I Was the Real-Life “Girl Interrupted”

Well you did try to commit suicide, had a eating disorder which most likely means you had horrid self esteem and motivation (which bulima may have seemed it was helping you) . You were declared bi-polar so you probably had signs of extreme moods when angry or happy. Psychology makes small interval progressions because it is so hard to understand the human psyche and is mainly learned through thousands of hours of observation.

I am sorry you went through this, but you needed a shrink more than a mental institute.

The mental institute also interviews your parents, and not just you. So whatever they "thought" you had, your parents collaborated their thoughts.

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Suicide is also not natural. So it is a form of mental illness, which can be overcome. You have self-preservation for a reason; to stay alive.

So i see you did have some minor mental illnesses that caused huge problems. You just so happened to have it in a time when we misunderstood some of the human psyche that simply required more responsible observation over several extended periods of time. I don't really see a conspiracy here, just someone who was unfortunate.

Big Pharma at it's worst. I empathize with you and hope for a deep healing recovery. I am certain your family suffered as well.
Thank you for sharing your story.

The world has lost its soul so to speak. We have lost our true spiritual moorings and lost our connection to nature and are stuck in a kind of concrete society. In the 60's the kids rebelled with the rock and drug counterculture, calling their parents and society the "plastic society".
I like Thomas Moore's book "Care of The Soul". Also I recommend Margaret Paul's books on the Inner Child, "Inner Bonding" and "Do I have to Give Up Me to Be Loved By You.", the book "Boundaries" by Charles Whitfield www.amazon.com...

And "Legacy Of The Heart" by wayne Muller

These are great books for putting one in touch with their soul, knowing we are all different, that anger comes from our boundaries being crossed, that we may have unhealthy boundaries for one reason or another, that our society fosters co-dependence, and that it is important to nurture our soul and our Inner Child.

reply to post by GoodOlDave

Can you get a lawyer and go after that mad scientist's lab you were imprisoned in? Incorrectly diagnosing you as bi-polar and then pumping you with drugs that screwed you up mentally for life is medical malpractice. I don't know if there is a statute of limitations on that, though.

Wouldn't that be something if a whole bunch of us got together and did that? Mental patients unite!

I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has come and gone on this, but even if it hadn't I wouldn't be interested in suing. I'm not a litigious person by nature and the size of the scab I'd be ripping off would probably feel worse than the original wound.

Originally posted by milkyway12
Well you did try to commit suicide, had a eating disorder which most likely means you had horrid self esteem and motivation (which bulima may have seemed it was helping you) . You were declared bi-polar so you probably had signs of extreme moods when angry or happy. Psychology makes small interval progressions because it is so hard to understand the human psyche and is mainly learned through thousands of hours of observation.

I am sorry you went through this, but you needed a shrink more than a mental institute.

The mental institute also interviews your parents, and not just you. So whatever they "thought" you had, your parents collaborated their thoughts.

----

Suicide is also not natural. So it is a form of mental illness, which can be overcome. You have self-preservation for a reason; to stay alive.

So i see you did have some minor mental illnesses that caused huge problems. You just so happened to have it in a time when we misunderstood some of the human psyche that simply required more responsible observation over several extended periods of time. I don't really see a conspiracy here, just someone who was unfortunate.

edit on 2-10-2012 by milkyway12 because: (no reason given)

I don't fault your observations as an outsider looking in - it's a reasonable perspective - but I suspect you haven't read read the posts by other members on this thread that discuss the same thing happening to them. If it just happened to me you might be right, but many others are sharing very similar experiences.

I did also include the one link to an article concerning this practice, which cites other sources (print only in most cases). I realize the source is old but it happened a long time ago, before the internet became an archive.

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

reply to post by ThirdEyeofHorus


Grateful for the book suggestions - I'm gearing up for my seasonal book-a-thon and am always looking for some new reads. I haven't come across those titles so will give them a try. Hopefully inter-library loan has them (interlibrary loan = greatest invention ever. After the internet.)

I will let you know what I think, provided you don't take criticism of your recommendations personally. My motto is life is too short to finish a book you can't get into. Too many books, too little time....

reply to post by liveandlearn


I'm more like...if I'm really happy I want to harm myself in a way...it might mean I have something worse, but I have not the money or support system to find treatment.

reply to post by otherpotato


My story is eerily similar, just in another state but they wanted to move me to Bethesda, MA. Those months in there feel like years and years. I think because of how it has effected me I've found myself a lot sooner that anyone I know. I can totally relate to your post, but the latter half especially. It's comforting and also breaks my heart that I'm not alone.

reply to post by Bluemoonsine


I sent an email to that site asking if this is the same guy ( yes it is but I want to hear their excuse) and will post back when I get a reply. Thanks to everyone for the support. Just to reaffirm, I am completely serious when it comes to exposing crimes against vulnerable people of any age. They are the worst of the worst. Peace and blessings to you all.

