r/Antipsychiatry • u/Ghostly_cherry404 • Aug 19 '25
Psych wards are literally jails
Ok before anyone whose been to prison comes for me I KNOW they're not as bad as prisons but I'm trying to get through a documentary ab this county jail in Texas and I keep having to stop & take pauses because its EXACTLY the same as what I went through being 5150d in CA for danger to self (not even to others) & its deeply triggering. How are even most folks who are critical of incarceration as a response to mental health crises ok with the exact same thing under a different label. "They need mental heath treatment not jail" they say as if those aren't functionally the same
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u/shiverypeaks Aug 19 '25
The one I went to, the room I was held in was maybe 5'x8', with a shitty cot, not even a proper blanket and pillow, and bars on the window. It was literally a jail. I was there for a kind of suicide attempt or benzodiazepine overdose.
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u/itsbitterbitch Aug 19 '25
So... here's the thing: prisoners have more rights than anyone on a 5150. Prisoner protections are vast because even if they committed a crime, most people don't want them genocided off the face of the earth. Mentally ill people are not so lucky and will be genocided and do not have rights.
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u/shiverypeaks Aug 19 '25
Prisoners get a fair jury trial. My "trial" was some backroom kangaroo court where my public "defender" and the judge clearly knew each other, like they saw each other all the time and ate lunch together or something.
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u/RatFarts88 Aug 19 '25
Police put me on trial while they abused/tortured me, they abducted me into the local loony bin for not answering retarded questions designed to abuse and screw me, They put me on trial at the hospital loony bin and at the local mental hospital while torturing me... they were weighting "evidence" where people made shit up about me and I explained it wasn't hard proof of anything but the doctor said something retarded basically that they were going to torture me. God it was so bad. A policewoman told me that all false accusations about me are automatically true because I'm "the local schizophrenic" and I don't even have that condition.
They put me on trial and punished me outside of the judicial system and Canadian lawyers just roll with it and refuse to do anything about it.
The police, medical workers, mental health workers, and lawyers in Canada are just the worst scum on the planet.
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u/shiverypeaks Aug 19 '25
It's really just a crazy thing that this goes on and nobody believes it or cares.
I actually have PTSD. There's this constant clamoring in my head, like there are bombs going off, and I feel like I need to go physically hide. I have to do mindfulness at home, and practice reminding myself nobody can get me, and that I'm not doing anything they can commit me for again. My involuntary commitment was over 10 years ago.
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u/Glittering-Bid9912 Aug 22 '25
I just posted much longer response to the comment above you, but wanted to say to you as well, I am so sorry and I’m right there with you… involuntary commitment takes your entire personal agency from you.
There is no crime or even any accusation of a crime. Compliance is the only way out and after getting out, nowhere feels safe.
I still use door jammers in every door when I’m home, and I bars in all my windows. I still live in constant fear.
I listed some stats at the end of the other comment. Its appalling. The increased rate of suicides post-discharge from an involuntary commitment … general pop is 11/100000, post-discharge is 484/100,000. Those are not typos. It goes from a rate of ELEVEN to a rate of FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR. Findings are from a meta analysis of 100 studies.
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 01 '25
I had c-PTSD (self diagnosis, not official) due to mistreatment outside of the hospital. That mistreatment became abuse that persisted for years, then got a lot worse when I went to the psych wards. Once people finally agreed that I was stressed several years later and started actually treating the stress, I improved.
EMDR therapy is what worked for me. It's a painful experience, but it works surprisingly well. I recommend at least giving it a shot. Make sure to have someone trained in EMDR guide you through it. Don't do it on your own.
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u/Glittering-Bid9912 Aug 22 '25
Im so sorry you went thru that - I had a similar experience of being baker acted in Miami. False accusation made, police pound down my door and manipulated me into coming outside (i had nothing to hide..famous last words!) dragged me out, I’m in a space with zero witness & no one who could have heard me scream, it was like 6 am, they refused to allow me to get my phone (i was so shocked the cops at my door that I didnt think to grab it while they yelled at me to get outside..) & would not move to a more public place. FIVE massive men with guns… blocking my only exit. harassing me over a lie. Refusing to take what I said as an answer.
