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A Day At The Asylum
Topic Started: Mar 5 2007, 12:43 PM (463 Views)
DrHeidi
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This past weekend I had the, shall I say, privilege, to visit the largest mental health institution in South Africa. Due to the expanse of the complex, it took me a good 20 minutes to find the correct ward. During my search, I passed buildings with sign boards like Chapel, Occupational Therapy, Laundry, Crematorium and Recreational Hall in front of them. There was even a derelict putt-putt course. I found myself smiling when I thought of how some patients might be able to play a game of putt-putt without a ball and putter.

I stopped in front of the obviously government-funded building which I was looking for, where I was 'greeted' by two elderly men, holding out their hands as if they were begging for money. They didn't say a word, but looked at me expectantly. I had the thought of giving them a 50c coin or two, but then visions of them swallowing and choking on the coins prompted me to just ignore them.

I wondered if they were allowed to walk the grounds freely; if not, then they surely escaped from one of the wards and my life could unknowingly have been in serious danger. Walking away from them, I could see in a building's window that they were still following me; very slowly, thank god.

I entered the building I had come there to visit and was immediately struck by the smell of urine; you know, the way it usually smells when you enter public toilets? I proceeded down a short hallway and turned right to Ward 2E. There weren't any official signs to direct me to the correct ward, but luckily someone had written in big black childlike letters on the wall in which direction Ward 2E would be found. I stood there for a moment, marveling at the extremely long hallway in front of me. It was so long that I seriously could not see the end of it. I loved the surreality.

Walking down the hallway, I noticed that every other window was severely cracked, exactly on the spots where you'd expect someone would smash their fists into them. I ran my fingers over the cracks and wondered who might have caused them and why. I quickly looked over my shoulder to where I had entered the building, half expecting to see the two elderly beggars behind me; but the hallway was empty. I proceeded to where a blue and white perspex sign indicated that I should turn right to Ward 2E.

Entering the ward, I saw a few disinterested nurses sit in front of a bolted-down television set, watching a day-time soap. There was something wrong with the television's colour, as everything on-screen appeared to be pink. Very pink. Then again, you never know with those kinds of shows and it could just have been part of another 'storyline'. One of the nurses showed some kind of attempt to ask me who I was and what I was doing there, but when she didn't react quickly enough, I just walked right past them. They didn't say a word.

The person I had come there to see, was not present at the time, so I decided to explore Ward 2E a little further. The ward consisted of eight two-bed bedrooms, a small dining room, nurses room, bathroom and toilet, doctor's room and a few unknown rooms to which the doors had been locked. I first inspected the dining room. It was clear the patients had just eaten, as the small table had seven plates on it. The food on six of the plates had not been touched, while it was clear that someone had eaten everything that was on the seventh plate; only some signs of a brown sauce remained in it.

Next to the table, I noticed a complaints book. Even from a distance, I could see that something had been written in it, with that day's date. Closer inspection revealed that the patients used the book on almost a daily basis; 'please we need salt', 'something other than eggs', 'fruit juice was sour', 'no spices', 'beans are hard'. I looked over to the plates again and saw that it contained beans, corn and peas. Nothing else.

Next to one of the bedrooms, a closed door had a sign on it which read "Doctor's Rooms, So Not Enter". The door was locked and apparently, the displayed time indicated that no doctors were present over weekends. This meant that patients with possibly serious mental disabilities were left under the sole supervision of blasé, soapie-watching nurses from Friday afternoons until early Monday mornings. Another locked door next to the doctor's room led to a small reading room.

Next I entered the bathroom, which was surprisingly clean, but smelled like a sheep farm. I could not see where the smell possibly came from, but a grating on the bathroom floor looked very suspicious. The toilet next door was less clean; it had no lid and some 'used' toilet paper was floating in the water. A nearly depleted roll of toilet paper was perched on an empty coke-case next to the toilet. At this point, my mood started to change towards melancholy, so I decided it would be best for me to leave.

I made my way to the ward exit, where I noticed some complaints forms on a small table next to where the nurses where still glued to the television screen. These forms indicated that a patient could lodge a complaint if they felt they were being abused by any of the staff. I found it strange that such forms would be placed next to the people you were supposed to accuse as your abusers.

