{"id":67,"date":"2011-01-10T00:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/?page_id=67"},"modified":"2024-07-23T09:26:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T14:26:51","slug":"elgin-state-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/2011\/01\/10\/elgin-state-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Elgin State Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>ISPI was a short-term facility. I hadn\u2019t improved after four months, so I was sent to Elgin State Hospital. There was no limit here on how long you might be confined. Some patients had been here for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Two staff members drove me there, packing me between them in the front seat of the van. It was a long ride \u2013 an hour or more. The scenery changed from urban to rural.<br>Finally we topped a hill; I saw the hospital down below. It was a large building, with a central section and two wings. My heart sank. It looked like a Victorian madhouse \u2013 grim windows, wrought-iron bars in curlicue patterns, domes, dull brick walls\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Elgin_State_Hospital_01-300x188.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Elgin_State_Hospital_01-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Elgin_State_Hospital_01-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Elgin_State_Hospital_01-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Elgin_State_Hospital_01.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Elgin State Hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Elgin was an old hospital, built in the 19th Century. The main building had been a Victorian madhouse, though it was no longer used. Patients were put into smaller, more modern buildings scattered around the grounds. Conditions were drab, but comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The intake psychiatrist saw me that evening. He was bald with a beard that made him look like Ming the Merciless. His voice and face showed absolutely no emotion \u2013 no interest, no hostility, nothing. He was scary. I was terrified of him. I was afraid he\u2019d have me put into restraints or lobotomized or something. Instead, he put me with the general population. I fervently hoped I\u2019d never have to meet him again.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" src=\"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Ming_the_Merciless-300x209.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Ming_the_Merciless-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/dark-night.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Ming_the_Merciless.png 431w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ming the Merciless<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>My time at Elgin was uneventful. Because I was a quiet patient who didn\u2019t make trouble for the staff, I was permitted to roam the grounds. This felt wonderful, considering the alternative was to be confined in the dreary rooms of the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I met several of the patients, some of whom had been there for many years. I wondered what was so bad about them that they had to be confined. They seemed OK to me. Why were they still here? I worried that I might be kept for years. I couldn\u2019t see much difference between them and me. Maybe I\u2019d be kept there indefinitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I spent much of my time at Elgin trying to convince the staff that it would be OK to discharge me. I really didn\u2019t want to become a lifer. After two more months, I was finally discharged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Altogether I\u2019d spent six months in State hospitals. It was only the beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISPI was a short-term facility. I hadn\u2019t improved after four months, so I was sent to Elgin State Hospital. There was no limit here on how long you might be confined. Some patients had been here for decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dark-night.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}