Section 12 Involuntary Rights

Location: Massachusetts

Okay so I was involuntarily put on psych hold for about 5 hours today. The cops were at my house because I called them due to the fact that my dad was saying manipulative things to me and I felt unsafe. While I was arguing with my dad, I said out of frustration and upset that I was going to commit. The police were informed of this and put me on a Section 12, when the only reason I reached out to them was to get help from my father and his abuse, there were no meaning behind my words of self harm. I tried to explain this to the police and even tried to show them I was calming down from the argument by using a breathing technique which significantly calmed me down, until they informed me that the ambulance was already at my house. They proceeded to strap me into a stretcher after calmly asking if I could sit upright in the ambulance as I was completely fine. They refused and took me to the emergency room. Hospitals are my biggest trauma trigger and even stepping foot inside to visit someone usually sends me into a full blown panic attack, so I admit I was a little rude with the staff because I was so angry and confused in the moment, which I later apologized for. I am then put into a room, I kept asking why I was being sent here and when I would find out that I could go home, every person I asked claimed that they did not have the authority to tell me that, after the police themselves said I would probably be discharged tonight if I “complied” which made no sense because they were the ones forcing me to be held there? Then the hospital security and nurse took my phone, clothes and tried to take away my stuffed animal, which was the only thing keeping me even slightly okay; security also sat down and watched TikTok on their phone in front of me while I was in distress. Anyway, for the entire time I sat cross legged on the edge of the bed staring at the wall waiting for these people to evaluate me and have conversations as I was told by the police. The nurse took my vitals and said a doctor would be coming in soon, more like 2 hours later. The doctor spoke to me for 1 minute max and then said a social worker would be coming by to ask the same questions I answered from her. I had to practically beg security to even locate this social worker who barely spoke English (I have nothing against her, but when you’re in that state of panic and distress, poor communication does not make it easier). I asked her why I was still here since basically no one had interacted with me and when I could go home, to which she said I would need to wait at least 2 more hours to know. Throughout this time I hear severely mentally ill people harming themselves in their rooms nearby and yelling scary things, which made me start sobbing even more. I tried to tell security I was scared and triggered and they practically laughed at me and said nothing. Finally, the social worker who I was having trouble communicating with handed me her phone with a different clinician on Facetime, who evaluated my emotions and deemed that I was safe and okay to go home as long as my mom agreed when she called her. I am 18 years old btw, don’t know why my mom would even be involved in this? So now after the most traumatizing day of my life, being watched by people who made me feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe, I have to answer a social worker’s calls for 3 days unless I want this to repeat itself. Everyone who was working today in the emergency psych unit at Framingham Union Hospital are unprofessional and rude in my strong opinion, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget about the emotional pain they caused me today with their negligence.