While strictly speaking there are many laws as well as court precedents that protect the rights of mental hospital patients, quite commonly the hospital staff are not only unaware of those laws, but regard me as delusional for claiming that I have any rights at all.
I was on an involuntary ten day hold in Reno, Nevada because I told a shrink I planned to go camping in the desert. Not being from Reno myself, I was unaware that "camping in the desert" is a local euphemism for "committing suicide". It was of no use to point out that I had gone camping in the desert just the night before, nor that I have the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge.
I was handcuffed then taken by a deputy to a hospital emergency room, where I refused to wear a hospital gown because "As a mental hospital patient, I have the right to wear my own clothes".
In reality I don't particularly care, I only say that to determine whether the staff knows that the laws are.
Some very, very angry man shouted "YOU'RE ON A HOLD! YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS!"
When I bluntly pointed out that the United States Supreme Court disagreed, they injected me with a massive dose of Haldol. That's widely considered one of the most-powerful antipsychotics. While I was not in any way symptomatic all the time, it is also powerfully sedating.
I don't know why but for some reason Haldol is largely ineffective on me. That really freaked them all out when I continued going on about my right to wear my own clothes, so they injected me again with a far higher dose.
I was on an involuntary ten day hold in Reno, Nevada because I told a shrink I planned to go camping in the desert. Not being from Reno myself, I was unaware that "camping in the desert" is a local euphemism for "committing suicide". It was of no use to point out that I had gone camping in the desert just the night before, nor that I have the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge.
I was handcuffed then taken by a deputy to a hospital emergency room, where I refused to wear a hospital gown because "As a mental hospital patient, I have the right to wear my own clothes".
In reality I don't particularly care, I only say that to determine whether the staff knows that the laws are.
Some very, very angry man shouted "YOU'RE ON A HOLD! YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS!"
When I bluntly pointed out that the United States Supreme Court disagreed, they injected me with a massive dose of Haldol. That's widely considered one of the most-powerful antipsychotics. While I was not in any way symptomatic all the time, it is also powerfully sedating.
I don't know why but for some reason Haldol is largely ineffective on me. That really freaked them all out when I continued going on about my right to wear my own clothes, so they injected me again with a far higher dose.