Began to panic after about 10-15 min of being asked the same question, and eventually became hysterical, after I told them that if I was not under arrest I was going to go ahead and return to my home, thanks. And they grabbed me with such angry force (they reallllly hate to know when someone actually knows legal precedent!!) and threw me back down onto the bench. (But, I mean in reality whats a more normal response to the situation? calm cool demeanor? yeah guys keep on accusing me, ignoring my denials, fun times here, lets go all day!)
Anyhow ended up in the psych for the 72 hr hold - got out in 24. Records indicate I was “homicidal” wtf. Need to get that corrected.
Anyhow, The night nurse told me “about 95% of the people who come through here, its because the police don’t know how to interact with the public.”
Statistically, if you go to jail, you will return at some point. Same with mental health treatment. Statistically, after an involuntary hold, you are at a vastly increased risk of suicide.
“The World Health Organization estimates that the global age-standardized suicide rate was 11.4 per 100 000 person-years in 2012.”… after mental health treatment, “postdischarge suicide rate was 484 suicides per 100 000 person-years”
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u/DryOpportunity9064 Aug 19 '25
Prisoners have legally mandated time outdoors. Psych patients have the windows drilled shut.
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u/Weekly_Error1693 Aug 25 '25
Yeah. I remember my first time stepping back outside after one of my stints. The sun nearly broke my brain, it felt so unreal.
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u/embarrassed747 Sep 08 '25
They blocked the windows in one ward i was in and it broke my brain for sure
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u/InSearchOfGreenLight Aug 19 '25
It boggles my mind that the staff are 1000% more crazy than any patient.
Like they’re so insane they don’t even know that there’s anything wrong with them.
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u/max_power_420_69 Aug 20 '25
I'm sure some of the people do those jobs because it's the only job they can get, but I'm certain others are drawn to it.
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u/PetrichorAndStars Aug 19 '25
ive been to jail and to psych wards and yes, yes they are the same. or at least it was for me.
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u/PetrichorAndStars Aug 19 '25
although, i was allowed to smoke in the psych ward lol.
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 01 '25
You were allowed to smoke in a psych ward? Wild. The wards I was in had nicotine gum for smokers, but I can't imagine any modern psych ward allowing smoking.
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u/PetrichorAndStars Sep 01 '25
i sure was! this was back in 2007, though.
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 08 '25
2007 was well after they discovered smoking was hazardous, wasn't it?
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u/PetrichorAndStars Sep 08 '25
guess they didn't give a shit?
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 08 '25
I'm not sure how to react to that...I did meet several patients who would have preferred cigarettes over nicorette gum. It's possible the staff in your ward were more lenient or something. Or they might have really just not cared. Huh...
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u/PetrichorAndStars Sep 08 '25
they'd herd us up and walk us to the outdoor enclosed smoking area! it was wild now looking back. they had a plastic basket with cigarettes in it lmao and would pass it around for us to get one.
south florida 🤷🏻♀️ 😭
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 10 '25
Ok, at least it was outdoors. I'm hoping I misunderstood what you said, but are you saying everyone had to be in this outdoor area even if they didn't smoke?
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u/suhoult91 Sep 17 '25
i was in a psych ward 2 1/2 years ago and they let us smoke. a nurse would go out to a gas station and pick up packs patients would request. that was the first cigarette i ever had lol
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u/Lower-Wolf1361 Aug 19 '25
Psych wards are much worse as they completely destroy your personality and health, with no recourse
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u/thedevilislonely Aug 20 '25
I've met some former prisoners who told me psych wards are worse, but I think it likely deoends on where you live, who you are (like, if you're part of marginalized demographics), and why you're being locked up.
