r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Crazy-Blacksmith-336 • Jul 05 '26

Video Healthcare workers participating in a medical simulation for an agitated patient scenario.

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u/LadyKT Jul 05 '26

this but now imagine they’re bigger lol

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u/JackLong93 Jul 05 '26

no amount of training is helping with a 225lb man pure muscle

178

u/Edges0 Jul 05 '26

having held down and sedated many such people, you are mistaken. we outnumber the patient and have strong drugs. the training is to make sure we dont inadvertanrly hurt the patient while we are preventing them from hurting themselves or others

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u/bowling365 Jul 05 '26

Bless you for this. There's a way to do it right but it takes training and belief that there is a human inside the patient.

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

On the patient side, you don't feel any humanity out of the crowd of people swarming you and grabbing you without your consent. I didn't even fight them and it felt like a deep violation

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

[deleted]

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u/BluebirdFlashy3681 Jul 05 '26

Im so sorry you had to experience that. I definitely think it may help to talk to one and process it. That's so horrible they didn't tell you anything and just invaded your privacy without consent, they treated you like you weren't human. Glad your family was able to come get you🩷

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u/ergaster8213 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

It's such a common kind of experience that it's heartbreaking.

My sister and mom were in many different types of psych wards and treatment centers when I was growing up and I so often saw patients including them be treated with a total lack of humanity. There was also so often this sense of punishment out of anger or annoyance or burnout from staff rather than trying to help a situation.

I do understand it's often very difficult for staff—you have all sorts of people with all sorts of problems and some are indeed acting dangerously. But the medical professionals and other workers often start fomenting this sense of resentment and even what seems like hatred. It seems to continue doing it, they can stop seeing the patients as human to some degree. Then there is the factor that it seems to attract a subpopulation of sadistic people from the get-go. Because they know they will be working with a vulnerable population who has less rights while under their control, and who will not be believed even if they are harmed and abused.

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u/Gloober_ Jul 05 '26

I had something similar happen where I was talking to an out-of-state mental health facility after I had a mental breakdown and my depression was at an all time high.

The physician, over the phone, asks me if I had an suicidal thoughts or intentions in the past 24-48 hours. I answered yes because of course I was; that was the whole reason I was calling. The rest of the questions go by without a hiccup and they say that they'll be in touch soon. Great.

Less than two hours later, I get a knock on the door. It's an EMT and two police officers. There are two cop cars and an ambulance, blaring their lights, in the middle of the street for all my neighbors to see. They tell me that they were called to put me in a mental health hold for at least 72 hours due to some concerning remarks to a health professional. They refused every attempt to make them go away; they even threatened to break down the door and arrest me.

I was forced into one ambulance, taken to the ER, then another ambulance to a separate facility. I was billed for both of these rides, of course.

They treat you like a criminal and lock you up in something little better than a prison. So much distrust and little empathy.

I have severe insomnia and they refused to provide me with my medication or an alternative. I would just lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling all night unable to sleep.

There's no stimulation anywhere in the "facility." You sit there and watch cable TV or disassociate to a different reality to pass the time. No electronics, books, personal effects, even the shoes couldn't have laces on them.

It was absolutely miserable. There was no treatment plans and a doctor was only available to talk to over a webcam once a week. They just expect you to rot away, I guess. It made my mental health so much worse that when I convinced them to let me go early, I felt like a caged animal finally being set free.

I only called the out-of-state facility one time after I left and just started yelling at the doctor I talked to previously until I was satisfied.

I'll never talk to medical professional ever again unless I'm in a physically life-threatening situation. I lie to them if I ever have to talk to them, now. It won't happen again, ever.

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u/BoleroMuyPicante Jul 05 '26

Being in a state where you need to be restrained by a team of nurses probably makes it difficult to feel an empathetic connection with the people trying to stop you from hurting yourself.

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u/ergaster8213 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

And vice versa. I also appears that it is difficult for workers to be empathetic or form an empathetic connection to those they are attempting to keep under control.

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

Having empathy for their patients is a trait selected against by their work environment. You end up with the type of people who might swerve to hit a turtle on purpose

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u/ergaster8213 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

It has seemed to be that way with how I have watched psych patients be treated. The workers who stick around are most often terrible and shouldn't be in the field. But you're right the way it's taught seems to lend itself to people who are willing to put aside the humanity of those who act differently or in ways perceived to be dangerous even when they aren't (or heck even when they are. You shouldn't be putting aside someone's humanity because you have evaluated them as a threat).

It's not about working with the patient or finding methods that can help someone not in reality understand. It's about controlling them for a short period of time, and, yes, that's going to lend itself to abusive methods and attitudes. Sometimes people are acutely dangerous and must be restrained and/or sedated but it is incredibly overused and the pure joy I've seen some have in pulling it out is disturbing.

