Mental Hospital
By: Shy Na
Tags: Third Person, Mental Health Awareness, Short Story, Suicide Prevention, Self Harm

Mental Hospital

This is a short story that I wrote a bit ago. It's about a girl who attempts to kill herself and gets sent to a mental hospital. It documents her experience in the third person. She isn't acknowledged at all in her name. Shy NA Dec 18, 2020·4 min read

#TRIGGER WARNING#

CONTAINS SUICIDE, SELF HARM, AND MENTAL HOSPITAL. DONT READ IF ANY OF THAT TRIGGERS YOU IN ANY WAY.

There was blood in the sink and all over the floor. It wouldn’t stop she just kept bleeding and bleeding it oozing out of her everywhere. The knife lay on the counter covered in the sticky red gooey substance. She had stained the towels a permanent dark maroon color. She felt light-headed and about to pass out. Her dad and mom are trying to break down the locked door to get to her. She’s getting fuzzy now she has to sit down to stop from falling over. Her dad breaks the door and bursts in with her mom behind him. He’s wielding an axe which he used to break down the door. He’s talking to her but she’s not responding, she’s in a daze. She lost even more blood on the way to the hospital. They tried to stop it but it kept on flowing right out her body, wanting a taste of the fresh air.

Its 2 hours after “The Incident” and they’re already enrolling her in a mental hospital. They said It’s for her best they are sorry but she has to go. She cried and begged but she was powerless, it was set in stone. She was leaving in a week for Emerald Mental Hospital.

They greeted her at the hospital with a nice strip search. They then proceeded to give her some cut up jello as a welcoming present. She didn’t eat the jello she just stared at it. They all awkwardly turned away and started to walk to her new room. The man pushing her required wheelchair started to follow them. She dropped the jello cup on the floor. They walked down the hall to her room on the left. There were bars on the window of the door.

They all took a step back to allow her in the room first. She walked into the room with no expression on her face at all. As she looked around the room all she saw was white. Zero colorful things. The bed was white even the carpet was white. There were no cords in the room. She looked at the single window in the room. Even that one window had bars on it.

She didn’t really want to hurt herself. She just wanted to relieve the pain and darkness inside her. Sometimes she feels she doesn’t have a choice she just automatically does it. She would normally do it in her room but her sister was home so she went to the bathroom. “Bad Idea” never rang in her head. It should have, she wishes it would have.

They want to keep her here even longer, but she hopes they don’t. She’s being extra good so she can leave. This place doesn’t actually help her. It makes her want to die even more than before. At least the nurses are somewhat nice. They come in every hour day or night to check on her. It’s most annoying when she is sleeping. They turn on a flashlight and scan the room to see where she is. Sometimes she will sleep in weird places to confuse them. One time she slept on the windowsill it took the nurses 5 minutes to find her.

They might let her go tomorrow. They say she has a steady job waiting for her. Along with a steady place to stay. She says to not call it home so I will obey her wishes. They have made a goodbye dinner for her. It is not the usual mashed foods that you can’t choke on. They have made her a feast. Some corn, mashed potatoes, and a whole chicken to herself. She doesn’t really want to eat the food but she will so they don’t think something is wrong with her. All she really wants to do is leave this horrendous place.

She wakes up to find her best friend there waiting with a miniature ice cream cake. She looks at the cake and it makes her want to puke from all the calories in it. She smiles though and asks what her friend is doing here. Apparently, she is here to take her home which means she is free. This time she jumps up and down with excitement. She doesn’t care about any of the things she brought here because they threw those away. She asks her friend when she can leave but before she finishes a nurse walks in. The Nurse looks at her and smiles. She hands her a jacket and guides her out to the front desk.

When they get there the lady looks up her name. She says she can’t find you being released so you start to panic. Your breathing starts to become more jagged and sparse. You struggle to keep your balance. All of a sudden she says that your good to go. She overlooked your name on the list. She can walk out the door a free woman. She just hopes she can keep up the act and she will never have to go back. What will happen if she can’t? If she does relapse, and if she doesn’t kill herself what will happen.