Mental health is often ignored by most people and many brush it off thinking it as something that would just ‘pass’ with time. Unlike physical health, mental illness is not evidently visible or easy to detect and diagnose.
Most people who are mentally unstable might not even know it themselves or recognize the signs of it for a long period of time, making its diagnosis and treatment that much delayed. In a state of crisis or when a person seems to have an episode of psychiatric emergency, it is better to rush to a psychiatric hospital to seek emergency support and care.
But in what cases must a patient rush to a psychiatric hospital? What classifies as a psychiatric emergency? When is admission required for such patients in a psychiatric hospital? These are all subjective questions that can have multi-faceted answers.
Psychiatric Emergencies
A psychiatric emergency is a state where a patient needs immediate support and stabilization. A psychiatric emergency is unlike a medical emergency where the patient is clearly hurt and needs medical assistance.
In a psychiatric emergency, the patient may exhibit traits that are not normal and in fact harmful for themselves or the people that are in direct contact with them. This classifies as an emergency as such patients can be extremely dangerous and difficult to handle by normal people.
The signs and symptoms of someone undergoing a psychiatric emergency is mentioned below:
- State of Panic
A menat state where the patient is in constant panic for their life and is exhibiting signs of stress, panic, inhibition, and extreme fear can be very difficult to handle. This kind of a state can only be managed by trained psychiatrists and therefore, admission to a psychiatric hospital may be required. In most cases, they can be calmed down with medication and some therapeutic help.
- State of Delirium
A state of delirium can be difficult to guess or detect by others but in some cases, it can be quite apparent. Delirium can be a state of utter confusion, loss of stability and steady thinking, random and confused thoughts leading one to believe unrealistic things and have no idea about what or where they are.
In these situations, call a psychiatric hospital for help as they can assist in calming the patient down and provide medication to help clear thoughts. They might need to be admitted in such a scenario.
- Self harm or Suicidal
When a patient causes self-harm, inflicts life-threatening wounds on themselves, or has suicidal thoughts, call for help immediately as this may result in grievous danger for the patient. It is best to admit such patients in a psychiatric hospital as they need medical help to calm them down and therapeutic help to recover from such thoughts.
- Anger or Violence
Both, extreme anger and violence, are signs of a psychiatric emergency as the patient may knowingly or unknowingly cause harm to the people near them. It can become an issue especially if they have homicidal thoughts which can be hard to guess.
This is why patients such as these are advised to get admission to a psychiatric hospital so that they can be calmed down. Any homicidal thoughts can be detected and will be effectively treated with therapy and counseling.
These are some psychiatric emergencies in which a patient is advised to seek admission to a psychiatric hospital.