Just before the ward exit (which I now noticed could be locked with a security gate), I saw that a door had been opened to a small courtyard. Stepping out into the courtyard, I saw some sun-damaged 1970's kitchen chairs, a very dead tree stump and a few flower pots which must have been painted many years ago, as only a few hints of blue paint still remained on them. Most of the flower pots were filled with cigarette butts. I sat on one of the chairs which looked the most capable of holding my underweight frame. As I looked at the bare ground, broken furniture, dull walls and broken flower pots, I wondered how anyone's mental state could find benefit in such depressing surroundings. With a sigh I shook my head and, after replacing a chair's seat that had fallen to the ground, I left the courtyard.

Back in the very long hallway, I turned towards the end that literally had no end in sight and took a quick photograph with my cellphone. I made a mental note to post the picture on some kind of internet forum, or to use it as my online-avatar. Immediately after taking the picture, a slender black man emerged from a door some way down the hallway and just stood there, looking at me. I was glad that he didn't appear while I was taking the picture, which would probably have ruined the image.

Outside, after pressing my car's immobilizer, I quickly got into the vehicle when I spotted an old man walking towards me. He was clutching his genitals with one hand, the other was extended towards me, beggar-like. The front of his pants was wet and had a brownish tint. I was relieved when I managed to speed off before he reached my car, which saved me any kind of uncomfortable interaction with the poor man.

The way out of the asylum grounds was easier than coming in, because I managed to remember most of the buildings I had driven past earlier while searching for the correct ward. A black gentleman dressed in an unknown security company uniform stopped me at the exit gate. He indicated that I would have to open the car's boot. I nervously complied (maybe someone had snuck him or herself in there while I was in the ward!?), but just two seconds later the guard showed me the well-known 'sharp' hand signal and I departed quickly thereafter.

Leaving the asylum complex, I glanced at it in the rear-view mirror and I had a strange feeling that, in some way, I was looking at my true home, disappearing into the distance.

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shh
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MongwopMan
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King Ding a Ling!

wtf??

Doc, u are a strange lil man!
Who goes asylum visiting, really now?
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Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky! - Famous Ojibwa Saying
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Bent_Anat
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Monster male chicken
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you know, i wouldn't be surprised if the Doc had a Dexter-like split personality and strange affliction with retarded folks...
"Do not respond blindly
To growing gardens in decay
Stand guard when visitors fall silent
Blow the candles out, end the road here." - Dimmu Borgir
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DrHeidi
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Mong, if you read carefully, you'll see that I went there to visit someone, I didn't just go. I think.

But I've been wanting to go there anyway, since it's a very interesting place, I just needed some kind of excuse, as they don't let you in unless you have business there.
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shh
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someoneelse
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Through the looking glass
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Did you write that, doc? Honestly?
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someoneelse
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Through the looking glass
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It's chillingly good. Whom did you go to visit?
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ironwolf
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that guy
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what a lovely story...

Iv always wonderd what those places are like
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DrHeidi
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I did neglect to mention that I also visited a disused prison building. Roughly 70% of the darkened cells contained references to some kind of god, scratched out in the off-yellow paint.

Cat paw-prints, broken water pipes, soggy piles of paper and dried-up feces; all in all, a very pleasant experience.
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shh
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Maplassie GTR
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MR GTR

DOC You do know that prolongued use of LSD is NOT recommended..........
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Leaf
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Oh my god they killed... wait, nevermind.
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
If you wanna know about asylums back in the day (50s and 60s) and the sorta sh1t that went on in there...... read One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. I'm sure the doc has already read it (or seen the movie) but really, it's an eye-opener.
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The Most Read Post On The Internets.
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DrHeidi
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Oh yes oh yes oh yes. You should trawl the internet for "Reasons for admittance", "Reasons for dismissals" and "Cause of death" reports at asylums during those periods and earlier. Very entertaining.
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shh
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VoodooprophetII
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DrHeidi
Mar 15 2007, 10:37 AM
I did neglect to mention that I also visited a disused prison building. Roughly 70% of the darkened cells contained references to some kind of god, scratched out in the off-yellow paint.

Cat paw-prints, broken water pipes, soggy piles of paper and dried-up feces; all in all, a very pleasant experience.

This sounds so Gears of War it's not even a joke..... but I love it...the old gothic broken look, the darkness. I can almost hear the sounds echoing through the building, and smell the musky air blowing through the remains.....
<a href="http://profile.mygamercard.net/SARELSLIPSTREAM">
<img src="http://card.mygamercard.net/gelsig/teal/SARELSLIPSTREAM.png" border=0>
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Maplassie GTR
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MR GTR

laat my dink aan jou onnerbroek.......
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VoodooprophetII
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Ek is ernstig Maps....
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</a>
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someoneelse
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Through the looking glass
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Yeah voodoo it does sound GOW!
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