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I have spent almost a month in a psychiatric clinic. It wasnt a partucularly interesting experience (to me persoanally, quite boaring actually) but it would be interesting to share



Since i live in russia, i am a subject for the mandatory 1 year army service and like many kids who live here would rather not serve. After a medical examination, i realised an am perfectly healthy nad i will be drafted. My lawer i hired to help me avoid the army told me that i can easily get out trough the state of my psychiatic health because i am a social recluse, i have trouble talking to people and a bunch of bad stuff happened in my life which apperently affected my brain somehow and causes me to get depressed (i dont really believe i have any serios depression or mental problems, i sign off as bad mood but since it would be my ticket out of the service, i had to start thinking of myself as some clinically depressed person)

So i finally showed up at the military commissioriat got registerd, complained about my mental health and they sent me to a psychiatric clinic, they said 10 days. I arrive there, they immediatley take all of my things to storage, and show me where i will be staying, Later the head doctor told me 10 days was a lie and i will be staying for at least 2 weeks. 2 weeks later after i was supposed to be done with all my examination, the doctor said some medical comission guy didnt show up so i will be staying for another week. 3 weeks is the maximum amount of time they could hold me for evaluation anyway.

The place was like a minimum security prison and kindergarten at the same time

the first 2 weeks, toy took me to examinations, tests psychatrists etc. the third week, i spent doing absolutley nothing.

The worst part of my stay is that there is absolutley nothing to do. The book i took with me turned out to suck, I had no real interest in talking to anyone (even the few people my age) TV (or ZombieBox how people call it here) had nothing interesting and most people wanted to watch sports or criminal news or a channel dedicated to popular youtube videos. There was one 15 yo kid who got knocked over the head with a bottle during a fight with his mom, he hogged the tv all morning watching spongebob and Jimmy Newtron cartoons. With lack of anything interesting, my brain craved any kind of stumulation to the point where i started watching the hockey championship and news to keep from boredom torment.

The only thing the staff left me was a pack of cigarettes (they took away my lighter tho) Pretty much everyone there smoked. I originally started smoking out of boredom, and this was proven during my stay here. The bathroom was the smoking area and was almost never empetey as there were always people there smoking. they locked it for cleaning and every time they opened it up the croud rushed in to have a smoke.
All doors including the bathroom, had large windows so there was no privacy at all
There were also people who constantly asked for a cigarette and it annoyed the crap out of me, Usually its hard for me to refuse since i am a nice person by nature and if i did refuse the guys would make a hurt puppy face at me and make me feel guilty. I eventually convinced myself that i am saving their health by not giving anyone any. Even the 15 yo kid smoked, altho he asked for cigarettes very rarley, whe cople of times he did ask me, i read the text on the cig box that said it was illegal to sell them to minors. During my stay, i managed to quit smoking for a whole week untill a friend who visited me, brought me 4 more packs lol (my first try quitting smoking btw)

Whenever there was nothing on tv and nothing else to do, all i did was walk back and forth down the hallway of my wing which was locked and only the staff had the keys.
The few times during my stay i went outside was when i was taken for examinations to a different part of the complex. and the last week, when they were done with me i spent the whole week locked inside the building (yes it sucked)

The second worst part is there was a strick day schedule everyone had to follow which i hated. In the morning, depending on which group of patents you are you had to help out getting ready for breakfast (every day groups took turns on serving the food, washing the floors and stuff) Breakfast sucked (i am used to eating whatever i want whenever i want) almost every day it was oatmeal, with eggs, or cheese sandwich and tea. After thet unless you have examinations or doctors scheduled for that day, you stay in the building and do nothing untill dinner at 2pm. Dinner was always some kind of soup or stew, and a plate of macoroni or rice or potaoes with meat or meatf=ball or fish patty. After dinner there is 1 hour of MANDATORY NAPTIME. after naptime most days, you do nothing or watch TV untill 6 PM when you have supper usually more oatmeal or macoroni and some food that i only know the russian name for (запеканка then again, you try to keep yourself occupied untill 10PM when everyone has to go to sleep which sucked for me as usually everything interesting on TV starts around 10 PM.

