger term), who haven’t developed an ability of seeing beyond appearances because they cultivated appearances all their lives. Including the so-called doctors, most of them (not only psychiatrists but all branches).

    You have to behave such way to be seen as “normal” by their sick perception, if you want to avoid troubles.

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  4. I got tagged with Bipolar mania, too, when I ended up in a psych ward on what ended up being a huge misunderstanding. The psychiatrist came into my room at about 8 AM to find me fully dressed (sans shoes because they had laces), sitting on the bed, and completely agreeable. I’d go as far as to say that I was even chipper, like an annoying early morning coworker who’s awake and excited to meet the day.

    I answered his questions fully and politely and mentioned that I was trying to get back to the medical hospital because I had a skin infection on both my legs and needed antibiotics.

    For this, he labeled me as having mania and set me on a new regimen of a high dose of Topamax (I think it was 100-200mg) and a nicotine patch. Regardless of the fact that I have never smoked a cigarette a day in my life. Thankfully, I was a “voluntary” patient and was able to decline the drugs.

    Did I mention that I’m on a lot of different medications and the psych ward wasn’t aware that I was on anything? They had an absolutely blank medical record from me, even though the ER at the hospital I went to had all of my information.

    Sure, I can miss a dose of Paxil, Anafranil, and Xanax here and there, but it’s probably best to give me my Keppra so that I don’t have a seizure.

    It was also the end of June in Florida and the facility had a broken air conditioner? On top of everything else, it was like 88-90*F in a locked ward.

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  5. Half a world away and that still mirrors what I experienced closely

    Secret and bullshit diagnosis? Check.
    Being pushed towards medication for no reason? Check.
    The feeling it was about money? Check. (I got asked by one of the docs if I thought it was about money without me ever thinking or saying anything like that prior. It was her thought. I thought of them as merely incompetent.)
    .
    .
    .
    Miata? Check. xD

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  6. Kristen, you are brave and fortunate indeed, that you got out without meds. And a bipolar diagnosis—absolutely ridiculous. At any point did the police or docs listen to you when asked why you entered someone’s house? All of that could have been solved so easily. Sadly, I think you’re correct about the money angle.

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    • Sadly, no. Why it never occurred to anyone that I might simply have gotten lost in an area I was perhaps not quite as familiar as I thought, is beyond me. Something similar happened once 30 years ago, when I spent my junior year abroad in Italy. We only had class Monday through Thursday, so come Friday morning, I would throw a couple pairs of underwear etc… in a backpack, head to the train station and randomly choose a train/direction. Only once did I ever find myself in any trouble, having missed the last train home in a rural area into which I had contentedly wandered. Fortunately, I was close friends with an Italian family I had met while singing in a local chorus, and they happily came and got me.

      Six years ago, when I was in Angor Wat (the temple complex in Cambodia), also as a solo traveler, I decided that given what it took to get there (20 or so relatively grueling hours by air), I would likely never return, so I was determined to see all 42 temples. Alone with a tour guide, in one instance on the back of a motorcycle, in another two hours in a tuk tuk (which is a combination car/motorcycle) to Kbal Spean, an archaeological site in a river on the slopes of a hill.
      Apparently, in Rhode Island, this sort of behavior by a single unmarried, unaccompanied, now not so young woman, is considered seriously self-harmful and indicative of mental illness. More so apparently, even than heroin or opioid addiction or worse, none of which engender a 10 day hold in RI.

      Also, just the other day, one of my best friends and I were hiking in an area nearby with which we thought we were somewhat familiar, and we were so engrossed in conversation, that when we reached a natural lull in the conversation, we looked at one another and realized we were (if only temporarily), completely lost. I joked that I had decided it perhaps best to travel with a companion, at least in Rhode Island, but said that given our present predicament, it would not be her. Fortunately, we each had fully charged phones and were able to sort it all out quite easily. Something I did not have during the incident in Rhode Island. As there was no where to charge it.

      Unfortunately the doctors had already decided, based on the aforementioned behavior, which they deemed “bizarre,” that I was mentally ill, and there was nothing I could do or say to dissuade them. In fact, quite the opposite, unfortunately.

