What's It Like Being Hospitalized for Bipolar? - Being Hospitalized for Bipolar?

Written by Juliet

Page 2 of 6

Each day I awoke around 7 AM and literally forced myself to shower at least every other day. That was really hard because I was not showering properly at home. I would try eat breakfast like a good camper even though I didn't have much of an appetite. I went to most of the groups as it was expected of me. I tried my best to do what was asked of me, but sometimes I skipped going to the gym and relaxation group because I just wasn't up to it. I would take naps on occasion even though they request that you stay out of your room for the day. Occupational therapy allows you to work on arts and crafts and other things. That group seemed the most enjoyable. They requested that I do an extra task and cook a meal because I was not going to the grocery store or cooking at home. They took me to the grocery store, well actually we walked, and I purchased what was needed for me to cook lunch. Making the lunch seemed rather foreign to me since I hadn't cooked anything in such a long time. It took me a while to get going, but once I did everything turned out fine. I worked the program as best as I could even though it was tremendously difficult. When your so depressed you can't see straight, it's really hard to participate. I fought my feelings to surrender to my gloom on a daily basis.

While I was in the hospital, my mood was not stable. My doctors gave me a scale to measure my moods on from 1-10, 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest. My moods would fluctuate several times a day. I was never hypo manic, however. For example, my mood would climb in very small increments usually between a 1 and 3. I was very hopeful when my mood would get to a 3 thinking the drugs were working. Then I get slammed back down again. It was very upsetting to say the least. I was in tears a lot of the time. The whole experience was very difficult. I also suffered agitated depression which is very uncomfortable.

Being hospitalized is not glamorous. They expect a lot out of you in an attempt to help you I suppose. You are exposed to all walks of people with varying degrees of illnesses. You are expected to follow the schedule, eat, and participate even if you don't feel like it. On Meyer 4 where I was, there are two groups of illnesses which are affective disorders and eating disorders. The unit has 22 beds and it's very difficult to get on this unit. They always have a waiting list. I had to wait a day or two before they would take me. This was really hard on my family because of the degree of my suicidal state. They watched over me very carefully until I was able to be admitted. Once there, I felt extremely sad, especially when my husband had to leave. He was facing a 3 hour drive home. He visited me during visiting hours as much as possible. The staff was very nice and allowed him to come a bit early and stay a bit late sometimes as long as it didn't interfere with the groups. They do this for people who live far away.

Gradually after almost a month, they discharged me. The Lithium was not an instant success. My doctors explained that it could take several months for the lithium to reach optimum benefits. When I left the hospital, I was still depressed however it wasn't as seriously pronounced and my death wish had gone. I look back on this experience and am thankful for the excellent and knowledgeable doctors that I had. The staff treated me very well for the most part. I fired my old psychiatrist and went with another Hopkins trained doctor. He's excellent and has written four books to boot. I feel very fortunate to have him. Today, I'm doing much better and I feel the Lithium and other drugs I'm taking are starting to improve my state. It was very hard to be hospitalized for that long of a period of time, but I managed and got through it!

If you wish, you can click the links below to see what patient hand-outs and things they give you when you arrive. It will give you good insight as to what it's like to be in the hospital. Thank you.

This is a patient information hand-out I received upon my arrival at Johns Hopkins.

WELCOME TO MEYER 4

Meyer 4 is one of the four separate Inpatient Units of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Service. It is a specialty unit for affective disorders and eating disorders. The unit functions on the basis of an interdisciplinary team approach working together with you and your family in implementing your individual treatment plan. The members of your treatment team working under the direction of an attending physician are:

Attending physician:	_____________________________
Nurse Manager:	_____________________________
Resident Physician:	_____________________________
Social Worker	_____________________________
Primary Nurse:	_____________________________
Associate Nurse:	_____________________________
Occupational Therapist:	_____________________________
Nutritionist:	_____________________________

Telephones: Nurses Station:

Patient Pay Phones:	_____________________________
Front DayArea:	_____________________________
Patients Hallway:	_____________________________

Patient phones are limited in use to the hours of 8AM-11PM. Please limit calls to 15 minutes at a time in consideration of others.

VISITING HOURS:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday - 6PM-7PM
Tuesday/Thursday: - 6PM-8PM
SaturdaylSunday/Holidays: - 12PM-8PM

Children and infants must be under the supervision of parents or guardians. Parents or guardians of patients under the age of 18 years must provide the staff with a written list of approved visitors.