Since i am a night person by the end of the day, i finally wake up and become more energetic (i cant explain it but i always habve more enegy at night) Also i get really hungry by then.
I ended up lying in bed staring at the ceiling untill about 3 am every day wishing i had some mcdonalds or something.

Visiting days were twice a week. Patients were brought food from home, and stuff like MP3 players, cellphones (definatley not allowed and would get taken away if noticed) One guy was given a PSP. I started regretting not giving my friend all the stuff i wanted him to bring me later, altho he did let me borrow my MP3 player and that significantly eased my trips down the hallway and back which i did for the most part (not just me, a few other people occupied themselves by walking up and down the hallway)

What sucked however is because the walls of the building were 1 meter thick concrete the only places with good radio reception were near windows.

Before i had music to listen to i was almost seriosly going insane from boredom. I started punching walls and getting very angry (this is possibly also due to the fact that i ran out of cigarettes around that time and it was a withdrawl stage but i didnt care about cigarettes, i was getting sick of the place and boredom and people).

Another thing i wanna point out is something i notices is not everyone washed their hands before eating or brushed their teeth and the staff didnt exactly monitor it. You could take a shower in the public shower room whenever you wanted, but the staff only forced everyone to do so once a week.
The thing that bothered me is due to the public environment, i might catch somethng i dont want.

The population of the place is a more interesting aspect. I didnt interact with most people due to my antisocial nature but i listened to them and observed.

Altho this is a psychiatric clinic, by far only a fraction of the people had actual serios mental problems.
There were a few typical old people with althimers disease and problems old people typically have who were left here by their families because they are too much to care for and here they got taken care of as patiens by mandatory free medical insurance that the government pays for.
Everyone in rusia is required to have gov med insurance cards but even if you dont have one (like i forgot mine at home) the government medical clinics still cant refuse you.

there was 1 person who had a screwed up nervous system, all of his limbs moved as if he was being shocked by rather high voltage, but, he seemed to control himself well enough to keep from accedenty hitting someone, and he still managed to do most of the chores, other than that, he was a normal person. The other guy, was a typical mentally challenged person. He was pretty much a 7year old kid in a 40+ year old body. Exept he smokes and swears like all the other men that were there. (his memorable quote- "Yeah, Mommy dosent like it when i smoke") He also had a few toy cars lol.
the last guy is in some semi coma state. like he walks eats when hungry other than that, he dosent seem to be doing anything unless, someone tells him to. a zombie, not exactly a correct word but its the first thing that comes to mind, Even tho visiting days are twice a week, this kid is visited every day by his dad. He makes. His dad is a nice guy and when he comes over, he makes him walk around with him (because normally he just lies in bed staring into space and dosent seem to respond to anyone exept for his dad) also, he makes him read, stuff like door labels, and newspaper headlines makes him look at the few paintings we had hung asking him to describe the paintings i am guessing to stimulate brain activity somehow. I never heard him talk but maybe he just talks very quietly and his dad says that he understands everything perfectly just dosent usually respond to anything.

The rest are normal people as far as i could tell. One dude was a way too cheerful always for some reason, but to me thats still normal.

then there are what to me looks like very long time residents of the place. They dont even wear the patient's pajama-like unifirm that most have to wear. One guy had a scar on his head, and a huge stiched up cut on his wrist, another had his wrists covered in cut scars, another had a third degree burn on his wrist (same exact place i have my third degree burn on my wrist also, i have a small scar on my head from childhood, so i guess i fit in with pretty well with the crowd. But from my 1 months observation they had nothing wrong with them. Infact they had more freedoms than most patients, and they seemed to help out the staff with everything like its their job, they always get to go outside to carry over boxes of medical supplies, they unload the food truck that comes over twice a day, (well i was asked to help out with carrying boxes twice but thats it).
There was also a few older people, one of them was an electronics engineer, the other was an aircraft maintenence engineer and a pilot, both of those guys always had nostalgia discussions about ussr and how everything sucks now, and despite of them both having high levels of education and being the kind of people that came from wealthier families (engineers in USSR were among the wealthier croud) these guys swore every other word like some sailors lol. nothing out of the ordinary for most russians i just find it funny that, higher class educated people, act like typical drunken working class. these guys seemed to live in the clinic, sleeping in the same areas where the patients sleep, exept they also helped out the staff.
I have a theory that, maybe these guys cant really make a decent living since the electronics industry here is dead as well as most engineering occupations, and the pilot guy is proboly too old to fly a passenger plane like he used to. so they could be just staying in the clinic and living there for free under pretext of some age related brain problems altho they seem to be around 60yo and perfectly fine. In exchange for staying there they help out the staff. Maybe i am wrong.