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        • Tell that to me. I get it that police had “reasonable grounds to suspect” that Kristen required an ‘assessment’.

          But my situation, man asleep in his own bed after being ‘spiked’ with benzos is considered “reasonable grounds” for handing someone over to mental health for ‘assessment’? What was it about my behavior that suggested I required assessing by a mental health professional? Something someone said? Hearsay? This of course means mental health services now have police available as their own personal kidnapping service for ANY citizen. Something that should be a concern to those with an interest in a democratic society. Which is certainly NOT the ‘advocates’ at the Mental Health Law Centre or the person responsible for enforcing the protections of the law. they’re fine with people being snatched from their bed and subjected to known torture methods. And just so it doesn’t look so nasty to anyone, we’ll just “edit” the documents a bit to make you look like you were actually a “patient” of the hospital, and not someone referred by police for being asleep in your bed as a result of being ‘spiked’.

          So were the police justified in referring for wandering into someone’s home in a disoriented state? I believe so. Once in the hands of doctors, it doesn’t take long to figure out “no” means “yes” because of “emergency provisions” which can be invoked as a result of the uttering of the word “no”. They get to do pretty much whatever they want from that point on, and with the ability to “edit” documents before providing them to your legal representation, there is not a chance you will ever be able to do anything about it.

          Consider, in my instance they removed the documents showing both the ‘spiking’ and the ‘police referral’, and replaced those documents with others that gave the appearance that I had been a “patient” of the hospital for more than ten years. This was then used to slander me to my legal representatives as being a paranoid delusional for complaining about being ‘spiked’. Without the proof, all you have is a delusion. Your complaining about the truth becomes a justification for a chemical kosh.

          The laws we have were designed to protect people from this type of conduct. Community Nurse calls police and requests they provide him with a referral for someone who is NOT a “patient”, it is a criminal offence. s. 336 of the Criminal Code Procuring the apprehension or detention of a person not suffering from a mental illness, penalty 3 years prison. So the hospital needed to “edit” the documents to conceal the call to police and the lie that they were required to assist with a “mental patient” with a knife [that they ‘planted’ on me once they had procured police services to beat a confession that I needed mental health services from me]. Gee, and I’m the dangerous one? This is the people caring for your loved ones, and you may be surprised who is providing them with criminal support in their viciousness.

          (‘spiked’ with benzos plus “acute stress reaction” = code for torture. Can’t say it openly, but we know what they are asking for when they call. Have police rough em up and they will talk with weapons drawn and pointed at them, especially when they have been ‘spiked’. Then have a doctor sign off on the ‘spiking’ post hoc, what choice does he have? He either reports his colleague or authorises the act of torture and then ‘drops’ the victim with a ‘chemical restraint’. I know what he picked in my instance. Benzos which I have never been prescribed, and would never take willingly, became my “regular medication” [not that I ever knew, it was all done in the paperwork without me being informed] to be administered covertly anytime they needed to plant items on me for police to find.)

          Ever tried to get police to help you when they have been ‘stooged’ into doing a kidnapping for mental health? They simply hand you back to the criminals to have a little accident with you. The idea of public sector misconduct of that magnitude too difficult for them to stomach, and so much easier to resolve by working with the criminals. “woops, sorry, your complication has had a slight complication. And the Coroner can’t seem to find where the morphine came from.” A three card monte. Video available if you like. It’s much easier to ‘find the Lady’ if you look in slo mo. Still, one fish slips through the net…….. a lot didn’t get away.

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        • Steve,

          Literally everything will be interpreted as sign of mental illness.

          I couldn’t sleep during my first night locked up. Pretty normal considering the circumstances. Quite a lot of people get stressed out to the point where they can’t sleep by far less, like going on vacation the day after. Not for psychiatrists. They wanted me to take neuroleptics for that.

          I asked what the “up to” part of “can be held up to day X” in the court order meant. To the psychiatrist that was “concretism” and a sign of schizophrenia. To anyone else that would have been a perfectly normal question.

          The psychiatrists I dealt with were mentally ill themself. Not surprising when your day job consists of abusing people, who in turn hate your guts and show it.

