imsietze
03-06-08, 03:27 AM
I wonder if any of you have had a 5150 hold experience? I live in Los Angeles and I am not familiar with how wide spread such an "insane" law (as practiced in this county) has been propagated. I had never imagined that such a statute could exist in "the land of the free". But there I was facing the over-powering presence of all those people so concerned with my welfare that they were driven to reach out and help me. I just wanted to be left alone and find my way back from another episode of the disabling co-morbid depression I suffer from now.
If you are not familiar with what a 5150 hold is perhaps you heard the news when Brittaney Spears was hauled off to the psyche ward recently. The law was made to protect the mentally disturbed from themselves and everyone else from them. It says that if in the opinion of an authority; when called upon by a concerned citizen; can restrain the deranged one for a psychological evaluation by a psychiatrist and held for up to seventy-two hours in the hospital psychiatric ward if the shrink thinks it is merited by the displayed deviant behavior in order to protect them from themselves (in case of suicide) and to protect the public (in case of homicide). Well, in a case of he-said, she-said bulls#*t I found myself in such a predicament.
I suppose I instigated it by a display of my nihilistic rantings about the relieve that I find in inevitable release from pain I find in blessed death. Anyhow that bit of sarcasm got passed around until it reached someone who wanted to help. They called some civil servant to find someone else to look in on me and help. That set the bureaucratic machinery in motion with the outpouring of a countless legion of people whose only desire was to help me!
I will spare you the long version with the cops, Glauks, handcuffs, invasion of my home, stolen property, loss of Constitutional rights, humiliation, stress, rage and the necessary quick release from restraint after a brief evaluation by the psychiatrist. I am not harmful to myself or anyone else.
I was home alone staring at the ceiling with the TV on just trying to be left alone and weather my internal storm.
Does this happen to you? The final insult was the bill for the psychiatric evaluation those helpers had to shackle me up and drag me to. What's up with this concept?
If you are not familiar with what a 5150 hold is perhaps you heard the news when Brittaney Spears was hauled off to the psyche ward recently. The law was made to protect the mentally disturbed from themselves and everyone else from them. It says that if in the opinion of an authority; when called upon by a concerned citizen; can restrain the deranged one for a psychological evaluation by a psychiatrist and held for up to seventy-two hours in the hospital psychiatric ward if the shrink thinks it is merited by the displayed deviant behavior in order to protect them from themselves (in case of suicide) and to protect the public (in case of homicide). Well, in a case of he-said, she-said bulls#*t I found myself in such a predicament.
I suppose I instigated it by a display of my nihilistic rantings about the relieve that I find in inevitable release from pain I find in blessed death. Anyhow that bit of sarcasm got passed around until it reached someone who wanted to help. They called some civil servant to find someone else to look in on me and help. That set the bureaucratic machinery in motion with the outpouring of a countless legion of people whose only desire was to help me!
I will spare you the long version with the cops, Glauks, handcuffs, invasion of my home, stolen property, loss of Constitutional rights, humiliation, stress, rage and the necessary quick release from restraint after a brief evaluation by the psychiatrist. I am not harmful to myself or anyone else.
I was home alone staring at the ceiling with the TV on just trying to be left alone and weather my internal storm.
Does this happen to you? The final insult was the bill for the psychiatric evaluation those helpers had to shackle me up and drag me to. What's up with this concept?