Maria B - My Hospital Experience

In 1994 I was admitted into a specialised Hospital in Dublin. There I spent 3 month in a psychiatric ward.

I was placed on an eating disorders program which basically consisted of a very high emphasis on weight gain and an extremely low emphasis on mental and emotional well-being. I brief, the approach involved weekly weighing where weight loss or stability was considered a failure, and weight gain, a success. Following the result of the weigh-in, a series of concessions were either given or removed depending on how ‘well’ you had done. We all soon learned that the quicker we put on weight, the quicker we could ‘escape’.

The huge emphasis on the physical symptoms and rapid weight gain was devastating mentally. Feeling of isolation, fear, loneliness, misunderstood, anger, detachment, etc…., deepened immensely. I felt completely lost and bewildered and totally unprepared when I was eventually discharged.

I can say without a doubt that my hospital experience was extremely unhelpful, if not damaging, to my recovery as whole.

When I was discharged, my health and my emotional and mental state dramatically worsened rapidly once again. The follow-up out-patient care I received proved completely inadequate. At no point were the underlying issues of my eating distress tackled, only an approach dealing with the symptoms and ‘short-term fix’. This in my case and in my point of view is an extremely unsuccessful and quite detrimental approach, which can have damaging long-term effect on the sufferer. 

R. I. P.

Maria - you will be for ever  in our hearts and souls

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