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          • Beokay, I think the biggest problem we face is that unless
            people are actually faced with real threat by psychiatry, due to emotional upsets or crisis, they do not understand. Not fully. Because after all, the majority of the public thinks people in emotional crisis need “treatment”. That would be due to false thinking.

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          • The other most humorous matter listed on the Form 1 was my “potential for damage to reputation and meaningful relationships”.

            This written by a man (Community Nurse) who has had police jump me in my bed (he must have lied to them and created a false belief [a crime in my State, one that he documented, and ‘receipted’ by police # ] by telling them I was a “patient”), and then had police who have parked on my Father and Mother in laws garden, take me out and throw me into the back of a police van in front of them, and then inform them that, no I was not being arrested, merely being taken against my will to the locked ward of a mental hospital. So I am being locked up for having the potential to do what he is actually doing. And they claim there is something disordered about MY thinking? lol

            “To the psychiatrist that was “concretism” ”

            Maybe we need to be more ‘cementy’?

            I loved the comment “potential for violence but no clear intent, or history” Now consider that statement carefully, It consists of a paranoid delusion of the person writing it, but is used to ‘chemically restrain’ the person it is written about. Imagine people being treated for your illness?

            Personally I think that procuring the services of police to snatch citizens from their beds after they have been spiked, and drop them to a locked ward actually creates the “potential for violence” but once again the circular reasoning applies. If she floats, she’s made of wood and is a witch…….. we burn her. If she drowns well, we needed to apply the test right? Lets just “edit” the paperwork and be done with the matter.

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  7. Anybody got the evidence – any papers on magnesium causing “bipolar”. If you do not mind me asking how much Mg were you taking to help with your migraine? Auntie Psychiatry and I have done significant research on migraine, the drugs, the real triggers and solutions. Mg is a good way to go for migraine. What has been noticed is that AD’s are starting to be advocated by psychiatrists for pain including migraine.

    I’m afraid to say, once psych has got hold of you it will not let go now you have a record and been diagnosed – you have entered the domain of our realm. Psychiatry will lurk in wait to financially screw you over again. Perhaps you would like to avail yourself with the important history of psychiatry:

    http://breggin.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/psychiatrysrole.pbreggin.1993.pdf

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    • That article is frighteningly chilling. I was just thinking how in terms of my penchant for wandering around looking at things, preferably ruins or architecture, while traveling, unaccompanied as a woman periodically over the past 35 or so years, that one has much more to fear from psychiatrists than one does one’s fellow man. In as many countries as I have traveled, where was I (and you yourself) ‘taken,’ to quote Liam Neeson, and by whom? The answer is just as chilling as the article. I take 400mg of magnesium (glycinate chelate), as a migraine preventative. It works incredibly well. Their assertion was that my doing so was also preventing (not causing) symptoms of bipolar disorder as well. Although, as I mentioned in the article, that only accounts for two of the past 50 years. One lawyer with whom I did speak warned me that what you said is true, that the hospital would control the narrative and that my hospitalization would color the way I would be treated and dealt with from now on, unfortunately, to my own peril. And that perhaps most unfortunately, there is very little I can now do to rectify that. As my parents would no doubt add, I should have thought about all of that before I decided to travel to an adjoining state during a pandemic. Hindsight is 20/20 however, and while I had heard the horror stories in regards to psychiatry, it never occurred to me that they might be true.

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      • Yeah it most certainly was not your fault and the horror stories are most certainly true, more sophisticated today but no less horrific and of course the patients ‘mental illness’ gets blammed and the doctors off the hook.

        I was ‘taken’ by one tablet of sertraline 9 years ago the rest is an unspeakably horrific descent into the hell of psychiatry after 50 years of leading a normal life – no knowledge of all this.

        Re Mg controlling ‘bipolar’ I think their reasoning maybe that the NMDA receptor – which is a glutamate receptor, major excitatory neurotransmitter – is gated or blocked by Mg and thereby partly controls its firing.

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  8. It’s so easy to get a bipolar diagnosis these days. Today’s science news discusses how this phenomenon is playing out in Iran: https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/09/understand-soaring-rates-bipolar-iran/.

