First hospitalization

June 21, 2013 ~ Today's post is about our first experience with a psych unit. After two weeks of deterioration, and a crisis where my son wouldn’t get out of the bathtub, he was admitted to the PICU (Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit) and ended up staying there for over three weeks. I was woefully unprepared for the white walls, sterile environment, and uncomfortable beds bolted to the floor. We were told that the environment was to decrease stimulation. I complained that it looked like an insane asylum, only to have a nurse tell me, "But, that's what it is".

Bad start.

Three tips for surviving the experience:
1. There are rules. Lots of them. And you'll only be able to visit for 60-90 minutes every day. You MUST build good relationships with the staff and get to know them so that you can trust them with your loved one.

2. You need to live your life and take care of yourself, even though your guilt may be overwhelming and you may feel that you can't enjoy a walk outside, a good meal, or a movie because your loved one can't. You'll be the one taking care of him/her after discharge; your mental health has to be intact. Do what you have to and don't feel guilty about it.

3. Remember this: "Hope is a belief that things are going to get better - looking beyond the present and realizing that we're not going to be stuck in this place forever. It might be long term, it might be a day, a week, a month. But we are going to make it out of here. And our lives are going to return to normal, if you like, or some sense of normality. Having hope is the only thing that can get you through because if you don't have hope that it's going to get better, you don't really have anything."

You can do hard things. You already have.