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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 14 of 14. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Phil on January 30, 2013, at 8:31:36
http://www.clickbipolarblog.com/2013/01/going-to-lunatic-asylum.html
Posted by Phillipa on January 30, 2013, at 9:38:27
In reply to Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Phil on January 30, 2013, at 8:31:36
Phil your blog? Are you going to go to support meeting there? Phillipa
Posted by Phil on January 30, 2013, at 10:55:22
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum » Phil, posted by Phillipa on January 30, 2013, at 9:38:27
Yes, my blog and yes doing a ten week deal at ASH.
Posted by gadchik on January 30, 2013, at 19:44:09
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Phil on January 30, 2013, at 10:55:22
Interesting, I can see you now, slugging that quart of milk! You have a great way of describing things! Ive read some cool books about Bellevue Hospital Psych Ward in NYC. Have you heard of it?
Posted by sleepygirl2 on January 30, 2013, at 20:12:29
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by gadchik on January 30, 2013, at 19:44:09
I've been inside....
;-)
In the lobby
It's got a lot of services, not just psychiatric.
What I like about old "asylums" is the architecture.
It does feel a bit like hallowed ground, not sure why
Posted by Toph on January 31, 2013, at 10:04:07
In reply to Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Phil on January 30, 2013, at 8:31:36
Back in the day when visiting Chicago it would be considerate to send family and friends a post card of the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane. Sadly this was no longer the practice when I was a patient.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tophpb/8433193010/in/photostream
Posted by Phil on February 1, 2013, at 10:25:46
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Toph on January 31, 2013, at 10:04:07
I've got hundreds of pics of old asylums, mostly in the UK. This site http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/
is really cool. Mostly young people doing the urban exploration thing. Some of the asylum pics are great.
But now, you can do an image search on Google and there are tons of pics. Years ago I couldn't find much or was looking in the wrong place.
Didn't a fair amount of celebs vacation in Bellevue?
Posted by Toph on February 4, 2013, at 9:58:11
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Phil on February 1, 2013, at 10:25:46
40 years ago as a bipolar adolescent I was hospitalized several times for mania when I refused to accept my diagnosis. Two were in state hospitals, a new one in Chicago and one in an old asylum in Elgin. My parents fought to have me transferred out of these facilities that were mixed with the criminally insane to a nearby private hospital back when there was mental health insurance for these places. I remember one terrifying day at Elgin when a patient lit the curtains on fire. I smashed the glass to get at the fire hose. Another patient turned the valve and with manic glee I put out the curtains and sprayed all the staff who were frantically pulling the curtains down. Now when I drive by these institutions and those for the developmentally disabled (like the "Wisconsin Home for the Feebleminded") I swear that I can sense the screams of ill and mistreated former residents. Knowing that the mentally ill and disabled used to be warehoused I feel fortunate that I have led a "normal" life on medication that otherwise might have been spent in one of these places.
Posted by sleepygirl2 on February 4, 2013, at 12:42:30
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Toph on February 4, 2013, at 9:58:11
I'm glad you're taking good care of yourself :-)
It's sad, but I would not like to be anyplace that didn't have some motivation to do more than warehouse people.
It's a sad commentary of what we as a society value.
We don't try to do better? Thank god for some hospitals strongly affiliated with universities and higher learning or better insurance, more money to pay.
I mean sh*t, the last thing in the world I needed was to be locked up in some hole with one common bathroom with people paid to ignore you all day... sort of a confirmation of how I was seeing the world at the time, going through hell all by myself, except for the pills they give you, if they get that right. What to do but watch the adolescents successfully break the door down? I mean really, even prisoners get a damn phone call. It's hard to call work when there's constant loud rap music in the background
It's like being a thirsty person dropped into a desert.
"You're always making art." and I'm thinking... What the hell else is there to do around here, by myself, all the time."They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places"
Frost
Posted by Phil on February 4, 2013, at 20:03:52
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Toph on February 4, 2013, at 9:58:11
Man, that's a tough deal, Toph. You've persevered and that's amazing in itself.
Posted by sigismund on February 9, 2013, at 0:36:19
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Toph on February 4, 2013, at 9:58:11
It's huge.
Posted by sigismund on February 9, 2013, at 0:42:18
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by sleepygirl2 on February 4, 2013, at 12:42:30
>It's a sad commentary of what we as a society value.
>We don't try to do better?We do try to do better but we can't because we're f*ck*d in the head.
Individual people can do it...often succeed....but groups are problematic.
Wasn't Robert Frost in favour of slavery, not that I care and I may well have it somewhat wrong.
But we don't value certain people...why do I even say this...a couple of Jamesons.
Posted by sigismund on February 9, 2013, at 0:51:30
In reply to Re: Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Toph on February 4, 2013, at 9:58:11
>While a relatively small number of people were sterilized through the late 1920s, the number of sterilizations increased in the 1930s and remained high until the end of World War II.
When even they became embarrassed by recent events. I found a eugenics pamphlet when we were cleaning out our parents stuff, from before the war. Bright and cheerful it was.
We had the skeleton of the last full blood Tasmanian Aborigine on display in the Hobart museum until after the war.
>By 1873, Truganini was the sole survivor of the Oyster Cove group, and was again moved to Hobart. She died three years later, having requested that her ashes be scattered in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel; she was, however, buried at the former Female Factory at Cascades, a suburb of Hobart. Within two years, her skeleton was exhumed by the Royal Society of Tasmania and later placed on display.[9] Only in April 1976, approaching the centenary of her death, were Truganini's remains finally cremated and scattered according to her wishes.[10][11]
She knew it would be. She understood how things worked.
Posted by brynb on February 9, 2013, at 7:18:24
In reply to Going To The Lunatic Asylum, posted by Phil on January 30, 2013, at 8:31:36
I'm picturing you as The Dude in "The Big Lebowski", lol.
This is the end of the thread.
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