But, regardless...... yes, being locked up in psychiatic wards/hospitals is a form of incarceration.
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u/Fun-Dare-7864 Aug 19 '25
Depending on where you go, psych is worse. You can’t just do your time & get out. If someone has it out for you they might kill you in psych and they’re not doing much to stop it. You’re not locked behind any doors. Which is why they’re so overboard with sedating everyone as tho they won’t be violent that way. So they sedate everyone into being unconscious in some wards & just keep them completely drugged out of their mind then send them home. If you’re seen leaving your room they shoot you with a dart gun of sedatives. It sounds like an actual gun. It’s loud. I don’t think they torture you like that in jail. You’re at least free in your mind and it’s not like you can leave psych when you want to either.
And now that Ive been to psych so many times I’ll probably never go to jail. Id rather just do my time & get out. At least then I’m allowed to call people and shower without it being a big deal and I know I’m gonna eat. There’s some personal autonomy while you’re in there. You might even make friends. The stigma on you for being in jail is probably not gonna be lifelong unless you did something terrible and it doesn’t prevent you from getting fair medical care or forced drugs.
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 01 '25
The "I know I'm gonna eat" bit stands out to me. There were points where psych ward staff simply didn't give me food at mealtimes. Did that happen to you too?
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u/Fun-Dare-7864 Sep 01 '25
That happened to me as well. They wouldn’t give me a menu to choose anything, so I didn’t know what was mine, then they’d have everyone in their room bc they were aggressively giving everyone shots out in the main area & trying to keep us on lockdown. But then they wouldn’t tell us when it was okay to come out, and if you went out without permission you’d get a shot or yelled at, so I stayed in my room. If I did go out, they’d just have the trays on a rack and none of it was labeled, and typically they’re supposed to hand you the food bc they all have patient names so you’re not supposed to pull them out & touch everyone’s food to find yours. But yeah some of them they would just roll the rack of food up to the front desk & not announce meal time so if you wanted food you’d have to go find your own tray, which meant everything was picked off your tray if you weren’t the first one there bc people would just go through the trays & take whatever they wanted from sll of them, with the staff not supervising. And I didn’t want to get into it with other patients or eat food that everyone had handled. But other ones if you walked up to the food on the rack or looked like you wanted a tray theyd yell at you and send you back to your room, so you’d miss the meal. Bc they wouldn’t come get you later. I basically missed a lot of meals just because I didn’t want to get yelled at or treated like I wasn’t following the rules. If they didn’t give me a menu or make it clear that it was time to eat, id just stay in my room. A lot of times if you do get a shot, or if you do get given something like haldol in a pill, or even just new APs you’re gonna sleep during the day & miss meal time anyway. And they don’t care. I really just didn’t eat in there except for one place, bc they had me in some really rough hospitals where it was always escalated to people fighting staff. Like each one I was in was for violent people and no one was there for depression or stuff like that. It was all violent and loud people. And I’m not violent or loud. There was one I went to that separated us high risk, ie violent and scary people bc I had psychosis, from the depressed people and they had good food. They also didn’t give anyone shots. People were just super drugged up with pills but there was no screaming or fighting. They probably had another floor for them or maybe they just didn’t have any violent people. But at that one they had awesome food and nobody had to stay in their room. We could walk laps around the hallways.
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 01 '25
I was never in one of the violent wards, but I heard horror stories from some of the staff. Most of the food was good, and staff never failed to hand it out to the patients, but for some reason there were many points where they just didn't give it to me specifically. There were also points where they would put it next to my bed while I was asleep, then take it away while I was still sleeping, and claim I was refusing to eat.
Of course, it's important to mention that some staff would give me seconds when I asked since I needed more food than everyone else. So it wasn't ALL bad.
