#like a*tistics

[ryanthedemiboy]

Unless you admit yourself (unusual), they can keep you indefinitely. No questions asked. With very little oversight.

Even if you go willingly, if you check yourself out, they can petition the courts to have you forced back in.

You're only deemed ready to rejoin the outside world (in my experience) if you

A. Have a psychiatrist (which they may or may not help you get)

B. Live with someone who they deem mentally well and safe/good for you and who agrees to do things like buy an expensive cabinet to lock all sharp objects and medications

C. Are quiet, submissive, and eat all the food you're given no matter your dietary restrictions

D. Take the meds they prescribe whether or not the diagnosis matches your symptoms, no matter the side effects, without a way to know if they interact w your other meds

There is no guarantee you can have your other medications, and without a prescription you cannot have any OTC meds (even if you always take them, like vitamin D, B12, probiotics, things that make people able to live and which are rarely prescribed — even if you have chronic pain or migraines)

You may or may not be able to use a mobility aid (almost definitely not your own. They "store" yours).

You may only be able to shower or go to the bathroom on their schedule, or else have to wear diapers (no shame in needing diapers, to be clear. But they force people into them for their convenience and make people sit in soiled ones which is never okay)

If you have a medical emergency, if there are "public" phones you can use and they're hooked up, you might be able to talk to 911 long enough to get help. Might. And then you'll be considered a Problem Patient and treated worse, warned against, lied to and about, forced on sedatives, held down, the works.

And nobody will believe you if you tell anybody you were assaulted or raped. It was all just a hallucination. Always.

The way they do meds... let me give you my example. I was a best case scenario — I checked myself into the ward. I knew I needed a med change. There were no psychiatrists accepting patients in my area (I'd thought they'd help me find one. Nope.

I almost didn't get released bc I didn't have one and couldn't find one. I was warned that if I couldn't find one before the prescription they gave me ran out, I might have to go back in)

Anywho, the appropriate way to get on Venlafaxine (Effexor) is to go up in dose every 2+ weeks at max — I think it's like 32.5, 75, 125, 150, 200, 225. Something like that.

They had me go up every day, and I was at 150 on day four (instead of day fifty-six). I felt incredible and normal and happy.

I was released and feeling great. I got a lot done, I moved out, got a job...

And then some weeks in, my body adapted to the dose and I wasn't much better off from where I started.

They don't care about your wellbeing. Their purpose is to get you functioning as fast as possible and then get you out. And if that's not possible, to sedate you until you're not a problem.

No matter your age. (Shout out to the 6 year old when I was in the hospital at 14, who'd been there for over six months, nobody within 6 years of her, and without access to kid shows, books, school, and 1 hour of outside in a basketball court if she was Good a day)

Do they do good things? Yeah, they can.

Are they systems of abuse? Yes. Undoubtedly.

I had a codeword for when my mom visited me, the second time, so if I was being mistreated, she knew and could help me get out if they wouldn't let me check myself out.

I didn't have to use it, luckily. But i'm A Good Kid (I was barely 18 when I went) so I was okay. They were even trans friendly.

I got lucky, that second time.

(I don't talk about the first)

Mental hospitals aren't as bad now (in the US) as they were in the past. That doesn't mean they aren't absolutely horrible today.

I know I clown on Taylor Swift for using a “psych ward aesthetic” but if I’m being honest I feel like it’s a broader issue among writers trying to talk about psych abuse. Even if it’s not actively trying to be romanticized, it bothers me that every book I read where abuse in the ward is a prominent theme, it’s always the same idea: takes place before the 60s, shock therapy, the character strapped to the bed with leather belts in a straight jacket, etc.

It unintentionally frames psych abuse as this thing of the past and I don’t fuck with it. Like… you know this kinda stuff is happening now, right? Sure, I was never subjected to shock therapy, but I was restrained and I did have meds forced on me. But I guess that mental image doesn’t invoke quite the same kick.

[humans-are-tasty]

[ghoulspaw]

[smallnico]

nobody asked but i want everyone to know that when i draw karlach doing a happy tail thrash, it's stimming. i'm drawing her happy flapping. i'm not trying to compare karlach to a dog (or, rather, i'm not trying to condescend to her or minimize her pain or awareness or intelligence). i think everyone knows she's got big feelings and she's a very physically emotive and fidgety person (we've all seen her little dance) so it just makes sense to me that she would vent her excitement physically somehow.

also it's what i would do if i had a tail. i'm stuck using my hands lmao

[fregget-frou]

You know what.

Every Raudio character is neurodivergent, why? Because I said so.

ExpeciALLY YOU 🫵 IM LOOKING AT YOU:

David, Lasko, Damien, Darlin, Huxley, Starlight, Freelancer, Guy, Caelum!!!

No they don’t all have autism just because they’re my favorites no whaattt

[helen-birb]

so, can I talk about how I headcannon Teagen as autistic or are we not really for such revelations

[pirateswhore]

Emma Swan: I'm a human lie detector. I can tell when you're lying.

me: honey thats autism

[welcometogrouchland]

*twirling my hair* do you like cassandra cain? if not, do u have a moment to hear about our lord and saviour cassandra cain?

CASSANDRA CAIN MY LOVE!!! She's definitely the batgirl I've read the most in terms of full issues, the first 30-ish issues of her solo by Kelly Puckett Scott Peterson and Damion Scott had me hooked and I binged them but fell off after Horrocks came on (nothing against him, he was just given an editorial mandate to make the book more romance focused and it turned me off because it felt so ooc for Cass to me lol. I do own some of the issues he wrote tho! I like the ones with art by Rick Leonardi). I'm not really caught up with modern comics (ish??) And I'm not reading anything dedicatedly but I hear she's in a new original book teaming up with a magic user? Neat! Good for her. I love her in the shadow of the batgirl graphic novel (IT'S SO GOOD)

[catholickedd]

simon and betty are an awed tistic power couple

[accordionlover]

most of the time im like "i love being a freak :) yaay identity :) wahoo" but jesus christ. teenage girls will always make me want to kill myself.

[bisexual-horror-fan]

Wanna play mermaids?

Anon.

Of fucking course I wanna play mermaids.

[viemarin]

try my quiz!

[wall-eye]

Ok saline isn't that bad, I was worried it was going to sting but it didn't, it was just Wet. This won't be too bad

[the-chaos-goose]

[dyst-blogs]

the worst thing about studying on the "quiet floor" of the library is when someone whos new there comes up and tries to talk to you, and is somehow not aware that it is the Quiet Floor (despite the big sign) so you just have a whole conversation like

me: haha yeah that test was really hard. I think i did well on it though them: YEAH I KNOW RIGHT? THAT TEST MADE ME WANNA SCREAM SEE LISTEN. AAAAAA!!!! BTW WHY IS IT SO QUIET HERE

[zerolingual]

@marocato

thought this would be a banger on tumblr