    I got a bipolar 2 diagnosis for a time based on “symptoms” for which there were other explanations. But I lacked more of the supposed symptoms of BPD than I had. No matter; if your emotions or behavior deviate in anyway from some concept of normal, you just might be bipolar and to be safe here is a script for heavy-duty, life- and health-changing drugs.

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    • I’m assuming that all bipolar have “other explanations”.
      It is the easiest thing in the world to get a “diagnosis”. And of course all symptoms have explanations, after
      all, how is Bipolar an “explanation” of your symptoms? So Bipolar is the origin of the symptoms? And the symptom? How was the bipolar discovered? Is it then a case of, we go around saying “I have bipolar”? Or worse yet, “I was mis-diagnosed”?
      Thing is, we all know the symptoms are for sure the diagnosis, we can diagnose ourselves and just go to a shrink for the official one. You know, in writing after the tests. the complaints.

      I am also one that wishes I was “misdiagnosed”. That there were “other explanations”… But no, I don’t have my shit together the way that some do. I do get quite neurotic in some people’s eyes. So in that case I must have “something”.
      But I’m absolutely not prescribing to bias diagnosis. Made up things, by an entity that no one knows what the reasons of their neural activity is useful for. Seriously I don’t. When I look at human survival, it is amazing what passes. We are indeed a very disordered lot, so I really don’t know why we all are bothered by what we are called.
      We are bothered and frustated simply because of the audacity for politicians to recognize psychiatry as a service. Yes they serve because in confusion, distress and chaos, high anxiety basically, there is no one else, so they enlisted an abusive controlling force. I mean if I am scared, which is really the basis of ALL distress, then the best thing is to hit me or strap me down, take away my liberties. Is this not what bad childhoods are like? Do parents get their kids taken away?
      Basically psychiatry deals with a lot of arrested development in different areas and beats you for it.
      And the biggest problem is, their arrested development stopped at developing compassion and insight into the conundrum which is human experiences and process.

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      • “Overtreated” suggests that there is a proper amount of “treatment.” It seems a devious term to be used in this context, as of course, having no objective way to “diagnose” “bipolar” or any of the other so-called “disorders,” it is impossible to even establish what is being “treated,” let alone what the “proper amount of treatment” would look like.

        Maybe the title should be, “Overheated, then overwhelmed with attempts to define and control my life.”

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        • Precisely! Prior to this happening I reveled in thinking I possessed 100 degrees of freedom to be, do, or say, pretty much whatever I want, without fear of reprisal. (So long as I didn’t harm anyone in the process.) This experience made me painfully aware of my own ignorance and naïveté in that regard.

          Perhaps after another 50 years without incident, they will revise their opinion of me.

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          • Of course, they don’t really have an opinion of you. They haven’t bothered to find out who you are. They have an “opinion” of “bipolars” or “borderlines” or whatever box they want to put you in. The only “success” with such people is escaping their boxing game and finding someone who actually cares about you as a human being.

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          • “finding someone who actually cares about you as a human being.”

            Which is directly correlated with the amount of money you have in your wallet.

            Confucius says “Man with big jingle in pocket, not necessarily rich”.

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      • The only way one can get “bipolar disorder” is by stepping into the office of a shrink. What I mean by that is, whatever your problem may be, that’s the only way that life-ruining label can be applied to you. Else you’re just a person with problems.

        Frankly, I’m terrified of doctors and hospitals, especially shrinks. I just don’t trust them anymore. It’s even worse that despite having a psychology degree, it hardly helped you. What hope do lay people have?

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  9. Let me clarify a few things. As far as I’m concerned any “mental illness” diagnosis is a misdiagnosis– in that they are constructs without real-world physical correlates. So I’m comfortable with the word “misdiagnosed” in relation to myself. Also, even if the bipolar label were credible as a diagnosis, I just didn’t tick off the boxes…like so many people, including Kristen.

    As far as the headline, Kristen had headstroke or heat exhaustion. Proper treatment would have been simple and she’d have likely left the ER within a few hours. Instead, she was put through a battery of tests, given psych eval and diagnosis, and prescribed strong and inappropriate drugs. That’s the textbook definition of “overtreated.” More medical interventions than called for.