The head doctor upon hearing that i fix computers, asked me to install win XP on his laptop parallel to his win7, (i guess patiens helping out the staff is pretty normal) I ended up crashing his laptop even more instead. There was 1 large system partition along with a 20gb recovery partition. Since i had limited instruments, i knew i coulnt do it with just an XP disk he gamve me yet i tried anyway. After formatting the recovery partition, (i thought win 7 could function without it since, my Win7 systems, never had any recovery partitions) I damaged win 7, and in the end, found out that XP cant even be installed as it BSODs in early stages of installation and i couldnt remember the stuff i had to do to get it to install. so i broke his computer but at least i told him how to fix it using a 7 install disk which he said he had lol.

This experience really showed me what its like to loose freedom for such a long time, A friend of mine who was once locked up for 2 weeks as a possible suspect when one of his classmates he was hanging out with got stabbed in a drunk fight, Basically he imagines it a bit scimilar to his exept he spent only 2 weeks and the conditions were worse, (BUT THEY GOT TO GO OUTSIDE IN A WALLED OFF AREA OF JAIL UNLIKE ME)

Basically all the things i took for granted, like breathing air, eating my first fastfood burrito , holding a computer mose and hearing things around you felt amazingly good after 3 weeks if being inside. That burrito was the best burrito i ever had.

When i was finally leaving, and saying good by, the doctor (damn sadistic humor among russian doctors) he said, "Good luck, Feel free to visit us again!" (oh gawd i never wanna even see that place ever again)
That same doctor allways joked that he will make me good enough to join the Marines, Other nerologist i got checked by told me that on my scheduled visit i will need to pack all my personal things as i will be sent into Spetsnaz ranks to Dagestan (the most conflicted region in russia)

good thing they are jokes because i almost took a joke seriosly when i was getting signed out and he told me he wont sign me out unless, i have dinner which i missed since i wanted a burrito when i got out. He even went to the kitchen and asked the lady to feed me and i thought he was serios lol, later i was told that the guy always jokes like that and i am not the first person to think he was serios.

Earlier during my last day, i was called over and told to follow a staff member, I didnt ask where, untill i realised we are goind down into the dark scary basement of the building where there was an old bomb shelter like every medical building built at that time. Like the ceiling was covered in pipes and wires and it was dark and scary
Then the guy said, they would be testing new medical equipment on me and do all kinds of experiments lol. and it was the kind of atmosphere for this kind of thing too lol

The good news is, i now know that i am not gonna be serving in the army according to what my doctor and lawyer said and i should be getting my final military document by the end of the month. after that i can only be drafted in case of a large ww3 scale conflict since theyll still sign me in the reserves like everyone else.

So thats my experience i felt like it would be interesting to share i hope i never go back there ever again.

Also we had a cat living with us, As i found out late the huge fat (id go as far as calling it Obese) ball of fur that pretty much eats and sleeps most of the time, is actually a kitten of about 1 year old.

People joked around saying the cat is here either because of serios depression when they found him slicing his little paws but i personally think the cat is schitziphrenic. Once i went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and on my way back, i saw the cat immediatley hide from me thinking that i didnt see him. When i walked past, he would jump out of the shadows and hug my foot lol, then, he would stealthily follow me back to my room. I let him play with my hand for a while, by letting him bite it and apply claws (the cat dosent actually hurt you he bites you lightly and the claws and biting actually feel kinda good lol) Anyway, the cat dosent do any of this during the day

That was very instresting! Thanks for shring this with us you should wright a legit story of this.

