Mad in America

JULY 19, 2024

D uring my first psychiatric hospitalization in 1998, I was strapped down, placed in 4-point restraints, and administered a painful catheter—apparently because I had peed on the floor during the course of my psychotic episode. Captivity By my count (with an assist from my mother) I’ve had 12 psychiatric hospitalizations in my life.

Hospitality 120

Hospitality Self-awareness Sleep and mental health Bipolar disorder 120

Mad in America

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Between hospitalizations, I bounced between my biological family until I ultimately became a ward of the state at about age twelve. But in March 2001, things went sideways and I heard the growl of the beast, felt its shadow eclipsing me once again. No more hospitalizations, no more being a ward of the state? Wait, what?

Hospitality 122

Hospitality Legal Social Services 122

Mad in America

DECEMBER 1, 2023

The whole of my family had suffered horrendously during the seven years from 1994, when I was repeatedly hospitalized as a psychiatric patient, drugged, and given ECT. As a last resort, I underwent experimental psychosurgery in September 2001 (bilateral anterior cingulotomy). Our children were furious.

Hospitality 145

Hospitality Trauma and the brain Personality disorders Pharmaceuticals 145

Mad in America

OCTOBER 13, 2023

However, more than 20 years later, I stumbled upon that very diagnosis in my patient record, documented during my stay at the nation’s first eating disorders inpatient clinic from the end of 2001 to March of 2002. In 2001, my life was already ensnared by worsening eating disorders, relentless depression, and self-inflicted wounds.

Eating disorders 112

Eating disorders Bipolar disorder Self-awareness Personality disorders 112

Mad in America

MAY 30, 2024

The introduction of the health enterprise model in 2001 gave economists and bureaucrats the mandate to override health professionals’ arguments from a cost/benefit perspective, which effectively transforms health personnel from professional service actors to gatekeepers for resources and rights.

Sleep and mental health 127

Sleep and mental health Construction Healthcare Self-awareness 127

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

‘C hairman Mao’ greeted me gently from the back of a small Chinese ‘bread van’, a simple but practical vehicle found all over China in June 2001. The struggles to avoid being taken into the hospital, thinking I was being quietly executed. What followed, I leave to your imagination. It was so difficult for all involved.

Trauma and the brain 103

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Education 103

Mad in America

AUGUST 30, 2024

During that deployment, my mother passed away in 2001. I spent the next three months in and out of partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs for substance use and post-traumatic stress. I thrived in this new structured environment, motivated by a desire to serve my country.

Insurance 109

Insurance Hospitality 109