Know any aspies who've been institutionalized?

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A friend of mine was recently committed to the mental hospital for the second time in 3 months/her life. She's turning 33 tomorrow. She's not Dx'd with AS but I think she's very aspie; she doesn't know about AS, but as a teen she was Dx'd with ADHD. She also suffers from SEVERE anxiety, especially right before a presentation of her work (in architecture school), or when stressed out in general. She's very sensitive to smells, light, and she has some definite issues controlling her emotions/anger. She also tends to get obsessive about whatever project she's involved in.

Over the past few months, she allowed herself to become extremely isolated, and mainly stayed at home with her dogs. At some point, she got really paranoid and delusional (that everybody was watching her, that her neighbors had video cameras pointing into her living room, that her neighbors were breaking into her house and stealing things, that someone was poisoning the air in her house, that someone had "changed the words on the pages" of her books, etc.) She eventually had an outburst and "lost it," ending up in the psychiatric ward. They never Dx'd her with anything and she was just generally very antisocial and aggressive while there, so they let her out after a couple weeks.

Sure enough, she ended up back in the hospital last week (for attacking some desk clerk), and the court committed her to stay there for six months.

MY QUESTION IS: can AS (and its comorbids) become severe enough to get a person institutionalized? She was under a lot of stress [from the architecture school, and from being socially ostracized there] for three years straight, and afterwards she became really isolated. Are those the types of things that could land a person in the loony bin? If it's AS, do you think there's any hope she'll get over her delusions and back to her normal, neurotic self? No amount of reasoning with her seems to make any difference.

Thanks for reading; your comments are very much appreciated.

Governments have a slight tendency to want to institutionalize people simply for being schizoid(not taking part in society but merely living a hermit life), but I don't think any legislation allows for involuntary commitment simply based on that. It's pretty common on the spectrum to develop unusual ideas and a bit of magical thinking, but actual delusions or psychosis is still very rare. I don't think you really have to worry about it, if some psychiatrist suggests you'd need care, you can just decline it, but just to be safe you should probably avoid stressful situations if you think you might snap and present with some behaviour that might make them want to take you into custody.

Looking at the history of psychiatry, they're just too happy about coercing people into accepting treatment.

I've seen one study where they suggested people on the spectrum have an increased likelihood of having psychotic episodes, but that seems a bit inconclusive. Pondering the matter of psychosis, I've wondered if analyzing everything and actually trying to make sense out of all the false beliefs we're expected to assimilate in society, all the situations where we're expected to pretend something is something it isn't, makes you more prone to psychosis; Normal people just assimilate the beliefs without trying to make sense of them and keep their sanity that way, while people that actually seek the truth about matters might end up with a split mind, not having as clear a psychological foundation for what's real and what isn't. Us people on the spectrum often encounter quite a lot of negative reinforcement when presenting our own ideas, which might lead us to wonder what's true in anything we experience.

The subject of psychosis is still unexplored though, no one really knows just what genes, experiences or personality traits make one susceptible to psychosis, the best that can be offered is a vulnerability-stress model, where it's accepted that some people have a constitutional make-up that make them more prone to have these episodes, which are triggered when experiencing stress.

I don't think it would be the end of the world having a psychotic episode though, just make sure you retain your legal status and reject any notion of you having to take medication for life. Most psychiatric studies suggest that the best way to treat even schizoprenias that make you prone to repeated psychotic episodes is to take medication only during the actual episodes and ween the patient off it completely when it's under control, only resuming if/when another episode appears. Big pharma wants to maximize drug sales and keep people medicated non-stop on the other hand, which is detrimental to the patient's ability to function and the possibility to keep psychosis at bay on the long term, some patients end up with treatment-resistant psychosis which can only be treated with the very dangerous drug Clozapine.

I was 'threatened' with hospitalisation by a GP who couldn't understand why my depression was not responding to treatment and had a psychiatrist and psych nurse sent to my house by another GP, I think they were intending to commit me based on GP account but didn't. I visited a friend in a psych ward once and the shock of it made me determined to do all I could to stay out of there!

I'm an aspie and have been institutionalized once three years ago for clinical depression with suicidal tendencies. I stayed only 2 weeks at the hospital, and received medication for about a year after that. My depressive episode was in great part linked with AS (even thought I did not receive the AS diagnostic back then) mostly caused by the feeling that I did not belong.

Speaking from my own personnal experience, I would say that aspies are more likely to be institutionalized than the average person due to the stress they can be exposed to, but I believe this is far from being something that happens to them in general. No one is immune from having psychotic episodes, and I wouldnt think a psychotic aspie is in a worse situation than a "normal" psychotic person.

Now for your friend, I dont want to give you false hopes, but for having been institutionalized myself and met with other psychotic persons (I kept in touch with some of them, none of which are diagnosed with AS), I tend to believe that you recover from those episodes... thats why they actually are called episodes. Mental institutions frighten people in general (mostly because they're not too aware of what they actually are) as they think that most patients are profoundly troubled and permently confined there, but based on who I lived with during the 2 weeks I stayed there, I can say that most patients are actually sane persons that are just not living the best chapter of their personnal life.

