1,337 Comments for Middletown State Hospital

@Tony C. I love your explanation the best! : ))

@Motts. Sob! : (( I miss seeing stairs in this stairwell. How strange that they're gone and the safety cage is still there!

I find it kinda strange that they 'painted' the Room #8 on the door. Maybe it's because the patients kept removing the wooden or prefab #8 from this door, and the wooden or prefab numbers from the other doors, too. Just a thought.

@autoguy & minktail. Yep! I agree! I have some older siblings I'd like to use these on. : D

I've never thought of a straitjacket as a fun toy or novelty item like some of the commenters here. I've never had the experience of being put in one. However, those who usually end up in a straitjacket are usually more terrified than angry. They mistakenly believe, because of their mental illness, that other people are out to harm or kill them. Therefore, they get it in their heads that a good offense is their best defense. In other words, they think to themselves if they strike those who are out to get them first, they'll be safe. The specific mental illness I'm referring to is paranoid schizophrenia.

Looks like there might be 2 or 3 end tables and a dirty laundry basket there in the mix. Can't say for sure about the other stuff.

I was wondering if the cubicles were for art supplies or for patients to store their individual art projects in?

I really like the window...not much else.

Boy! I bet that room smelled great! Aacck!!! : ))

I agree with N! I don't think this lone chair is all that lonely down here. : )

It looks like it has been dug up out of the ground.

Wow! It looks more like the basement of an old abandoned funeral home.

You can buy cheaply manufactured pseudo jackets from Hot Topic, Halloween Stores, and/or some adult shops. Their made out of a very thin canvas though and use only D rings and nylon strap. More or less for costuming and what not. Tripp NYC also makes "straitjackets" too but they're more or less their bondage pants in jacket form. Used more for alternative fashion though than a restraint tool.

It's just the fact that Posey stuff does not end up being used in the wrong hands. There for you need the prescription.

Mica, in the days when this psychiatric hospital was in use about the only problem that the care helped was stress. The more serious disorders were years away from having any real treatment. And now most of it is better living through chemistry. Sad to think that the only treatment some of the mental patients received was being locked up away from everyone they knew and left there for many, many years. The only hope being that the patient would spontaneously heal. Society and Medicine had no better solution.

In my 36+ years of working as an RN I never saw one of these. Even when I worked in the ER the restraint of last resort was full leathers. Basically leather cuffs around the wrists and ankles that then were fixed to the cart. The only way to apply these is to have a large group of people restraining the patient. Usually one for each extremity, the head, and the upper legs. Now the rules on using restraints are designed to not allow medical staff to apply them. Chemical restraint is more popular now, but not used as much as in the past. I saw a guy that was restrained with leathers to an ER cart almost flip the cart over with his manic movements. Also saw a guy try to choke the Doc with the phone cord. ER medicine is a whole different world. Posey also makes a restraint that is sleeveless and secures in the back and has straps that can be tied to the bed frame. We used these a lot in the "old" days. Haven't seen those in years.

"It is a terrible and frightening thing to be betrayed by your own brain." Jane, Lynne, Lyric. (from previous page) Good stuff. Anyone brokenhearted and lonely could have been so due to meds not having kicked in yet, trust me. The scariest place is in one's own mind.