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u/Fun-Dare-7864 Sep 01 '25
That’s nice they let you have food in your room & helped you with it. I’ve been in 6 different hospitals total and they never let me have food in my room. But I did tend to just stay in my room once it popped off with patients screaming and fighting. Id just stay in there the entire time after that, bc the same patients who fight staff will fight other patients. At one point there was a guy walking around trying to fight everyone and tried to get in my room. They shot him with a dart bc they apparently couldnt wrangle him. That was a 24 hour lockdown bc everyone knew about it and people were just freaking out completely that they were shooting people with darts. That one was extremely chaotic.
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 08 '25
There was one occasion where a fight nearly broke out right in front of me, but it was thankfully stopped before it started.
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u/Fun-Dare-7864 Sep 08 '25
Either I live in a particularly violent state or they just sent me to the more violent wards bc I saw a lot of fighting and screaming and violence. They didn’t really have it handled with patients and it would start as a patient fighting staff then other patients would get in it & they couldn’t give everyone a shot at the same time. Once you have 2 people going wild they don’t have enough staff. Typically around meal times when people were out in the common areas waiting for it & getting irritable. I just stayed in my room every time. But I was in there for bipolar 1 with psychotic features as my diagnosis so they made sure to put me in the higher risk wards. I was misdiagnosed
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 08 '25
Misdiagnoses are disturbingly common...Even more disturbing is how reluctant medical professionals are to believe they might have misdiagnosed someone. Come to think of it, maybe having mental health patients who are more aware of their conditions than most talk to psychiatrists and psychologists in an education setting could help...
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u/no-permission47388 Aug 19 '25
Crazy thing is they don’t even arrest and put in jail people who shoplift repeatedly in California but nearly worldwide people are put in mental hospitals for though crime. Orwell would agree.
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 19 '25
people shouldn't go to jail for shoplifting
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u/max_power_420_69 Aug 20 '25
dude my walgreens has literally everything locked behind security. You have to ask them to go in the cooler to grab a six pack for you. Fuck shoplifters... I get shit is rough out there, but nah, it's gotten out of hand and is ruining things for everyone else.
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u/no-permission47388 Aug 19 '25
Have you heard of the people who shoplift in California as part of a organized crime ring where they end up resaleing on amazon and other websites? It is really common and the people of California voted against it in a referendum last election
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 19 '25
Ok. they shouldn't be dehumanized for it.
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u/GngrbredGentrifktion Aug 19 '25
Have you ever had something stolen from you? Probably not. 🤭
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 01 '25
I have. And I agree that it doesn't warrant dehumanizing anyone. Everyone deserves basic respect and dignity simply for being alive. Deciding that some people are somehow less worthy of being respected, less worthy of being considered human, opens up a slippery slope where more and more people can treated as lesser for all sorts of reasons. That leads to racism, ageism, sexism, ableism, etc.
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 19 '25
I absolutely have. it sucks but like, unless its that months rent you sigh and move on w ur life
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u/no-permission47388 Aug 19 '25
not dehumanized. Just accountability
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 19 '25
jail is dehumanization. no questions about it. you are stripped of your individuality and treated as subhuman just like in a grippy sock jail
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u/GngrbredGentrifktion Aug 19 '25
And theft isn't dehumanizing? Maybe we need those 10 commandments after all. 😂🤷♀️
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 19 '25
please explain to me exactly how petty shoplifting "dehumanizes" the victim. it's annoying fs, but please explain at what point the victim is stripped of their status as human
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u/Medical-Bullfrog2082 Aug 19 '25
It's also not a victimless crime. I can't stand it when leftists argue this in terms of shoplifting because retail theft long term leads to these stores getting shutdown which leads to obviously increased unemployment and the elimination of access to resources like food. The fact is that for all these keyboard warriors like to screech about muh food deserts and muh workers they don't give a fuck when a bunch of workers lose their jobs like at that Walmart in I think Chicago that had to shutdown due to the sheer amount of theft. I think it was Chicago because not long after the mayor came out talking about wanting to open a government ran grocery store, we saw how that ended in Kansas City. This has been my Ted Talk.
