If someone were to stay in a hospital for anorexia, what is a typical day like? And if the patient didn’t want to eat would the doctors make them? And do you have to stay in bed the whole time?
If you are at a very very dangerously low weight you probably would have to stay in bed hooked to a feeding tube. They don’t put everyone on feeding tubes, only if they are at serious risk of death.
If you are so thin your heart may be damaged you have to stay in bed to avoid giving yourself a heart attack, but as you gain weight and get stronger you are allowed more freedom.
Usually it’s really boring. There isn’t much to do and you are monitored really carefully around meal times. You end up bonding really closely with all of the other patients. Most of the time you just watch TV, read, talk or smoke. There is not much else to do. Sometimes you are allowed to exercise or play physical games but they are monitored and controlled by staff.
They won’t force feed you if you don’t eat but they will punish you by not letting you leave the table etc. If you are really stubborn and refuse to eat they will make you have a feeding tube.
At first they don’t make you eat at all, they just give you high calorie shakes to drink, but gradually they introduce real food into your diet.
You get weighed a couple of times a week, usually very early in the morning. They do loads of other tests too to test your circulation.
You have therapy and/or counselling almost every day. Sometimes this is in groups and sometimes it is individual. They try to get you to look at everything from a different perspective.
If you need any more info let me know.
It depends if you are in there because you are physically sick from not eating, or if you are there for counceling and stuff like that.
References :
If you are at a very very dangerously low weight you probably would have to stay in bed hooked to a feeding tube. They don’t put everyone on feeding tubes, only if they are at serious risk of death.
If you are so thin your heart may be damaged you have to stay in bed to avoid giving yourself a heart attack, but as you gain weight and get stronger you are allowed more freedom.
Usually it’s really boring. There isn’t much to do and you are monitored really carefully around meal times. You end up bonding really closely with all of the other patients. Most of the time you just watch TV, read, talk or smoke. There is not much else to do. Sometimes you are allowed to exercise or play physical games but they are monitored and controlled by staff.
They won’t force feed you if you don’t eat but they will punish you by not letting you leave the table etc. If you are really stubborn and refuse to eat they will make you have a feeding tube.
At first they don’t make you eat at all, they just give you high calorie shakes to drink, but gradually they introduce real food into your diet.
You get weighed a couple of times a week, usually very early in the morning. They do loads of other tests too to test your circulation.
You have therapy and/or counselling almost every day. Sometimes this is in groups and sometimes it is individual. They try to get you to look at everything from a different perspective.
If you need any more info let me know.
References :
inpatient on and off for years
It is the worst thing ever. The hospital that i stayed at was didn’t have eating disorder unit, i was out in a single unit. It was horrible.
When you first enter, they don’t feed you real food but after awhile they start too.
Every morning they wake you up at 5:30 to take ur weight and vitals. Then at 8:30 its breakfast and the day resets upon meal time.If you don’t eat it then you get a shake and if you don’t take that thens it a feeding tube.
If your heart is bad you will be put on bed rest for aslong as it takes. I was on bed rest for two weeks because my heart when down to 30 beat per minute. Then once it got better you can walk around alittle but mostly u are sitting all day.You can not use the totliet by ur self or take showers by ur self. You will be lucky to even have a shower for awhile. They watch u every time u eat or take medication.
You have priveleges so like if ur weight goes up you can watch tv or if you eat all ur meals u can use the phone.
Basically my experiences with hospitals were horrible but other people have good experiences. Depends where you go!
Any questions, u can e-mail me.
References :
patient of several hospitalizations