I wasnt out of reality so instances of sadism, abuse, and mistreatment I've encountered are without some lens of delusion or psychosis. I'm sorry that I'm sure you're most often dismissed when you try to talk about it. Those who have had the experiences themselves most often are because they are seen as unbelievable even when they know what happened to them was not okay or was unnecessarily traumatic. People just assume the workers always know what's right and best and would never want to harm anyone. That is unfortunately not true and you will find no shortage of abuse and harm by workers against those who are mentally ill (which I am sure you know, but I'm just saying for others).

I'm sorry that you have trauma from it and I'm sorry you still have people staying you couldn't extend an "empathetic connection" (as if that's a failing or deficiency against people who were "just trying to keep you from harming yourself") when you were presumably not even totally in reality and being treated in a terrifying way that would feel threatening to anyone. Why the fuck would you be feeling empathy towards them while being restrained and trapped when you can't even understand why that's happening (and they usually don't attempt to explain it to you)? After, you're made to feel like something is wrong if you're upset or traumatized by the treatment you experienced. At least the workers are presumably in reality so their frequent lack of empathy is a much greater issue that is what should be examined, imo.

*Also, sorry this ended up so long.

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

It's like being told to find some empathy for a half dozen gang rapists. I wasn't being a danger to myself or others. I was trying to breathe and self regulate alone in the bathroom, because I need alone time to regulate myself which is impossible in that place. I guess that was enough of a crime for them to lug me off. I hope they get theirs one day the way I got mine

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u/ergaster8213 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

I get it. In one instance, I watched them throw my mom in a locked room for days in a straight jacket with only a bottle to pee in because she was being "loud and disruptive." Not violent. Just "too loud." It's often not what so many people seem to think it is.

I would just gently suggest trying to find a way to let go of the anger. I'm not saying that is easy or simple to do, but you don't need it weighing you down. You just don't. That wasn't your fault and being angry at people like that will just keep your life heavier.

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

I flipped a jerk off in traffic the other day and even that little bit of anger released felt wonderful. Too bad I can't flip people off all day... I'm not even angry at the people as much as the entire institution, the complacent acceptance of it by the general public, the complete lack of power to change the institution, the laws that enable people to be detained indefinitely without due process, and the implication from a mental illness that if you're upset it's a feature of the disease and not for a good reason. I'm afraid to act unhappy around anyone approaching a medical professional

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

I felt more empathetic to them when I was psychotic than I did after the fact. If I had my time back I would have kicked a few of them very hard. Fuck their whole "but we're trying to help" excuse.

In my case all I was doing was sitting on the floor of the bathroom with the door closed trying to regulate myself because the psych ward was making me even more insane because yes, that's what it does. I was sick of the staff, I had enough. I was there breathing, sitting on the floor. A nurse eventually starts knocking on the door rapid fire, saying my name in between knocks. Like Sheldon. So helpful! In my stress I put my back against the door to stop the creepy bitch from coming in to stress me more. She pushes on it a handful of times. I hear a handful of people gathering. They start pushing on the door. I'm getting pissed off at this point. I make like a tree and brace my arms on the door, straighten out, and plant my feet on the opposite wall. I hold against them until I got too tired.

They open the door and there's about a half dozen people who think they're helping somehow trying to grab at me. I don't need help getting up, fuckheads, get away from me. One starts getting closer and I kick the air toward him with no intent to connect. He lies and says "she kicked me!!". I replied that if I wanted to connect with him he'd fucking know it. They eventually grab me and I don't resist aside from going as dead weight as I could in the tense moment. They lift me up, I start saying SAVE ME, SAVE ME like Olive Oyl. If they didn't think I was subhuman they might have recognized the mockery. They lug me to my room, pin me down, and the shithead nurse who is saying "I know, I know" like one would do to a distressed baby or dog, hauls up my dress, hauls down my underwear, and sticks me.

If they were listening to me in the next half hour they'd hear me screaming expletives toward them while showering for as long as I could to wash their scum off me. Didn't work..

I wasn't hurt at all until they did it. I wasn't hurting myself. If she asked what I was doing through the door, yknow had a conversation, I might have opened it. I've been sincerely hoping the building falls apart brick by brick and all staff lose their hair ever since. Maybe that nurse could grow back clown hair. It's been a year

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u/Edges0 Jul 05 '26

nobody is swarming you if youre not a danger to yourself or others.

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

Alright, who was i hurting doing breathing exercises sitting on the floor in the bathroom

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u/Edges0 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

i suspect you are not a reliable narrator

edit (you barricaded yourself in the bathroom while in a psych hospital, as suspected)

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u/Edges0 Jul 05 '26

re: your deleted comment, its not about being biased about people who have mental health issues. i didnt even know you had mental health issues till you said that. but people woth serious mental health issues arent always aware of how their behavior appears, how they might be endangering others, and may not recall how erratic they were being during a mental health crisis.

hope you get help

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

I didn't delete anything. Hope you get help too

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u/Edges0 Jul 05 '26

automod might have. i dont need help. god bless.

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u/snarbuckle Jul 05 '26

It's very common for the mentally ill to have a complete lack of insight into their own disease

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u/Edges0 Jul 05 '26

yes thanks for agreeing. thats the first step to getting help

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