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The Watercooler
The suitcase exhibit...mental hospital suitcases
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<blockquote data-quote="Hound dog" data-source="post: 86276" data-attributes="member: 84"><p>This hit too close to home for me.</p><p></p><p>I'm so glad this is out there for people to see what the faults were in the mental health system during that time, so that patients don't get lost in the system, or placed in the system who have no need to be there. </p><p></p><p>The medical views of mental illness have progressed to the point that as we read some of the "diagnoses" written there we think them to be ridiculous and or harsh. Those who follow us 50 yrs in the future may see the "modern mental health" in the same light. The treatment and dxing of mental illness is still very much in it's infancy. We know more now than they did back then, but we still don't know very much.</p><p></p><p>My grandmother, the woman who raised me, found herself trapped in that Old system of mental health. Having the gall to leave her violent, abusive, schizophrenic (I can go on) husband, he decided to teach her a lesson. He conviced a judge she was mentally unstable. Next thing gramma knew she was commited to the state hospital against her will. This was in 1943.</p><p></p><p>It took her a year to convince the staff that she was sane. And she had, in her words, "pretend to be depressed so they believed they had cured her" in order to be released. The more she declared her sanity to them, the more they believed her to be mentally ill. That year left her traumatized for life. She was terrified of anyone in the medical community. </p><p></p><p>I cared for her at age 16 as she died of cancer. As the cancer racked her body and mind, she "relived" the year she'd spent institutionalized. I'll never forget what she described to me in detail or the horror it filled her with.</p><p></p><p>My grandmother kept her certification that she was sane issued by the state upon her discharged until her death some 45 yrs later. We found it just where she'd told me it was, hidden at the bottom of her old steamer trunk.</p><p></p><p>On a side note, she left my grandfather anyway and raised their 7 kids on her own by working 2 full time jobs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hound dog, post: 86276, member: 84"] This hit too close to home for me. I'm so glad this is out there for people to see what the faults were in the mental health system during that time, so that patients don't get lost in the system, or placed in the system who have no need to be there. The medical views of mental illness have progressed to the point that as we read some of the "diagnoses" written there we think them to be ridiculous and or harsh. Those who follow us 50 yrs in the future may see the "modern mental health" in the same light. The treatment and dxing of mental illness is still very much in it's infancy. We know more now than they did back then, but we still don't know very much. My grandmother, the woman who raised me, found herself trapped in that Old system of mental health. Having the gall to leave her violent, abusive, schizophrenic (I can go on) husband, he decided to teach her a lesson. He conviced a judge she was mentally unstable. Next thing gramma knew she was commited to the state hospital against her will. This was in 1943. It took her a year to convince the staff that she was sane. And she had, in her words, "pretend to be depressed so they believed they had cured her" in order to be released. The more she declared her sanity to them, the more they believed her to be mentally ill. That year left her traumatized for life. She was terrified of anyone in the medical community. I cared for her at age 16 as she died of cancer. As the cancer racked her body and mind, she "relived" the year she'd spent institutionalized. I'll never forget what she described to me in detail or the horror it filled her with. My grandmother kept her certification that she was sane issued by the state upon her discharged until her death some 45 yrs later. We found it just where she'd told me it was, hidden at the bottom of her old steamer trunk. On a side note, she left my grandfather anyway and raised their 7 kids on her own by working 2 full time jobs. [/QUOTE]
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The suitcase exhibit...mental hospital suitcases
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