So you really shouldnt look at your friend being institutionalized as some kind of fatality. Mental diseases are diseases like any other, and you recover from most of them.

recover? shrug. just like everyone gets cured of life after 80 years give or take?

either way it is very awful to be locked in a cage with no power or control, as you should know if you spent 2 weeks in a hospital, but maybe you are a just human. or just a human?

and as to the original question- some states have slightly diff rules/criteria, but the basic rule of thumb is that if a person is "a danger to themselves or others" they can be locked up. so... if someone admits to being suicidal or homo-(sapien)-cidal, they can cage you. if the person DENYS this, there is supposed to be some evidence and a hearing that they are lying before someone can cage them.

Anxiety can be severe enough from AS/AD [due to living in a society we don't really understand] that it'll cause psychotic episodes in individuals without a psychotic disorder, and lead to hospitalization or institutionalization if one becomes violent to others and/or suicidal (or they simply need a break from society).

Extreme anxiety can also make someone "delusional" as they seek out reasons for why they're feeling such anxiety and discomfort due to not understanding simple facial expressions and any other mannerisms we cannot understand, i.e., people might harm me if I go near them.

Strangers, all of us.

if am remember correctly,in uk,aspergans are allowed to be sectioned based on their aspie behaviors and difficulties,even if they haven't done anything bad.

mental wards and hospitals are not good unless the person is in severe need of being kept there-such as an almost certain risk to the persons life,am cannot understand this enough to know whether it would be likely,or if her problem is very severe,if it is not-is there definitely no way this ruling can be changed and she be dealt with in her own home,where she is no doubt-used to,and by visiting pysch. nurses and pyschs.
am think community help would be better for many,because it doesn't mess about with a person as much as making them go into a hospital full of people they don't know,maybe screaming etc,being forced to take meds..

I hear you; I "slept" with one eye open for three weeks during my stay, I only slept when my mother came to visit me during the days, i.e., she had my back.

I was locked up for 10 months in a maximum security prison for boys at age 14. I spent two weeks in a state mental institution when I was 17.

Just recently, I stayed a week in the same mental hospital and the next week went to another hospital and stayed in the depressive wing for another week. I am 38 years old now and have diabetes type 2.

I went to the mental institution and wandered around the facilities until I found the admissions. I told them I thought I was Asperger's and just dumped a chunk of repressed memory and I am having to re-order the memories with the new relevant information sequencially. That got me the stay in the ASPie wing until my insurance kicked me out because I wasn't a danger to myself or others.

I haven't been institutionalized, but I went through some serious therapy at age 2-4, and again at 16-18...

i think the general empahsis in america is not to institutionalize anyone. i knew a couple of schizophrenics that lived in apartments runned by the institution though.. its gotta be UGLY for someone to be hospitalized longterm im shure

When she attacked the hotel desk clerk, she (and her stepdad) were on their way from Oregon to Missouri, where she's from. He was helping her move (with her two big dogs), because she got evicted from her house in Oregon (unpaid rent). So now, she's somewhere in Eastern Oregon, instead of in Missouri where (had she been institutionalized there) she would have had her mom and sisters around to visit her and advocate for her.

Six months seems like a very long time. Especially when you can't see your dogs and have no friends and family around to visit you. And she's not Dx'd with any "disability" other than "crazy," so I don't even know whether she's able to use the services of the disability advocacy organization here in Oregon. At the least, it seems like they should consider allowing her to transfer to Missouri.

I dont know if all mental institutions are the same in north america (probably not), but I must say that I was pretty satisfied with the services I received there during my 2 weeks of stay here in Canada ; not that it was a "fun" experience, but I did see some benefits. Few people were actually locked-up, as some people seem to imagine (only those who were highly unpredictable or psychotic), and everyone was treated with dignity... every patient was evaluated individually, and the doctors would decide what level of freedom was accorded to you.

For myself, I went there willingly because I had suicidal ideas and even thought I already had consulted a doctor who recommended me some pills, the medication didnt seem to have much effect and my condition was worsening everyday. I wasnt on the verge of commiting suicide, but suicidal ideas consumed the majority of my days to the point where I was profoundly disfonctional and was a huge burden for my mother (who was scared s**tless about condition). So I basically "risked it all" and asked for help at the hospital.

Since I was cooperative with the doctors (I showed motivation about getting my condition better), they considered I might be accorded a decent level of freedom. Of course there's always someone watching you, but I was free to walk around in the wing I was staying, interact with other patients, watch TV or listen to music in the community room. They were also puzzles and cards I could play with, and 2 times a day a security guard accompanied those willing to take a walk outside to get some fresh air. There was even a pool table in the basement of the institute I could play with if I asked the permission.

As stated above, I was pretty surprised with the level of dignity patients were treated with during my stay. If the only knowledge you have about mental insititutes is what movies or television showed you, chances are you have no idea what they really are like. Most patients need a calm and positive environment to recover. A depressive person wouldnt get any better if the institute was some kind of prison with walls painted in gray and no freedom allowed, and a bipoalar person in his manic phase wouldnt really settle down if he stayed in a chaotic, turbulent or noisy environment.

This is the irony, and the worry, indeed.

Add me to the list. Ninety days confinement for initial examination and then 18 months of treatment after that. Note that this wasn't treatment for AS, I really was crazy and the lockup was for both my benefit and the wellbeing of others.

Ed Almos

The very idea of institutionalizing an Aspie sounds like it'd have negative effects on it's own....