Testing Depression:
A journey through severe depression, hospitalization, and medication.

If this is your first time here, you might want to read in reverse order, from the beginning. "Testing Depression" is my true story about being hospitalized for depression.

A quick summary up to this point:

I arrived at the hospital in a police car. I was examined by the entry nurse, and then by a doctor on the unit. I met two nurses, Meg and Dorothy, and two other patients, Charlie and Louisa. I was on fifteen-minute checks. I struggled to remember the causes of my depression. My only medication at this point was Ortho-Tricyclen (birth control pills).

I called Paula, a friend who knew about my condition but whom I didn’t know too well. I had no choice because I was terrified to admit to my closer friends that I had ended up in a psychiatric hospital, and because I thought that I had already worried them too much.

Paula immediately agreed to bring me some clothes from my apartment. I was lucky to have left my apartment unlocked. I had left in such a hurry that I thought (wrongly) that I would be back there soon anyway.

She asked if it would be alright for her to come to the hospital with a mutual friend, Glenda. I was hesitant to let others know my secret, but the same time I knew that I was desperate for help. I agreed, and she promised that they would visit the following day.

I went back to my room, embarrassed and depressed.