Conditions That Can Land You In The Psych Ward

In the past, hospitals designed to treat the mentally ill ranged in their care and admittance of who would be treated within their walls. Individuals with conditions ranging from mild mental delay to severe mental illness with violent tendencies could be found rooming and sharing a ward together. There was even a point when husbands could commit their wives if they weren't "behaving." Modern facilities and psych wards are far more discerning about which conditions will require an individual to be committed. Here are a few conditions that have the possibility of landing you in a psych ward.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects the way a person feels and thinks. This disorder appears to be the mental disorder of choice when it comes to illustrating mental illness in movies and other media, as the disease is not as common as some of the other disorders. Most individuals who have schizophrenia will begin exhibiting symptoms in late adolescence, but some individuals do not show any signs until they're adults. There have been some very rare cases of incredibly early-onset schizophrenia in children as young as thirteen years old.

The most notable characteristic or symptom of the disorder is hallucinations. These hallucinations can be auditory or visual. Other common symptoms are delusions, a decrease in the ability to speak, and a reduced ability to express emotion either through vocal tone or facial movements. While individuals who have family members with the disorder are more at risk to develop this condition, a person can develop the disease without having a family member with it. Treatment varies depending on the severity, however, inpatient stays are common when a patient experiences a break or episode.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness in which an individual's mood cycles between extreme depression and mania. Mania is categorized as a happy and energized feeling, while feelings of sadness and hopelessness characterize depression. There are four types of bipolar disorder classifications: Bipolar I is when the mania cycle lasts seven days or more followed by depression for two weeks. Bipolar II is numerous circulations between hypomania and depression. Cyclothymic is periods of hypomania and depression that lasts for at least two years, but symptoms don't meet requirements for hypomania and depression. Unspecified bipolar disorder is when symptoms do not fit within the other three diagnostic categories as mentioned above.

Common symptoms are feelings of elation, increased activity levels, trouble sleeping, delusions of grandeur and engaging in risky behavior during the manic cycle. Patients can then experience an episode of feeling down, having very little energy, feeling worried and anxious, and thinking about death and suicide during the depression cycle. Treatment varies, but those with bipolar disorder will need to seek inpatient care at the manic and depressive levels depending on the severity of their symptoms.

Clinical Depression

Clinical depression is sometimes called major depressive disorder and is one of the more common mental illnesses. Symptoms are severe and persistent, lasting for at least two weeks, but typically extend beyond this time. Symptoms of depression include persistent sadness, irritability, hopelessness, decreased energy and fatigue, and difficulty sleeping and concentrating. People can experience clinical depression in response to a major event in their life, such as after the birth of a baby, known as postpartum, or in response to the change in seasons, such as seasonal affective disorder or SAD.

Some individuals will experience depression that lasts for two years or more, known as dysthymia, cycling between severe and less severe symptoms. Still, others may experience depression with co-occurring symptoms of psychosis (psychotic) including delusions and hallucinations. Each of these categories can lead to an inpatient stay if the symptoms become so severe that they interfere with a person's daily life, or the person is evaluated as being a danger to themselves, as in they're suicidal, or others, as they have become homicidal.

Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder is characterized by an individual's distortion of self, fluctuation in moods and erratic behavior. Individuals with this disorder may have poor impulse control and quickly cycle between feelings of extreme elation to feelings of depression and extreme anger. Patients with this disorder tend to behave erratically or in such a way that there is no middle ground. Their goals and ideas change rapidly. Many will enter into new relationships, whether romantic or friendships with intensity, but will end the relationship quickly to stave off their feelings of being abandoned. They may also engage in behavior that is reckless and impulsive, such as unsafe sex with multiple partners, binge eating, and drug abuse. Additional symptoms of borderline personality disorder are an inability to trust others, dissociative feelings, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and difficulty controlling anger. Individuals with this disorder may warrant a psych ward stay if they begin to exhibit signs of not being able to control their anger or impulses, leading staff to believe they are a danger to themselves or others.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) was once known as multiple personality disorder. It is considered a response to trauma. Individuals with this disorder have fragmented aspects of their personality, which in turn become two or more distinct personas, which essentially "take over" or control the original personality. It is believed that this fragmentation is designed to protect the individual's conscience from an extremely traumatic event. Other symptoms of dissociative identity disorder include memory loss, change in behavior to include speech pattern and accent, and changes in the sense of self, cognition and motor function. Individuals with this disorder may find themselves in distress due to the memory loss or gaps in time in which one of the alter personalities have taken over. The gaps in memory are different from ordinary forgetfulness and can include forgetting people and places. Treatment for DID involves long-term psychotherapy, but there may be instances in which an individual will need inpatient services. This may happen if an alter personality that is self-destructive takes over the individual's primary personality for an extended amount of time.