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    • Miranda, I don’t see them as “medical” interventions. And I do tick of every box for the 565 disorders and diagnosis. So I probably have 565 misdiagnosis or real diagnosis. I’m going to wear my ticks with pride. And just in case there is a credible label, I need to decide which one I’d like to purchase, because it is costly to buy and I hate to waste my money on useless things.
      And one could have heatstroke plus have been “ticking” off all the boxes.

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    • Even worse, I just received the results from an MRI my neurologist ordered as RI Hospital failed to send her the medical records she needed. This MRI showed, as I suspected, a developmental venous anomaly, a harmless, symptomless, birth defect that occurs in 1 out of 50 people. So symptomless and harmless that it is rarely detected except at autopsy. A brain AVM, the original diagnosis, being much more serious although considered stable. DVA’s by comparison, don’t hemorrhage/bleed. Certainly no justification for being locked in the Neuro Stroke Unit for 9 of 11 days. Against this backdrop, Lifespan (both hospital’s parent company), posted a loss of 75 million in March alone, and expects to lose possibly hundreds of millions by year’s end, according to news reports. The ridiculousness knows no end. Even more so if one chooses to envision my non conscious body being driven around RI and imaged (on one occasion in Warwick), before being eventually deposited on a bed in RI Hospital. The film, Weekend at Bernie’s comes to mind.

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      • “I just received the results from an MRI my neurologist ordered as RI Hospital failed to send her the medical records she needed.”

        “edited” huh? Legal defense being prepared. Persist with pushing the issue your family will most likely be targeted. The worst possible position to be in is actually having the proof of their negligence, because then they will fuking destroy you. These are well resourced people who will do whatever it takes to ensure you can not bring action against them. This will include criminal fraud, threats to your current physician, setting you up, …. all the usual stuff you probably won’t expect from people you should be able to trust. Still I’m spoiling the fun.

        Weekend at Bernies? Mine was more like a Weekend with Ariel Castro. Give him a license and he would have been seen by authorities where I live as a ‘fit and competent’ person to be running a C class hostel.

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        • “The worst possible position to be in is actually having the proof of their negligence, because then they will fuking destroy you.”

          Yes indeed – I had hard copy proof of the lies of the consultant in the form of the trusts own letters listing the drugs I was made to take all at once. They really trashed me and of course the consultant is still in place. The whole lot is corrupt. If you’re in the UK and wish to make a complaint seriously.. don’t do it, the complaint will go to the person who abused you, they can write what ever they like on your record and THAT is what will be believed throught out the health system.

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          • Yes indeed street.
            I’m still scratching my head as to who is on the poor subjects side.
            But I am getting a few good ideas on who is not.
            What a nice life some get born into. Dare not to cry or else you will be getting a lobotomy.

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          • 171 . Destroying evidence
            A person who, knowing that a document or other thing is or may be required by the Commission or Parliamentary Inspector, wilfully destroys it or renders it illegible or undecipherable or incapable of identification, with the intention of preventing it from being effectively used in evidence, is guilty of an offence.

            Penalty: Imprisonment for 3 years and a fine of $60 000.

            Whilst in the locked ward I managed to obtain a pen and a Complaint Form. I wrote out my complaint about being physically assaulted and listed the section on the Form that related to Public Sector misconduct. I handed the Complaint Form to the Nurse and requested a copy, which I was provided. The Complaint Form was handed to the doctor who the complaint related to, who threw it into the trash.

            I have a copy, they don’t.

            I am released from the hospital locked ward and make enquiry as to what is being done regarding my written complaint. The ‘complaints officer’ (who usually deals with complaints about the quality of the jello provided for dinner) does an investigation of what may be a serious act of misconduct. She claims to have spoken to the Nurse I provided the complaint to, and he says that he knows nothing about it. (which is strange because he said something entirely different to me when I interviewed him and took a statement, post release and with my suit and tie on instead of my pajamas and drugged without my knowledge).

