Personal Narrative: Stephens Adult Psychiatric Unit

I’ve always been passionate about understanding others; stepping into their shoes and seeing, thinking, and appreciating the lives they live. I think it is important to take that extra step and see things from a different point of view. It is the only way to achieve a true understanding. I believe in this philosophy so much so, that it’s one of the main reasons I have this blog; to give others a glimpse of a life with mental illness. I’ve been in treatment for 2 months and 26 days and I think it’s time for another peek into my brain.

I have schizophrenia and I live with schizophrenia. This is my story. I remember being a teenager and loving every bit of life from school work, my family, my dogs and my friends. I was always known for my positive attitude and energy and being the life of the group. This all started to change around the age of 13 or 14 for me. The voices began one late afternoon on my way home from school. At first I thought it was just my imagination until I realized there was no off button for them. The voices continued to appear from this day on and I gradually lost myself within them. I started to shelter myself from my family and friends and believed I was slowly losing my sanity. I was scared to share my experience with anyone so I kept to myself withdrawn from the world I once loved.

It’s a struggle to get out of bed sometimes, I often just sit there struggling to comprehend the sequence of events which have taken place over the past year. I mean, I’m used to this now, its normal to me, but the fact that this has happened and that I am now ‘disabled’ as people would put it is hard to get my head around. And every time I look down I’m reminded of the pain and the struggle I faced, it’s a physical scar which links me to my grueling past, a physical and emotional journey.

When there is a mentally ill prisoner, should they suffer? Solitary confinement does this to prisoners all Solitary confinement means isolating prisoners in a separate cell as a form of punishment, worsening the prisoner’s mental health around the world. Mentally ill inmates have many factors of poor treatment in prisons worsening their health rather than helping them. Solitary Confinement remains an ineffective method of punishment for prisoners causing prisoners mental distress, many different forms of neglect, leading them to suicide, and worsening their mental wellbeing.

The rooms were confined to themselves by a large metal door with a small slot about 5 feet from the floor that could only be opened from the outside. The walls were once a brilliant white, but now filled with the scratch marks and blood stains from the ones before me. The room stench of urine, most likely from the other patients. All there was in the room was a small cot with a mattress so thin, it almost looked as if it was a thin piece of plywood. As I laid there strapped to my bed by leather restraints that were made to “protect” me from myself, I kept pondering on the question “what did I do to deserve to be locked up in a place like this?” Then I remember my crime, and smile.

Solitary Confinement is the process of isolating individuals incarcerated from the general population. Prisoners held in solitary confinement can be isolated from general populations for days, weeks, months or even years. In solitary confinement prisoners are confined to a small cell from anywhere between 22-24 hours a day. Solitary confinement prisoners are restricted from all human contact, activities including physical and educational and only allowed approximately an hour of free time alone outside their cells in a cage for recreation.. Individuals can be sent to solitary confinement for protective measures such as mental health, disciplinary actions and a host of other reasons. The use to of solitary confinement for protective measures has been a widely debated issue over the last few years because it could have both positive and negative effects on a given population. Over the years we’ve begin asking ourselves rather or not solitary confinement as a protect measure for individuals with mental illness is beneficial or detrimental to their health and mental state. The answer is simply yes, solitary confinement for the mentally ill is could have a detrimental affect on there health.

If you were to see me walking down the street you would never guess that I was in foster care. I dress and act like your everyday 17 year old, and in a way I am. Except I was placed in foster care when I was 15 years old. Scratch that I put myself in foster care when I was 15 years old. I bet you’re asking “why”? “Why would you do such a thing”? Well my mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia also known as disorganized schizophrenia. Just in case you don't know disorganized schizophrenia is characterized by incoherent and illogical thoughts and behaviors, so when you are 15 that's not a good situation to be in. My mother couldn't keep a job therefore she could not support us.

Finally, looking at the safety of the mentally ill inmates is crucial especially when solitary confinement is involved. It has been suggested that even inmates without mental health issues can experience psychological breakdowns when they are isolated for long periods of time. Revising protocols and procedures of solitary confinement could lessen or prevent the amount of critical incidents that are seen due to the isolation of an inmate.

In order to properly explore and answer the question that has been posed, the term mental illness must first be defined. Mental illness is the inability to properly control or express behaviors, emotions, or the person’s beliefs. This can affect any individual for any number of reasons. For instance, the illness may be contracted later in life due to stress, physical or even emotional damage. Treatment for these disorders today might seem practical, efficient and humane. This was not always the case for patients suffering from mental disorders. In the earliest forms, treatment for mental illnesses could be deemed barbaric, morbid and morally misguided. Patients who were admitted to mental institutions would be given shelter. This was an opportunity to observe the symptoms and to diagnose the problem that had been presented to the medical experts. Surely while being kept in these institutions the shelter that was provided to the patients were healthy and deemed acceptable right?

Solitary confinement we all know it is the worst kind of psychological torture. It's a nightmare one may face if incarcerated, solitary confinement destroys people as human beings and comes with a long line of lasting effects after release into society, the individuals are left with extensive behavioral problems like anger, irritability, hostility, poor impulse, violence against themselves, others, and objects. This is not only problematic for oneself but also society because these individuals cannot organize their own lives or find their identity or purpose which makes them irritability about Life. We are social beings and isolation breeds and exhibits anger; moreover, there are burdens that one cannot escape after release into society from solitary confinement.

Solitary confinement drastically affects mentally ill prisoners differently as compared to the general population. Such effects are psychological and they are as follows: (1) anxiety; (2) depression; (3) anger; (4) cognitive disturbances; (5) perceptual distortions; (6) obsessive thoughts; (7) paranoia; and (8) psychosis (Metzner & Fellner, 2010). Being confined inside a unit with no windows can disorient inmates with or without mental disorders, and failure to provide mentally ill inmates with psychiatric help could result in more disruptive behaviors. Prison officials must be aware and mindful of inmates that are medically diagnosed with mental disorders. Placing mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement can jeopardize the safety and efficient operation of a correctional facility, and pose challenges for correctional professionals (Newman & Scott, 2012).

Throughout the time of being placed into the “solitary confinement” unit, many inmates continuously become more and more disturbed.

Prisons overflowed with people, ranging from small offenses to big offences. Men, women and children were thrown in cramped jails and stuffed together in horrible conditions. “After the war of 1812, reformers from Boston and New York started working on removing children from jails and instead into juvenile detention centers.” (ushistory.org, 2016). Though the mentally ill still went by unnoticed, they were frequently abused, restrained, abandoned my family members and hidden from society because of the stigma attached to mental illness.

The use of restraints for psychiatric patients has been in existence for a long time. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the use of mechanical restraints was deemed acceptable and required in the asylum environment (Carr 2012). However, there has been ethical dilemma on the usage of any form of restraints in caring for patients. Hughes, Zammit and Cordina (2014) explained that there has been a long discussion about restraint methods in health care settings, the usage of both physical and chemical forms of restraint in clinical practice, and to whom such methods would be appropriate

It's very claustrophobic, and it's hard to tell what's real and not real when you're in a room with no contact with other humans for days. Sure, the nurses came in and forced some colorful meds down my throat and brought a tray of food, but other than that, it was just little old me and my big colossal thoughts in that room together. I'm not sure how long I was in there, but it felt like an eternity. I saw shadows of my past that somehow displayed themselves on the wall, they all pointed at me and called me a freak. But that's how my mind works, every little thing triggers a never-ending assault on my character from imaginary enemies.