Finding Love in a Mental Hospital

Chapter 1

*TRIGGER WARNING: This book contains mentions of suicide, self harm, eating disorders, and depression. Please stay safe.*

Also, this story is basically my experience of being in a psychiatric institute. I was there for two and a half weeks. And then like 4 months later I went back but this was the first time loll. I changed the names of characters to keep confidentiality, but other than that, this story is pretty much about what happened to me. Also, I am "Dan" (which wow that sounds weird to say but okay idek where I'm going with this but I think you might get the idea)

Sorry this chapter isn't the most dramatic or interesting, but stick with it. This is just the intro. It gets better.

Hi. My name is Dan. And I was put in a mental hospital. Was that too sudden? Sorry... I guess I should tell you how I got in here? Well...

-1 day earlier-

"Daniel Howell. We are leaving in 5 minutes! Get up!" My mom yells up the stairs.

I groan as I slowly stand up from my warm, comfortable, loving bed. I walk like a zombie into my bathroom across the hall and look into the mirror on the wall. There's no time to straighten my hair, so I just run my fingers through it until it looks semi-tamed. I brush my teeth and put deodorant on before changing out of my pajamas.

"Daniel! Come on, we can't be late!" My mom yells again as I rush downstairs and we jump into the car.

Today, I have an appointment at Hershey Medical Center's Eating Disorder Program, where I'll be medically and psychiatrically evaluated. If all goes well, I'll start their partial hospitalization program, where I'll have to go for 6 hours a day, five days a week.

We miraculously arrive at Hershey Med's Briarcrest Building on time. We walk in and take the elevator up to the second floor, rather than the stairs. Stairs are dreadful. We check in and take a seat in the waiting room as we wait for the doctor.

"Daniel Howell?" I hear a nurse call. I stand up and make my way over to her. She ushers me into an exam room where she weighs me and checks my vital signs. She verifies my medication and asks if there's anything else she needs to know, then leaves.

When the doctor comes in, she asks me questions about how I'm doing psychiatrically. I'm not doing well. And I tell her that. I have major depression, anxiety, I self harm, and I have severe suicidal thoughts. She just nods and types that into her computer. Then, she examines my body and sees the cut marks on my hips. She doesn't say much, but tells me she's going to bring my mom in.

When my mom comes, the doctor tells her that she recommends inpatient treatment, where I'd be there for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She explains that my cut marks are "more significant" than she's seen before and she's concerned for my safety. My mom agrees to take me to the emergency room, where they'll be able to do a search for available hospitals for me to go.

When we get to the ER, they place me in a safe room where there isn't anything for me to harm myself with. The entire process takes about 10 hours. No kidding. We got here at 2:15ish and now it's almost midnight. They had to wait awhile for the Crisis worker to arrive and find a place for me to go. Finally, the ambulance arrives in order to transfer me to PPI, which stands for the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute.

When the ambulance arrives there, they take me up to the fifth floor, called 5 Landis. All the other patients are already in bed, so it's completely quiet on the unit except for the staff members sitting at the front desk.

They check me in then take my mom and me into a conference room and talk to us for three hours until they have all their information straight. Why does it have to take so long?

After doing a couple more examinations on me, they finally show me to my room where I'll be staying and my mom leaves. I find that I have a roommate named Emmett.

Our room is rather small, and there's no door on the bathroom. The windows have metal mesh infront of them so that we can't jump out. There's two small beds that are bolted to the floor and two desks with plastic chairs (they're also bolted to the floor- pretty much everything is). Even the wardrobes have no doors or hangers. There's simply and small shelf to put my belongings on.

Finally, I crawl into my small, semi-comfortable bed and snuggle into the thin sheet. I slowly drift off into a restless sleep, occasionally interrupted by the staff's 15-minute round checks.

wooo first chapter