            I receive a letter from the complaints officer stating that they take complaints seriously and the nursing staff have been told to ensure that Complaint Forms are placed in the correct tray for actioning. So she lied to me, in writing, ummmm mah. But, they also asked for a copy of my copy of the Complaint Form alleging serious misconduct. I assume they were going to ensure that if and when the Commission investigated, they could conceal the destruction of evidence that may be required by the Commission.

            It was a serious criminal act by the same person who signed a prescription for the drugs he knew I had been ‘spiked’ with to conceal that offence. Perhaps he might consider having a toxicology report produced for the victims being stupefied with date rape drugs? Or does he find it easier to silence them, and dispose of any inconvenient evidence/proof of misconduct/malfeasance?

            The Nurse who was appointed to me tells me “We don’t get a lot like you in here”. And I’m assuming that they don’t WANT a lot like me in there. And I do hope they have acted on the Occupational Health and Safety issues I identified in my building report whilst I was being detained.

            Keep it in mind streetphotobeing. I hope it is of assistance. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the same methods used by corrupt police are being enabled by these so called mental institutions (only one of the cons I hadn’t seen before). At least with a police assault you will likely recover from the broken jaw or leg, though I do still to this day find myself wondering about the 8 year old boy I witnessed being subjected to a mock execution (we did vote to make these people human you know, in 1968. Didn’t police get the memo?). I wonder how his mental illness is being chemically balanced these days.

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  10. Kristen, I wouldn’t be so quick to go on that their motivations were money. Because this kind of story happens and can happen at just about any psychiatric institution, regardless of whether they are making a profit or not. It’s maybe best not to try to make anything out of what they were doing, other than point out how unprofessional it was. They otherwise might try to make out you’re paranoid. I’m not saying money wasn’t involved, because the whole phenomenon is driven by guilds, corporate media and wallstreet investments; so even if that one hospital wasn’t trying to make more money, it’s still further up the ladder; and they would list supposed medical concerns just like that, either way, and could and/or might try to make you out to be paranoid or making up conspiracy theories.

    I don’t think that psychiatrists often can differentiate between how they have been indoctrinated to interpret what they call symptoms, and what’s really going on. Your story points that out quite sufficiently, that they couldn’t tell the difference between normal symptoms of heat stroke, and mania from bipolar, then adding on, it becomes hard to remember all of it…

    What would linisopril have to do with a normal heat stroke? And then they bring up a false diagnosis of “stable, non-bleeding arteriovenous brain malformation.” which you now know was “a developmental venous anomaly, a harmless, symptomless, birth defect that occurs in 1 out of 50 people. So symptomless and harmless that it is rarely detected except at autopsy. A brain AVM, the original diagnosis, being much more serious although considered stable. DVA’s by comparison, don’t hemorrhage/bleed” The Linisopril would have been for the false diagnosis? And the bipolar diagnosis just shows what it shows, it reads like some kind of magic fundamentalists believe in, and you’re not even allowed to attribute what happened to a heat stroke anymore.

    I really wonder whether the doctor asking you whether you wanted a catscan already had other ideas in his head, which is then what spelled itself out over the next 11 days, anyhow. that’s how they got you in the system anyhow. I’m assuming that if you had said you didn’t want a catscan you could have walked free and wouldn’t have been available for them to start making up more stuff. Having said you wanted a catscan did that make you available for them to start trying to pin bipolar on you, or would they have tried that anyhow? And if they had that in their minds, would not wanting a catscan have prevented making you available? Such people really simply aren’t in their right minds anymore, when they think a “mental disorder” is going on. And they then think a person doesn’t know themselves what’s going on with them. And society increasingly has the same phobias, which I think is what your lawyer was trying to point out. You should simply be able to point out how what they did was false at many levels now, already. They can’t even see that it’s a simple sun stroke, and were wrong about the brain abnormality.

    You can imagine how fundamentalist some people are. And the only way they can believe in “bipolar” in many ways is by being alarmist, because the science involving it doesn’t really add up beyond their statements that they don’t really know how the brain works although they can’t really prove it’s a chemical imbalance (while their “medications” have been proven to cause chemical imbalance), and that they believe that they are making headway with “compelling” evidence, while the treatment that’s been put in place has caused a whole epidemic of the problem rather than a lessening, and thus you have more alarm rather than reason and logic.