Fascinating. In the states that might make you look like a sociopath, but considering the state of the Russian military through your own words in prior posts, it probably wasn't a bad option.

Interesting. It was almost like a book (maybe you could write one) with all those strange/interesting characters around you. It's a little nostalgic for me too as I went to a boarding school for "problematic children" (by that they mean they take anyone nobody else wants which is mainly mentally ill children or children with ADHD like myself) for two years when I was young. Life was also filled with rituals and we had supper, also mainly stews and soups lol, at 17h30-18h30 and not a bite afterwards (we got bread with every supper and I used to hide mine in my pocket to keep for later at night). We also had nothing to do except TV or "play outside" on a square of grass with nothing to play with. My one roommate used to get comics when his dad visited so we'd sit and read them all day (after doing homework of course ).

It's true we take our freedom for granted and sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be institutionalised again (Like prison, the army, hospital, etc.) now that I've gotten so used to doing as I please. I don't honestly think I could've handled the army in my country either (they stopped conscription in South Africa many years ago so I escaped it luckily, but my uncle used to tell me terrible stories about his two years). I think you did the right thing by avoiding the army. It's all over now so you can move on with your life.

Very interesting, somehow this got stuck in my head......

I cant help wondering if Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 'Gulag Archipelago' would have same impact with a thought like that running through his mind....its a pity didnt have a huge indian chief to throw the water fountain out the window for you.

I don't know if you should mentioned that you've been in a psychiatric ward. You could get some eyes looking at you as if you were crazy. But hey it was good what you told me. And you're with the Spetnez? Well you better hope it doesn't end up like in Call of Duty because I'm joining the U.S. Army Reserve.

That sounds like it was a heck of an experience.

But man, I'm sooo bored right now. I just can't decide which steam games to play.....

Yeah, thanks for writing that it was a good read.


Did you read the post?

I hope that little face meant you're joking.

Now there's a contradiction!

You quoted what I said terribley.

I said that luckily our world is not in the conflict like Call of Duty. Otherwise I would be fighting him on the US army side.

but you wouldn't because he's not in the Russian army...

Also, this diagnosis of mine, is not serios enough for me having to be watched by the physhiatric clinic as a patient so its not limiting my freedom. According to the laws here, your employer cant demand any psychiatric evaluation (unless the job is, high risk/ secrecy level), The military documents i will be recieving, do not put any medical data on why they didnt take me, the clinic itself has no right giving out any info about any patients without the patiens concent exept for when there is a criminal penalty involved.

as far as anyone concernened, i never evern was there, anyone asks why i didnt serve i would just say i have flatfoot (which i do but just not serious enough to not serve in the army, The lawyer told me i wont even have any problems with getting a firearms licence.

Where's the contradiction? *confused, eyes crossing*
I said I was happy I escaped (by chance of DOB) being conscripted and then said PAGAN did the right thing by avoiding it too. We do often take our freedom for granted, myself included. If I had been born a little earlier, I would have been forced into the RSA army - even with my medical conditions. It should be a person's right to choose whether they wanna go to the army or not.

You're right. However, if you aren't willing to fight for the freedom you enjoy then you don't deserve it. It's the principal of the issue, not a comment on all the military actions currently going on.

In a way he is fighting for his freedom, his freedom to not join the military. Obviously he can't single handedly take a stand against the government or the armed forces himself. So, he's got to find his own way of granting his own freedom.

Stop trying to split hairs, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm afraid I actually don't. When I hear people talk about, "fighting for freedom" it's often loaded with patriotism and an argument as to why people should sign up to the armed forces, to go against the enemies of the state, enemies who would hurt your freedom. But you've said it's not comment on the military actions. So I've took it to mean just 'freedom', which can include infringing on freedoms by something much closer to home (which can include freedoms your own government infringe) and in PAGAN's case, it's being forced into the military service.

How can he protect his own freedom? I'd argue, looking out for himself is one.

