“She set herself on fire after losing her baby.”
By
Updated 8 years ago,September 26, 2017
1.
She set herself on fire after losing her baby.
Flickr /Chrissy
I have spent time inside a few different psychiatric facilities.
I met a lot of interesting folks.
Many years ago, there was a lady with horrific burns scars.
Flickr /Chrissy
From her head down her entire body.
She was chronically depressed.
She was very badly disfigured.
She was just the sweetest person ever.
Always a kind word for anyone and happy to listen.
I bugged one of the nurses to tell me why she was covered in burns.
I was told she set herself on fire after losing her baby.
GandalfThaGhey
2.
He said he talked to the voices inside his head because they were his only friends.
He admitted to voices talking to him.
When the resident asked him Why?, he replied, They are my only friends.
ThisWasAWasteOfTime
3.
Kid was completely dissociative.
Would randomly just start screaming asking his mother to stop hitting him.
Kid that was completely dissociative.
Would randomly just start screaming asking his mother to stop hitting him.
He was pretty low functioning so it was really hard to process.
He would look at me and tell me how she beat him with chains and belts.
jgoods77
4.
She wanted to be a better wife and mother…even though she had no husband or children.
theYoungLurks
5.
Child psych, acute inpatient.
There was no spark of anything in that 9-year-olds eyes.
No life, no humanity.
It was stark-cold terrifying.
JaydeRaven
6.
My worst was a 4-year-old with extensive physical and sexual abuse.
Social services found her tied to a tree.
She did not meet any typical milestones and would grunt to communicate.
I worked as an RN in an inpatient psych unit.
We admitted any age (youngest was 2) and would have some violent individuals with minimal staffing.
My worst was a 4-year-old with extensive physical and sexual abuse.
Social services found her tied to a tree.
She did not meet any typical milestones and would grunt to communicate.
I left three times during the admission process to choke back tears.
It was the beginning of the end for my career working in psych.
I had the thickest skin and could tolerate the toughest of situations.
I couldnt take how an individual could corrupt something so innocent.
OiCu8ONE2
8.
He had raped a younger sister with some of his toys.
Ive worked at a psych unit for teens/children for a couple years.
I think the scariest for me personally was a five-year-old we had.
He was well behaved and actually really cute.
He had raped a younger sister with some of his toys.
He is the youngest Ive ever encountered withsociopathictendencies :(
09cjones1
9.
He kept babbling in Spanish about demons coming to get him.
I had a kid once that kept freaking out during the night shift.
He abruptly stopped screaming and went dead silent with huge eyes… looking directly at something behind me.
I turned around and there was nothing there but he kept staring anyway.
I didnt get much sleep after that shift.
Badloss
10.
She was so suicidal and distraught that she was biting chunks out of her own shoulder.
I worked on a juvenile psych unit.
Maybe three years later I took a bus to interview for a graduate psych program.
When I switched buses, a nicely dressed girl asked me if I was fromColorado.
Then she asked me if I worked on a psych unit.
It was her, all better.
We chatted for a while and I told her how happy I was to see her doing so well.
She smiled, thanked me, and we said our goodbyes.
omnichronos
11.
The look of sheer terror in his face and the shaky voice have stuck with me.
Young man who was suffering from drug induced psychosis.
He had smoked some spice and was taken to out hospital with involuntary status.
He stayed for over a month with no signs of remission.
The look of sheer terror in his face and the shaky voice have stuck with me.
His family broke down during visitation and only his father could manage weekly visits afterwards.
Chemically induced psychosis, from my experience, is game over most of the time.
Ive seen a few people recover to a degree but never fully.
Dont fuck with spice.
MrMcScruffles
12.
When I first encountered him I automatically made the assumption that he was some sort of pedophile.
sweepingpines
13.
The very definition of hell.
Had a dementia patient, among other things I imagine, but I was just the nursing assistant.
I dont get much for patient histories just whether they can walk unassisted or poo on their own.
She was a very kind sweet old lady.
She was even allowed a baby bed and every night she would tuck her baby in beside her bed.
Then she would talk about the baby growing inside her belly.
She would go on very coherently about her pregnancy and her child.
She had me believing she lived in this sweet fantasy land that was set on repeat.
Im going to have another baby!
One night she got all tucked in and forgot to tuck her baby in.
The woman throat punched me hard.
I dropped the baby doll when I fell over gasping for air.
She was so distraught over it she gave the newborn up for adoption.
Thats why her delusions start over after the due date and she is so mad in between.
When I first started working there I just thought she was some fun old delusional lady.
I never expected the delusions to have back stories.
Penetrative
14.
A butt-naked little old lady tried to corner me while swinging a commode at me.
Not specifically at a psychiatric ward but had a patient at the hospital with severe dementia.
I had to end up calling the charge nurse who proceeded to call security.
Fopom1
15.