    In fact, to deal with all of it and not completely lose it, you have to be quite a bit more informed that the “normal” person, and to not lose it you have to have more compassion with people who simply don’t know any better or better able to detach from an extremely disturbing situation than most people would be capable of.

    And the utter convolution of saying that you never had bipolar symptoms before, because you take magnesia, this to disregard it was a sun stroke, and then offer zyprexa…

    And you can easily read how much bipolar is over diagnosed, and the whole push with “medications” such as zyprexa which have collectively caused billions of dollars in fines because of withholding information about known side effects, or how such “medications” cause brain damage, this with a false diagnosis of a brain malformation….

    I don’t even go to see a primary care physician anymore. I’ve heard to many stories, and I have a diagnosis. I had gone to the ER for a simple allergic reaction to oregano oil, and they were ready to give me a prednisone pill, or something like that, which I said no to. I was then listed as “refusing” that, the doctor using such terminology. The doctor who was quite nice and social, did state that quite aggressively all of a sudden in contrast to his otherwise friendly demeanor. I did fill out a prescription for that, which I never took, especially after reading that it makes one in twenty psychotic. But they were going to just give me such a pill at the ER. The allergic reaction had no difficulty dissipating within a short period.

    Thank you for sharing your story.

    If I was going to be sarcastic, I’d try to point out that even zyprexa with all of its magic qualities, hasn’t been shown to prevent heat stroke.

    This stuff is just unbelievable.

    And it’s tragic.

    A person who was forced on zyprexa, in an asylum setting, they wouldn’t even be able to tell such a psychiatrist the truth they might find out about the efficacy of such medications, they probably couldn’t list their side effects and get decent or conscientious acknowledgement, nor for withdrawal symptoms….

    Those people can be quite brainwashed, and fundamentalist, and don’t have realistic flexibility in their thinking, when they encounter such…

    The best you can do is often just get out of the situation, and show there’s a different way. You just can’t engage with them directly….

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    • “The best you can do is often just get out of the situation, and show there’s a different way. You just can’t engage with them directly….”

      I think you would find the same true of Islamic State. There’s just no reasoning with extremists.

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      • Agreed. I like that last sentence especially: “There’s just no reasoning with extremists.” It resonates, as anyone with lived experience would no doubt readily attest. That seems to be the consensus over at the Antipsychiatry subreddit whenever anyone, having found themselves caught in psychiatry’s terrifying web, reaches out for advice. There’s definitely an interesting article there somewhere in terms of what to do when, given their extremism, which would highlight it also.

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        • You should visit the Psychiatry sub-reddit. “Antivaxxer”, “Scientologist”, “frustrated because of mental illness”, “they’re personality disordered”. It’s full of the language of psychiatric institutions and there are a lot of mental health workers and patients/caretakers supportive of them there.

          Literally, it was a scary place to visit and made me feel really bogged down for quite some time reading the stuff there.

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      • I really find this too easy, given how we are supposed to see things, to mention the Islamic State. As if they have anything to do with Islam to begin with, and further more, if you are referring to ISIS, that was a Caliphate that was allowed or encouraged to grow by the US and allied powers, thinking they would help take down Syria, which again is another strategical interest gone sour, like Osama bin Laden was, who first was hired by the US to mess up Aghanistan before that went the other direction. And this is endless, not to speak of people calling themselves Christian that destroyed and are still destroying beautiful peace loving and nature loving indigenous cultures all over the planet. If one is going to make remarks concerning extremism or fundamentalism, one really only has to look in one’s backyard: Rhode Island, for example.

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        • Point being that the people who consider this sort of treatment of someone who needs to be taken to the church of psychiatry for forced treatment ‘reasonable’, consider ISIL brutal for beating people for not attending Friday prayers.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ9UQKBUrsg

          Is it any wonder our Treasurer fled the State when police attended his home and were possibly going to have him ‘treated’ for his bi polar disorder? Does he know something that is being kept from the rest of us? Because surely we have a doctor here capable of treating such an ‘illness’?