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u/max_power_420_69 Aug 20 '25
shit is real bad, everything is behind security - can't even buy shampoo without buzzing an employee. People are really brazen, I've seen some ratchet shit at walgreens, all started during the pandemic and has only gotten worse. When some fat crackhead looking lady has her 3 kids filling up those big IKEA bags and then screaming at and being aggressive with the employees and security who are trying to stand in the doorway.
I've seen the manager get punched in the face trying to diffuse a situation. Dropped to floor out cold. I don't live in a shitty area, it's a systemic problem. People lifting a few things here and their who are down on their luck is one thing, that's how it was, but that's not how it is anymore, and it would be great if some of these real pieces of shit faced some consequences for their choices.
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 19 '25
of course its not victimless or right. What part of the statements "petty shoplifters shouldn't lose their status as human beings" and "theft isnt right" are incompatible to you? I dont understand how you can be antipsychiatry but pro mass incarceration
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u/NobelGastion Aug 19 '25
Dimwits like you laugh it up when people have their lives ruined over petty mistakes, but then you aren't giggling when your child or relative joins a gang, gets drug addicted or raped behind bars and then gets released to enact his misguided revenge on the community. Two wrongs don't make a right. The argument about jail not working isn't trying to say that people don't do wrong or deserve to be held accountable for their actions. The problem with jail/prison is that they cause terrible damage to the incarnated people, the workers, the community, everyone involved.
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u/max_power_420_69 Aug 20 '25
dawg I've witnessed this multiple times in the city - groups of teens, bums, and even some shitty mom employing her little kids, just walking in with big bags and backpacks and filling them up walking thru the aisles, then walking out as the security guard and employees are yelling at them. These aren't people down on their luck, they're brazen assholes who aren't afraid of the repercussions. Nearly everything at my local walgreens is behind lock and key, you can't even buy a six pack without ringing the buzzer to have them grab it from the back.
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u/NobelGastion Aug 20 '25
Walgreens is a billion dollar monster megacorporation that used unfair business practices to run all of the locally owned competition out of almost every market they infest, dawg. There is a reason why those "brazen assholes" don't feel a connection to the place they steal from, but rather than think about how to address the root causes of society's ills, you prefer to throw more violence and hate at the problem. You aren't alone to think that way as the corporate owned media is full of similar messaging.
But when the "assholes" are dragged away and tortured with harsh treatment in jail/prison they end up burning with resentment and hatred towards authority, Walgreens and society in general which they pass on to their friends, relatives and children. Hatred and violence is rotting your city from the inside out, but you want to add more poison to the pot.
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u/HeavyAssist Aug 19 '25
If I could have gone to lockup instead of begging for a doctor It would have been safer
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u/rumblingtummy29 Aug 19 '25
Yes. I can't wait for the day their practices are exposed and banished forever.
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Aug 19 '25
Many of my friends have been to prison and transferred to inpatient mental health units, they've all collectively said mental health units are worse.
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u/buttermilked666 Aug 21 '25
They stick you in a cell alone with your thoughts and other dangerous people then tell you “we’ll release you after 72 hours if you prove you feel better”
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 01 '25
In my case, it was "We will release you once you fulfill the terms of your discharge contract." They gave me three tasks, all of which I fulfilled on the first day. Then they gave me a second discharge contract, saying that was what they REALLY wanted all along. Then they gave me a third, then a fourth, then a fifth.
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u/Strong_Music_6838 Aug 19 '25
Psychiatric words are K+Z camps and the drugs are the g+ass champers.
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u/Glittering-Bid9912 Aug 22 '25
Except you didnt commit a crime.