I was in a juvenile psych unit.
A 16-year-old kid was in for molesting his 3-year-old sister.
He was court ordered to be there for a period of time.
I found out that he was raped by his father.
Yes, the same father that raped him.
His head was so fucked.
toethumbrn
16.
This schizophrenic woman whose psychosis had the real-life origin ofDexterthe TV character.
She witnessed her mothers brutal murder at age 4 and was not found for almost a week.
She could be pretty lucid on good days, and had a real affinity for flowers.
She was pretty fantastic.
Aggressivecleaning
17.
Working at a psychiatric hospital at the moment.
Honestly, it depends on the day.
One that was consistently troubled was a patient with hallucinations and schizophrenia.
alurkerwhomannedup
18.
Had a patient have a go at cut their tongue out.
Had a patient make a run at cut their tongue out.
Had another patient who cycled through almost 100 foster homes in their youth.
I have seen violence and gore.
Ive seen severe delusions.
The spouse was supportive during all mental health crises.
The spouse cheated after 60 years of marriage, leaving the patient homeless and heartbroken.
-Hownowbrowncow
19.
Totally vacant staring eyes, jaw hanging down with a continuous thread of dribble rolling off his bottom lip.
Brain damage can be absolutely horrific.
Broken humans that dont work anymore and nobody knows what to do with them.
There was one guy who had brain damage from infant meningitis.
Totally vacant staring eyes, jaw hanging down with a continuous thread of dribble rolling off his bottom lip.
Arms hanging down by his sides.
Theres nothing there in his mind, at all.
He never smiles, never frowns, give no indication of any aspiration or want.
That has been his entire life.
Anybody opposed to euthanasia hasnt seen real brain damage.
Anyone upset about the doctors ending Charlie Gards life havent seen real brain damage.
Bestfriendwatermelon
20.
She ate Styrofoam cups, plastic cutlery, plates…etc.
I did A mental health co-op in high school.
One was a guy who hadKorsakoff syndrome.
They had to tie him into his chair because he could sometimes become violent.
a small percentage of alcoholics get Korsakoffs.
She ate Styrofoam cups, plastic cutlery, plates…etc.
edit: forgot to mentionthey found the eyeball in her stomach.
AtheistComic
21.
He would mutilate his genitals for sexual pleasure.
He would mutilate himself for sexual pleasure.
Of course, it wasnt the cutting his arm or legs kind of mutilation.
He would have to mutilate his genitals for sexual pleasure.
The kicker is, this isnt the first time he has been hospitalized for this.
When I asked him why he did it all he gave me the most sane and logical responses.
As far as I could tell, he was 100% normal except for the whole mutilation thing.
bugy67
22.
I worked for a number of years a residential facility, ages 6-106 and have seen it all.
Most clients were diagnosed Autism, so you saw the typical self-injury and harmful to others.
(Its also really nice, I might add).
BUT…I saw some shit.
Had a child, maybe 8 years, who couldve modeled on the front of a GAP catalog.
It was in his file.
And that was not the only animal.
Another kid, completed his whole program and set to go home.
Another child, maybe 6, severely burned by a family member with a blowtorch.
Had a teenage client commit suicide in a horrific manner.
Had an adult client go outside with a bat and smash a co-workers new BMW.
I was actually thrilled to see that happen.
Maybe the mosttroubledwere some of the staff, rather than the clients.
You had staff who had been there for decades and truly cared about the clients.
alohafrompenisland
23.
Would also say Jesus loves you whenever you saw him and always had a Bible.
Someone who would spend almost all their time walking in circles screaming at imaginary people.
One time I heard him yell: Fire every missile!
Blow up the sky!
Blow up the sky!
thegreencomic
24.
I was a psych worker at a day program for adolescent outpatients.
One of those cases that sounds funny on paper, but is absolutely gut-wrenching to watch.
He was messed up before, but that kind of childhood pretty much did him in.
We had a kid with a double-whammy of fetal alcohol issues and brain damage from a childhood hit-and-run.
He lost his ability to hear thoughts in his own head, and had absolutely zero impulse control.
I dont mean couldnt help himself from eating a second cookie.I mean zero.
Whatever thoughts came into his mind came out of his mouth in real-time.
If he saw something he wanted to put in his mouth, it went into his mouth.
He once ate all the staples out of a stapler before staff noticed what he was doing.
He had an IQ in the normal range, just a unique form of brain damage.
After I started coming home with work stories, he gave it up.
xaviira
25.
He threatened to kill me if I made eye contact with him.
He said his (deceased) father was going to help him.
He threatened to kill me if I made eye contact with him.
He said his (deceased) father was going to help him.
Even the most seasoned staff members wouldnt enter a room alone with him.
That was seriously what it seemed his life was like.
And none of them had given up on him.
Hopefully someday theyll find a way to break through, or bring him out.
