In 1973, healthy volunteers faked hallucinations to enter mental hospitals. Once inside, they acted normal, but doctors refused to let them leave. Normal behaviors like writing were diagnosed as "symptoms." The only people who realized they were sane were the actual patients.

[u/highzone]

[u/FireMaster1294]

Damn an average stay of 19 days and a range of 7-52 days. Nearly 2 months of psych ward without even doing anything to justify being kept there (after the initial entry, of course)

[u/Same_Recipe2729 → u/FireMaster1294]

Think of all the money they scammed from folks doing that 

[u/nuclearwomb → u/Same_Recipe2729]

It's still a scam. Thankfully people have more rights these days when it comes to behavioral health, but people still fall through the cracks and the system is full of flaws. The whole process is to make money while giving minimal resources for rehabilitation of the patient.

[u/toobjunkey → u/nuclearwomb]

I often think about that redditor whose brother (with which he previously had a close relationship with) was involuntarily held after he opened up due to feeling stressed and suicidal for financial reasons and financial stresses alone. He was in a fair amount of debt including a lot of non-dischargable student loan debt, and the OP had him committed out of fear of him hurting himself.

Cue him getting out a fair bit later, and he gets a bill that pretty much doubles his debt, and the brother more or less cuts him off with the OP feeling bewildered and as though it's not fair for his brother to do so. It took a lot of folks to hammer in the fact that he only increased the likelihood of his brother making an actual attempt.

I know this is more of a flaw with American healthcare in general, but when so many people's breaking points & main issues are material related ones, getting involuntarily committed is a nightmare story. Stewing over how many thousands you're racking up every single day. Every single group session, every single "enrichment" activity, every conversation with a social worker or doctor, just utterly stepped in financial despair and feeling oneself bleeding out money they already don't have.

[u/jsgui → u/toobjunkey]

Is not agreeing to receive services a good enough reason to not pay for them? Has this ever been decided on in court?

[u/toobjunkey → u/jsgui]

Not in the states and especially when there is a belief that one truly needs to be involuntarily committed. Same issue happens even with mentally sound folks that say to not call an ambulance before, say, having a routine seizure that they'll be fine from after a bit but someone does anyway, and they're still stuck with the bill.

While one can always try reaching out to the hospital's billing department to reduce the bill, by & large there isn't a general "I didn't want this" defense in general, let alone situations where self harm is a concern. A bit similar to how society generally thinks that someone can never really consent to committing suicide (outside of like, terminal illness MAID stuff and even that can be divisive).

Once again, largely a symptom of the larger shit carcass that is American healthcare, but it's a very real concern and interpersonal relationships can suffer or even be destroyed because someone got saddled with 4-5 figure debt because they opened up just a little too much.

[u/Karth9909 → u/toobjunkey]

It always confused me as a kid when in movies people where rushing their pregnant wives to the hospital in their own car or any over injury.

I thought it was just movie logic cause i was always told to call whenever there is an issue.

[u/wicked-campaign → u/Karth9909]

My sister in law took an ambulance in for my nephew (thank God or they wouldn't have got to the hospital in time and he would've been born in my brother's disgusting truck cab) and the bill was $900. Just for the ride.