Psychiatry is just like the rest of the medical profession and has become corrputed by the almightly dollar and big Pharma.

Nearly 30 years ago while in the military. I made a lame attempt at suicide as well. That was before anti-depressents or Bi-Polar disorder even existed. Back then it was just called depression and I was diagnosed as a manic depressive, discharged from the military and sent on my merry way.

And, I definetly did suffer from depression, but there were no magical pills back then to make the world happy and rosy, so I learned to modify my thought process and behavior and eliminate the depression on my own. Within a couple of months I had overcame it and become one of the happiest people around, and up to this day that depression has never returned.

Flash forward 20 years and Bi-Polar disorder and the ADD's, ADHD's, and other 3 and 4 letter disroders have become the diagnosis of the day and are all the rage, and Psych's are labeling every other person that walks through the door with one or another and presribing anti-depressents like candy cigarettes. Half of the generation of tomorrow are walking zombies, and many of their mothers are also popping anti-depressents like candy.

Several years ago I dated a girl who had been diagnosed with Bi-Polar disorder and had been seeing a Psychiatrist up to 5 times a week for over half her life. She was 28 years old at the time, and she had been cycled through every medication known to man, combinations of medication and dosing variations, with no end in sight.

The Psychiatrists she'd been seeing had no intention of trying to CURE her or wean her away from therapy either. Of course it didn't hurt that her father was a billionaire.

And, while this girl really did suffer from bouts of depression, I don't think it rose to the level of Bi-Polar Disorder, not did she warrant therapy 5 days a week. I told her about my episode many years before and how I overcame it, and I offered to help her as well. But, having lived with the diagnosis for over 10 yers and having Psychiatrists tell he she would be in therapy for the rest of her life had her convinced that there was no other solution and my offers fell on deaf ears.

I truly hate what the entire medical profession has become and how the almightly dollar has corrupted those that we're SUPPOSED to be able to trust with our lives!!!

First, I want to say how sorry I am that a system that should have helped you, hurt you. I have heard Horror stories about the way they use you treat people. A friend of mine around the same time, took a few pills and got scared. She had a so called friend of hers take her to our local ER and he was a jerk and told them he was scared to take her home. They took her to a place some of you might have heard of before, Athens State Mental Institution (also known as Athens State Hospital Athens Asylum, The Ridges, Asylum on the Hill.) It is now known as Ohio University! It has great history. They tried to give her meds without her seeing a doctor, they wanted to do a female exam, they also told her parents lie after lie. She told them she was not letting them do the test that she had just had one. They told her parents she was into drugs really bad, that she had a sex addiction and the final blow was they told them she would try and kill herself again. She was able to sneak to a phone and call her mom. Thankfully her mom trusted her enough to fight them to let her out. I can only guess to the horrors she would have gone through had her mom not only known her children but, she trusted them. Girl Interrupted is one of my favorite movies. I just really don't know what to say to you about your experience, other than sorry, I wish things would have never been like that for anyone. I would bet that most didn't have any issues or just had mild depression, after being in a place like that would have to do damage. I am grateful that your insurance cut them off and you didn't spend another day. Thank you for sharing your story, it was a brave thing to do!

Originally posted by otherpotatoWhen I was 14 I had an eating disorder (bulimia), suffered from teen angst and made a piss-poor attempt to commit suicide (we’re talking taking 10 pills – it was a call for attention, not a serious death wish).

Was that your opinion at the time? or in retrospect?

Frankly, having recently had to deal will someone committing suicide (we saved him, though I'm not sure he'll thank us for it) I have considerable distain for silly arrogant kids pretending to commit suicide just to make a point.

Edit: anyone who pretends to commit suicide (without absolute intent to die - ie a 'call for help') is sick. And probably deserves all that subsequently happens to them.

If you had to deal with a suicide, maybe you'd agree,

reply to post by bangoli


Makes one wonder how many more victims he has had over the years as he only served a few months time most likely with no rehab or 'help' wherever it could have been found. Jsss back on the block. Good to hear you followed up.

reply to post by otherpotato


Such a sad and terrifying story.. I am glad you are able to write a post on it, it was a heart gripping read.

This might be a bit off-topic, but it made me think of a TED talk I have seen not too long ago.

What makes are the traits of a psychopath: www.ted.com...

Originally posted by AndyMayhew

Originally posted by otherpotatoWhen I was 14 I had an eating disorder (bulimia), suffered from teen angst and made a piss-poor attempt to commit suicide (we’re talking taking 10 pills – it was a call for attention, not a serious death wish).

Was that your opinion at the time? or in retrospect?

Frankly, having recently had to deal will someone committing suicide (we saved him, though I'm not sure he'll thank us for it) I have considerable distain for silly arrogant kids pretending to commit suicide just to make a point.

