There appears to be vague standardization in mental health facilities in New York State.

StonyBrook CPEP is the guardians’ gate to The Pit, where you are raffled off to the highest bidder with an open bed, beginning the assembly line of cash production for healthcare companies and such. I can not say much about my stay there. It was my first; they diagnosed me with COVID-19, and I was given lethal doses of a substance that I am highly allergic to. Let’s just say it was not a dream. No one wants to stay there long. I am lucky to have left.

My second detention was just a few days after my first. Once again, through the Pit, I won the lottery this time but would not realize it till much later. Stonybrook Long Island Psychiatric Hospital (Greenpoint). Humane, compassionate staff. Daily meeting with your doctor. My team set up a mock courtroom lineup daily and hammered me with questions. They were training me to speak for myself in court. It was so rough. The first time I broke down at the word swimming. There were 3-5 each time. The one who was always there that I feared the most was a large black male social worker. Eye contact. If I dropped my glance for a second while speaking. He caught it—every time.

We enjoyed eating together. The food was good. We had coffee breaks and a craft room- amenities included each our notebook, crayons, markers, scissors (while supervised), playing cards, a TV that we thoroughly enjoyed even though we couldn’t hear it through the bulletproof glass casement, pillowcases of ice for my mangled hand (weight alone seemed to make it bit more dangerous than a plastic bag of ice) and the coveted shared iPad. One lovely nurse snuck it to me each night so I could listen to brown noise to help me sleep. I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody. Everyone knew no one said anything. On a massive amount of tranquilizers and antipsychotics, I did not sleep more than three hours a night until my second to last night when they started me back on my actual medication, Adderall.

Fast forward five months & several Well-Visits from EHPD for naught.

I did not get so lucky this time in The Pit, Brunswick Psychiatric Hospital. Hell on earth. Precisely like you picture it in the movies.