You protect your own individual Liberties at home, whether it's going against mandatory military service, protesting having your property (wages) confiscated from you, or anything between.

Sometimes you can't protect your liberties by just sitting down in a park, holding hands in a circle, and singing Kumbaya while beating a drum. If your country is under attack or being invaded then you must put your big boy pants on and risk your own butt to protect your ability to exercise the liberties you fought/protested to secure to begin with.

You can also help protect your freedoms by exercising them as much as you can. The point is, you have a choice and a part of the consideration for your choice is your own well-being and the well-being of the people you care about. By all means, I'm happy to encourage people to fight for their freedoms and I am happy to stand up for what I believe in, but I don't judge people poorly because they've chosen to do differently. I would be more happy to support them and their freedom to do so.

At least that's my view on freedom. But regardless, this is kinda venturing into AUP breaking territory.

Err, everything he said. Sepp, you're a true philosopher.
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when i mentioned freedom i meant the small things like eating my favorite foods, not having to go to sleep if i dont wanna. Due to this i have hard time understanding all those colledge hipsters and school kids at protests yelling out how the bloody government is opressing their freedom!. i mean you have your iPad!... so what are you not not happy about? the last big street protest last month 20 riot cops got hospitalised with stab wounds ands and head injuries. Not a single protestor was seriosly hurt. Thats pretty soft compared to how europe and US deals with street protests My idea of freeedom dosent go into politics at all because its just one huge grey area. I am not talking about the wholebig patriotic idea of freedom. altho i do get a lot of the " army is a school of life and if you didnt serve you are not a man and if you dont protect your country then who will?" Contrary most of the population my age would agree with me, Even those who served say that army is a complete waste of your time and if yon get out of serving, its worth it. Also, Even tho i like living in Moscow, i have no respect for the government. A popular idea that the army here dosent serve the interests of the country, its there to protect the government. Love your country but hate your government, Something i heard a lot of when i lived in US, Its the same here.
Every day i find that Russia and US are infact more similar than what i have beeen raised to believe by propoganda of both countries where i lived

Military life is not for everyone, and I can honestly say that the time I spent was not a waste of time. My many years in service, both to my unit and to Search & Rescue was very valuable and the experiences learned were of equal value. There is more to military life than just protecting your country. Some of us have been deployed to other locations to assist those in need (ex: our Search & Rescue unit(s) assisting with the many floods and fires in the States, Canada; earthquakes in other countries; etc).

I will also attest that my years in the Army were not a waste of my time. There are those who serve, and there are those who benefit from the service of others. Without security, there can be no peace or prosperity.

I think that whether the army is "a waste of time" or not depends largely on if you want to join the army or were forced into it and also whose army it is you join. In my country, it's gone from conscription (to protect a regime) to a real waste of time since our army dont do much for our country. Our police handle practically everything (they get military-alike training and are equipped for most domestic problems). I'm just glad they did away with conscription here.

Anyway, it is what you take from it. Everyone's situation is different and their opinions reflect it.

Personally, just like to add, if our neighbouring countries attacked us then in spite of my medical conditions, I would go and fight. Not to protect my country or my govcerenment, but to protect the people I care for and to put an end to the conflict so we could get on with our lives peacefully (But I'd never hold it against anybody who chose not to).

A little bit in the russian army. its mostly discipline training and not actual military training. The last 10 years, the death toll in the army (including suicides, unfortunate accidents, food poisoning diseases, bad conditions, or symply working your body to eath as, not everyone can handle a 20km run every morning while having only 4 hours of sleep) is a bit less than the deathtoll of american sldiers in Iraq war for the same time period according to the official statistic i read (if i remember correctly its like 200-400/year) yet we are not at war with anyone.

another reason is, russia will proboly never be attacked by military force since ussr turned prevention of ww3 and peace trough superior firepower its religion. aside from small armed conflicts along the borders, there was never any large scale militaryattack on russia and there wont be because, russia was prepairing for one since 1945.