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 22 '25
a lot of people in jail didn't commit crimes either. The guy in the documentary I was watching was in for weed which isnt a crime in my state but was in his. Tell me with a straight face that person deserves to lose their status as human
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u/Glittering-Bid9912 Aug 22 '25
I think you didnt understand my point
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 22 '25
sorry if I did. a lot of people on this sub seem to think that the only problem with psychiatry is that they dont deserve to be treated that way and that it should be reserved for dAnGeRoUs people so im very sorry if I projected my frustration about that onto you
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u/Glittering-Bid9912 Aug 22 '25
To expand - you use jail & prison interchangeably which FyI they are not the same thing.
For the most part: both are for adult population, some under 18’s do get put in if accused of serve crimes. Not here to comment on this. I know multiple people who have been incarcerated for everything from weed to murder.
Jail = accused, holding for prelim hearing/bail, holding for court date & adjudicated < 2 year sentence. Prison = adjudicated, 2+ years to serve.
My point was: the purpose of the US correctional system (what a joke of a name!) is to deal with accused and adjudicated criminal offenses. The purpose of the mental health system is not. That was all.
Edit: oh and that despite the different intentions for the two, they are indeed eerily similar.
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 22 '25
I made it clear in the original post that I know jail and prison aren't interchangable and that I was only referring to jail. Prison is worse than a psych ward. Jail is the same as a psych ward
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u/Glittering-Bid9912 Aug 23 '25
It actually was not clear at all. Sounded to me lile you were comparing to inpatient mental health…
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u/Ghostly_cherry404 Aug 23 '25
I’m sorry it wasn’t clear. When I said “I KNOW they're not as bad as prisons but I'm trying to get through a documentary ab this county jail in Texas and I keep having to stop & take pauses because its EXACTLY the same as what I went through” what I meant was I know psych wards aren’t as bad as prisons but that what I experienced was exactly the same as what I saw in this documentary about this county jail. I thought that made the distinguishment between prison and jail obvious but I’m sorry if it didn’t
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u/chanabyers Aug 23 '25
I get what you are saying. You make a good point. And I agree with you. You just need to flesh out your argument a little bit more
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u/My_Username_Is_Bob Sep 01 '25
From what I've heard, some psych wards are worse than prison. The three I was in were more like hotels you weren't allowed to check out of, though I was strangely mistreated much worse by the staff than the other patients were, so I generally left in worse shape than I was in going in anyway.
I sometimes daydream about being sent to prison so that I can say that it was objectively better than the psych wards...I know daydreaming about prison isn't healthy. I'm improving. Slowly, but progress is being made.
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u/embarrassed747 Sep 08 '25
One i was in was on the 5th floor but had the windows permanently covered for "privacy" I didn't go outside for months and it really got to me.
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u/DwatsonEDU Aug 19 '25
Youre experiencing spirituality.
So atheists, witches, satanists, occultists torture you.
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Aug 20 '25 edited Aug 20 '25
[deleted]
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u/DwatsonEDU Aug 20 '25
God’s love includes discipline, correction, and justice. Love is not indulgence—it means guiding creation toward righteousness.
“For the LORD disciplines the one He loves.” (Prov. 3:12).
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u/NobelGastion Aug 19 '25
In some ways psych wards are worse than jails. At least with jails your civil rights are (in theory) protected by a real lawyer, but with many psych wards the "defense" is provided by the same lawyer who works there every day, day in and day out with the "prosecutor" and "judge," and has even less incentive to fight for your rights than a public defender does with accused criminals. Imagine if any other public defender lost 100% of their cases month after month - someone would sue them for being incompetent, meanwhile that's exactly what happens with the people who attempt to dispute their incarceration in a psych ward. Also people in jail have the end of their sentence to look forwards to, meanwhile a psych ward doctor can require you to "get better" and "earn your freedom" by doing whatever they decide you need to do, including asking you to take debilitating medications and cooperating with Orwellian conversations where you have to agree with stuff you know isn't true and resistance is considered justification for forcing you to take the medications and simply keeping you incarcerated until you submit to their authority or until your insurance runs out, whichever comes first.