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"Smallville" mental hospitals vs. real mental hospitals

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  • "Smallville" mental hospitals vs. real mental hospitals

    I have a feeling tonight's portrayal of a mental hospital is going to be rife with inaccuracies, so I thought I'd start a thread about it. Stick your thoughts in here!
    shirkie

  • #2
    Well with the trailers and pictures they have clark grabing on to bars and im pretty sure real places dont. Ones i have seen just have windows on the doors. Also with Clark kissing Lana if clark was really that insane they probably wouldnt have let him close enough to someone to kiss them.

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    • #3
      well i've neve been to a mental institution *coughs* but i'm sure they don't look like that

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      • #4
        I wonder if real ones look similar to the one in the movie Gothika

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        • #5
          The one i saw was just in a regular hospital. long hallway and lots of heavy thick doors and small windows.

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          • #6
            at my present rate of decline, i should completely lose my sanity in approximately 8 years. i can let you know then.

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            • #7
              Well I have spent time in a mental hospital for depression and there were no bars, no padded rooms, no people walking around with restraints on.......... I'll wait for the episode to point out more stuff lol.

              OK-- you're allowed to wear street clothes, for one thing (minus belts and shoelaces). And no way in hell would the therapist let other patients taunt and laugh at Clark...
              shirkie
              Last edited by shirkie; 01-25-2007, 06:04 PM.

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              • #8
                ya i was about to say i doubt they would let others make fun of you for being sick.

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                • #9
                  metal bars would never be accessbile to a paranoid skitosphrenic (sp?).
                  they would just hurt themselves on the metal. all the time.

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                  • #10
                    I can't believe I am telling everyone this, but I was hospitalized for depression when I was a teenager. Not fun. There were a few real loons in the place, like "Mr. Shuffles" who couldn't walk properly because he had one too many electroshock therapies and talked to himself, and this one lady that screamed all the time so she was kept in a special locked room. If you even just peeked into her room through the little window she would scream at you. There were quite a number of young people that were there because they were on suicide watch, but I can't imagine why they would put sad people into an even sadder environment. It was the worst place for a depressed teenager.

                    I had many, many adventures in my two weeks at the hospital. I hid from the nurses in the showers so I didn't have to go to the "uplifting" group counseling sessions, played around with the mechanical bed of my room mate who was so hepped up on barbituates that he couldn't stay conscious (I think he suffered from severe hallucinations and seizures and was effectively incapacitated). While he would lay in bed completely out of it, I would use the mechanical controls to raise the bed to the roof and back down (those beds can go like six to eight feet in air). One of the nurses, Nurse Ratched I called her because she was so strict, caught me doing it and told me she would remove my "privileges" if she caught me doing that again (what, drooling on myself and eating pureed food?).

                    Thankfully, my friends would visit everyday otherwise I think the place would have made me crazy rather than help me. I was placed on open supervision after a few days when they realized I wasn't a danger to myself and that I was just going through an emotional speedbump in my life. Of course, I took immediate advantage of the situation. The hospital effectively became my personal hotel. I was supposed to log out at the nurse's station if I wanted to take a "walk", and log back in again when I returned and be gone no longer than an hour. I often used this system against itself by logging out several hours ahead of time, i.e., I would log out at 6 PM but write that I left at 8 PM. Thus, when I returned at 9 PM I was only gone an "hour." I once hit a movie and McDonald's because I was bored of playing mechanical bed with my room mate, Captain Barbituate. I think I broke just about every rule they had in the place. I stole other patient's meals because I was so hungry (I was a growing teenager and a lot of patients couldn't or wouldn't eat their meals so they would go to waste), came and left as I saw fit, chased the cute Candy Stripe girls, and had visitors at all hours. Needless to say, I got better in spite of the place.

                    As Shirkie said, there were no padded cells, no one was locked in their rooms except for Screaming Lady, there was no forced medication or psycho, bow tie wearing orderlies, but there were bars on the windows and access was somewhat controlled. And there were a lot of sad, lonely people that could have benefited from love, companionship and understanding more than doctors, nurses and counseling sessions.

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                    • #11
                      no spam, you are not alone.
                      Bergen regional medical center from 12/25/01-1/08/02.
                      I lost my brother in law in 9/11 and I was going through a divorce.
                      Happens more than you know.
                      Congrats for being strong, I know its not easy.

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                      • #12
                        hey Nospam, thanks for sharing that with us...i know u must have thought it a bit risky..I appreciate the honesty...it's one thing to see it on tv, but another to experience it...

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                        • #13
                          Wow, it's good to know I'm not alone, although it's a shame you guys had to go through what you've gone through.

                          No way would Clark have shoelaces on his gym shoes. Those are like the first thing to go.

                          Were you guys in state hospitals or private hospitals? Mine was a private hospital, which may explain why there were no bars on the windows.
                          shirkie

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                          • #14
                            I don't know if its public or private.
                            gained weight, had snacks all the time.
                            guess the antidepressents make you eat.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by jimmyolsenblues
                              no spam, you are not alone.
                              Bergen regional medical center from 12/25/01-1/08/02.
                              I lost my brother in law in 9/11 and I was going through a divorce.
                              Happens more than you know.
                              Congrats for being strong, I know its not easy.
                              I know I sort of make light of my time in the hospital, but it did force me to think about my life and confront some issues. I grew a lot closer to my parents, friends and family.

                              There were repurcussions though to my time in the hospital, I lost my drivers license for a year and had to speak to a psychiatrist every month for a year afterward. Stealing wheelchairs, raising beds, and chasing Candy Stripers also didn't help as I was also diagnosed as manic depressive and put on lithium, which really did no good. I was told that lithium is not supposed to affect those without manic depression, but I don't believe that. I stopped taking it after a year because I felt like a complete and utter zombie on it and I had memory problems. So it goes.

                              Almost all hospitals in Canada are public. Except for that one nurse that I described, everyone was friendly, helpful and professional. I was allowed street clothes, although not all patients were and more or less had time to think. I sometimes wonder if AlMiles are closet Scientologists because even though the hospital was a dreary place, mental health is a serious, compassionate science. The doctors aren't out to commit and medicate you against your will and take everything you have away from you, nor are they apt to volunteer you for strange procedures or surgery without a very good, and legal, reason for doing so.

                              jimmyolsenblues, I am sorry to hear about your losses. We need people in our lives more than we care to admit, I think.
                              Last edited by Nospam; 01-25-2007, 06:30 PM.

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