I have started many blogs in my nineteen years of existence. One of them I titled “Locked in the Looney Bin”. Right now that is exactly how I feel: trapped in a mental hospital. If you looked at my records you would find that I am here voluntarily. But “voluntarily” no longer has the same meaning to me as it does to you. Scenario One: you are in a good day one morning and are on your way into work when you spot a coworker. Her face is flushed, her bags are all disheveled and she is holding far too many papers. You, wanting to help her, decide to hold the door open just a little while longer than you had to so she can slip by. You held the door open voluntarily, am I right?
Now, Scenario Two: You are being evaluated to see if you need to be hospitalized for mental health reasons. You are embarrassed and don’t want to be sitting in the chair. The lady interviewing you is bored with her job and it shows with each question she asks you having a predetermined answer in her mind. You don’t know this but you can tell. It’s all in the look. She has decided you are a danger to yourself and need to be admitted. You are given a form. You are asked to sign it. The form states that you will be admitted voluntarily. You mull it over. Sub-Scenario One: You don’t sign the piece of paper. You are admitted involuntary on a 72 hour time frame. During that time, you will be watched meticulously to see if you are in fact any danger at all to yourself. If you slip up, maybe say “I want to die” because you are so sick of the hospital you are stuck in you will be sectioned. Meaning you are legally required to stay for as long as a judge decides. The doctors will assume you are not working with them so everything will be ten times more difficult. Sub-Scenario Two: You sign the stupid thing. You will still be there for at least 72 hours but the doctors will feel more comfortable because they know they can take their sweet time if they need to but will try to get you out of there ASAP. If you behave well, you could probably be out of there by a week. Maybe not though. So although you sign the paper, you don’t really want to be there and it isn’t really a voluntary act.
In My Mind 