We have a doomsday mashine, a system called "system perimiter", Nato codename "Dead hand" which nukes the whole world if hit by a nuke itself. Solid insurance against nuclear war since its a loose-loose situaton for everyone as warheads are preprogramed to hit all major enemy strategic points. and it goes off only if the attack was severe enough to disable all central command.
Americans proboly have a similar system

There is also prejudice against those who did serve, employers fear mental instability and effects of post traumatic stress disorder.

russia was conquered by foreign corporate interests who made it into the top of our government in 1991 and was turned into an oil profit mashine.

also, i believe i am too dumb to be an effective army person, i would screw things up

That's pretty bad. But the US isn't at war with anyone either. Congress never declared war.


Ahhhh, one of the MULTITUDE of misconceptions about nuclear war. I have worked in command centers such as you cite. Nuclear war doesn't "destroy the entire planet" or even start and conclude in a few hours (for all-out M.A.D.)


We have similar issues here in the US, not with employers, but being tagged as possible terrorists and otherwise. I served 10 years with honorable discharge and that tags me as possibly anti-gov't. Add to that I belong to groups that stand for the Constitution as it's written, and it can be difficult to buy a weapon among other things.
Things like this turn you into an enemy of the federal gov't....http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2009/03/03/declaration-of-orders-we-will-not-obey/....and yes, every single one of those orders has been violated in the past decade or 70 years.


And that's bad how? I guess it's bad if you're a bark-humping-enviro-freak. However, it creates jobs and wealth. Some might be making millions off it (but they also most likely invested millions, if not billions, to build infrastructure) while others might only be making enough to live on. But what if these industries weren't there? All those people making a living could very well be on the streets. The problem I see with it is something you cited - gov't collusion with private industry - that's not a free market (or capitalism if you prefer to follow Marx).


Apparently you haven't worked with some people in the military. Most are smart, but some idiots somehow make it through the weeding out. Besides, you don't have to be smart to do some things in the military, you just have to be able to follow orders or shuffle papers.

From what I have heard, it dosn't literaly destroy the planet, but the amount of dust and other stuff which the nukes throw up in the atmosphere would block most of the sunlight and heat from the sun. That would lead to nuclear winters and other bad stuff...

Of course it doesn't literally destroy the planet, or even the ecosystem.
Nuclear war, any war really, is a bad thing. But it's just not on the level sci-fi films, the Gaia-ists, and other media/groups have led society to believe. Nations with any kind of self-preservation instinct, including the US and Russia, don't want to use nukes and try to avoid using more once they've already used them. I'd even say Iran getting nukes isn't a huge deal - they'll get them then realize "oh crap, these things aren't toys. If we hit Israel with them the fallout will end up on us". It's the nutjobs that strap bombs to themselves and detonate them on subways that you need to worry about. I'd also be more worried about EMP than the blast itself.


Ahhh, one of the main reasons nuclear war isn't a open then closed event
(taken from http://space.au.af.mil/au-18-2009/au-18_chap18.pdf

Well i dont mean the whole world, i mean it launches all the several thousand missiles it has access to preprogrammed to stike every major enemy city and strategic point, the goal is to paralyse the enemy to give time to reorgonise and set up some kind of government providing that central command and all major communication hubs are down.



correct, but all that money dosent seem to be serving in the interest of the country, and all the major industries are being sold off, 2 of our large automakers were boought out by reno motors, others can only barley survive by assembling foreign cars, they no longer even make russian cars (which were crap anyway) but the strange thing is, over the years, i notised that these automakers tried very hard and sucessfully made really cool modern luxury class vehicles, yet every time there wasnt enough money for them to set up an assembly line. and even when they did, for some reason they lost profit. patent for one of these cars which they managed to only make 300 of was sold to some millionare who now builds them one at a time and sells them as exclusive luxury sedan for millionares.
Pretty much every time, the industry here comes up with something actually good coincidentally, something bad happens to the company. Yet the leadership of the country is all for supporting the national auto industry.

considering all the other drawbacks the country has, i am guessing someone else is profiting off that oil money. one of the reasons i dont trust the government and dont want to give them a year of my life