Edit: anyone who pretends to commit suicide (without absolute intent to die - ie a 'call for help') is sick. And probably deserves all that subsequently happens to them.

If you had to deal with a suicide, maybe you'd agree,

edit on 3-10-2012 by AndyMayhew because: (no reason given)

You'll be happy to know then that 10 months after I got out of my "treatment" I really tried and almost succeeded. I apologize to you profusely that I didn't succeed.

Yep, learned a lot while I was inside.

Originally posted by otherpotato

During a brief period in the US, from about the mid-eighties to early nineties, some mental hospitals came up with a great way to make money: falsely hospitalize teenagers in order to collect the insurance money. How do I know this? Because it happened to me. And it forever changed who I am.

While not completely similar, this sounds like the Eugenics programs that went on here in the United States. People were forcibly sterilized against their will. Here, in my home state of North Carolina it continued until 1977.

Your situation was due to the greed, and villainy, of the health care system. It does not surprise me in the least, that this went on, and that is truly sad for me to say. It is broken, and needs a massive overhaul.

I hope that you can, or have, found peace. I am truly sorry that you had to experience this, and wish you well. Thank you for having the bravery to share this, and enlighten those of us to your specific story.

reply to post by TheToastmanCometh


In my completely unsolicited opinion, it sounds like a form of mania. Do you have trouble controlling yourself once the fun begins? Do you spend large amounts of money and regret it afterwards or feel like you can't control your talking when in conversation? Do you seem to have "great fun ideas" that when acted out feel like nightmares; as if your thoughts begin to come too fast and furious?

I went through this ordeal myself. It's a very peculiar circumstance to have gone through, and only other people that have gone through it, get it. I choose not to talk about it mostly. The things that went on in there were horrific and bizarre. The strangest thing was the mass cooperation in took to mass-abuse children in this manner-to take mentally healthy children and make them crazy, while telling them that they came in crazy, and they're being helped. I'm talking about children as young as four. True, some of the kids were a bit out-of-control, but about half were not. They were just "the rejects" of society. I honestly think a lot of them were placed in their by parents who found "Eureka!" a legal way to abandon their children.

I had a roommate who killed herself while on a suicide watch. I believe the sweater started to unravel at this point... from what I understand it was this incident that sparked investigations into the practices of these places called "RTC's". I found an article online that talks about what happened to my roommate.

www.teenadvocatesusa.org...

I consider my experience to be more like Flowers in the Attic, because of the amount of drugging that went on & the locking away. Some of these children ended up with permanent neurological damage because of the absurd doses of psychotropic drugs they were given. I was in for 2.5 years, and was only let out after I demanded a free attorney who then filed a case on my behalf, and won me my freedom. I'm so glad I was stubborn enough to refuse the meds & eventually got the notion to request an attorney. I managed to get out when I was 16.

my heart goes out to you for all that you have been though and risen above. I am very familiar with hthe ovie actually I first saw it years ago with my mom when I was going through my own chilhood confusion. guess not everyone thinks teenagers are suppostedto be a little crazy for a couple years. lol its called the identity stage. i just wanted to say i think it is an honor to read this story =)
-L

reply to post by otherpotato


This also occurred to me.
I was put into Bethesda in Cincinnati for no reason at all. When they took away my drawing supplies, a big "no sale" sign went off in my head, and I packed my bag in the night and took the elevator out the next day, went to go visit an aunt in another state for a few weeks. To be honest, I set off a distraction by frightening a patient who had a fear of bugs, which was wrong, he was genuinely panicked, and really raised a fuss. At the time, I suspect I rationalized that it was either me or him, and he was already lost. He had radio shack equipment and wires attached to him allover, but I never learned why. I just knew he was afraid of roaches. I don't know if it was all the valium or instinct that made me be so cold to him.
Never did get my drawing supplies or razors back.
All they wanted was the money, you could tell by the manic way they spoke to my parents about how dangerous I was. They screamed into the phone. I knew I wasn't a dangerous person. If I were as dangerous as they said, there would have been bars between them and me. The only 'danger' is that I didn't mindlessly bleat after authority.
Our insurance must not have been much, because no one followed, or, if they did, I was already on the street by then. I wonder how many escaping teenagers with suitcases that the neighborhood saw every week.
There were so few medical staff compared to the amount of patients, I'm surprised if they even noticed me missing. There were so many teenagers stuck in that place. They spoke about their feelings a lot. All I could think of was the door.
I called my mom from my aunt's, all she said was, "You got away? Good."
Yeh, thanks for the help mom. I caught a ferry across the river, and by happenstance, saw the van of a family friend going in the same direction, and hitched a ride.
I slept for a week after that.
I don't know why I did what I did. Trying to get back into that mindset to try to figure out why I walked out is too difficult. It was as if my feelings were gone, like I was running on automatic.