          He did fortunately manage to hang on to his human rights, though only by a matter of minutes. Always good to hear of a Great Escape. Our very own Cool Hand Luke (“I got ma head right baws”) lol

          What was interesting about the situation was the fact that politicians start using this weapon against each other in breach of the unwritten agreement, it starts to get messy. Really messy. There’s a story there that will never be told.

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        • boans, but that’s like trying to… I don’t know what to say…

          They think they are trying to help you, and you’re being non compliant, and/or resisting, or whatever it adds up to for them to decide they can assault you, even lie (who was it that is recorded as advising parents to knock chairs over to make it look like their child is violent, when trying to get your child committed!? And that man has been on Charlie Rose who had a whole series acting like they “know” that mental illness is because of a chemical imbalance, and that medications are necessary, rather than they are with true articulate science the one cause of chemical imbalance that can consistently be found in psychiatric treatment, something the alleged diseases do not show to be in true science)…

          When you compare them to ISIS, they only are going to decide further you’re non compliant etc..

          They don’t see it as assault, and they don’t see all the damage they do as damage; they can’t see that when other methods help people but don’t validate theirs that they might have to question what they are doing; they don’t see that when there’s absolutely simple explanations for what’s going on which antidote their alarmist habits, that they are being alarmist;

          And the craziest thing is that you can’t reason with them, which is what they decide about you, because you actually are reasonable; you actually have to believe insane things or act like you do, in order to get by them.

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          • “When you compare them to ISIS, they only are going to decide further you’re non compliant etc..”

            Same with ISIS, if you compare them to the kuffar, it’s proof of your jahiliyah. And you therefore require the ‘treatment’ lol

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  11. Update (in the form of my recent Yelp review of Rhode Island Hospital)(RIH)

    I came for care, but what I received was punishment. In June of 2020, during Covid, I was involuntarily hospitalized at RIH for 11 days and given a diagnosis of ‘mild’ mania (i.e. Bipolar Disorder), despite having had no past history of mental illness in the 50 years prior or two years since. It turns out, in hindsight, it wasn’t Bipolar Disorder, or ‘mild mania,’ at all, but rather something called Maladaptive Daydreaming (but not the disorder), which involves complex daydreams that interfere with daily life, common in those with a past history of abuse, that often involves the use of repetitive motion (in my case walking). It has since been shown to have been associated with Covid-19 lockdown.

    At no time did I ever express any desire to harm myself or anyone else, nor have I ever done so in my 50 plus years on this planet. In fact, quite the opposite, as I am literally, a professional server and have been for almost 20 years. I remember commenting to one of the nurses that it felt to me almost like some sort of dissociative fugue (I have a Master’s Degree in Psychology), but true to form, she just dismissed the idea, choosing to believe instead that I was simply crazy.

    The doctor spoke to my parents who described me as ‘difficult,’ but never once asked me about my childhood, which I too would describe as ‘difficult,’ despite my saying that they and I were estranged and that my family consisted of myself and my cat. Ironically, in my hospital records it said that I lacked insight into my behavior, which is true, as at the time, I had never even heard about Maladaptive Daydreaming, as its discovery is relatively recent (2002), shortly before I graduated. Clearly, however, in hindsight, I wasn’t the only one who lacked insight into my behavior, but I’m not a doctor. What’s their excuse? Ignorance? Or, incompetence.

    In the years since, I have been afraid to travel alone, something I once did often, and with joy. Whenever I go to Providence or RI especially, I make very sure to bring someone with me as I am terrified that if I get in a car accident, I might once again end up being hospitalized for 11 days against my will. Which, I must say is terrifying. It is no surprise that it has become the subject of so many horror movies.

    Now, however, that I have achieved greater insight into my behavior (no thanks to RIH), I feel extremely relieved, as if a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The flashbacks (occurring as a consequence of my involuntary hospitalization), have become much less frequent, and I no longer feel the need to sleep curled up in a tiny little ball, as I did during my childhood, and once again in the wake of my involuntary hospitalization.

    I saw a picture on television the other night of a city that looked intriguing to visit, and I thought to myself joyfully, now I can do so without fear. No thanks to RIH.

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