Psychic how they live there. One day in a psychiatric hospital

Hello. I'm Olga. In November, I was lucky enough to become a patient of a psycho-neurological hospital. I'll tell you, the joke about "happiness is the right antidepressants" is the absolute truth!
Here's one day from mine happy life in a psych ward. 14.12.2012 All photos are taken by phone. Who will let me use a camera there?

2) We fix the crib like in a pioneer camp

3) Woke up, cleaned the processes ..... (c)

4) Time is moving towards breakfast.

5) there are 5 minutes to comb, make up and all that ..

6) For breakfast, a casserole of yesterday's pasta and cottage cheese. Plus imitation sausage. Doesn't excite.

7) Fortunately, I have my mother's hotels. I lay out sandwiches and coffee on the bedside table.

8) By the way, nightstand:

• Thermo mug
• The book "Jihad. Terrorists are not born" - recommended to me school teacher eldest son.
• E-book (how would I survive without it?)
• A bottle of holy water (take pills). I'm not that deeply religious, it's just such a craze. Everyone ran and I ran, cho..
• Audio system own production- two cups of dessert and a roll of toilet paper, decorated using the "decoupage" technique :)

8) Morning portion of happiness.

9) Time moves slowly. And it's time for me to pins and needles.

10) About twenty needles in my hands and on my ears. Everything harmonizes very much, they say.

11) Time control:

12) You can read for half an hour. Today it is the "House in which ..." Next to our institution is a temple, and behind it is a boarding school for "special" children. I imagine that this is the HOUSE ..

13) The next item will be massage. Here on this magic machine you can do anything with me, I will only say thank you. :) Did you notice the blue jar on the table? She is amazing in action!

14) Time

15) I'm going to a group psychotherapy session. Today we are talking about the upcoming holidays. Everyone's heart is getting warmer.

16) It's already noon. We're having lunch!

17) Lunch wow. Potato, fish, salad, tea.

18) After lunch and before quiet hours, we have time for auto-training and relaxation. I am the first, I have time to take the best place. Ka-a-ayf!

19) In a day, instead of relaxation, we have art therapy. We make cacti from papier-mache .. I made my audio system there. Very nice job...

20) I had a great night's sleep during relaxation, so in quiet hours I'm as cheerful as a crab! I sit down to work. I am writing a script for a tablet toy.

21) Creative afternoon tea. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate - solid endorphins. :)

22) Quiet time ended at four. I spent an hour doing yoga with my cellmates:

23) Dinner Time

24) delicious cottage cheese pudding, buckwheat for scrap. Compote is good too. Some dried fruits in it.

25) An evening portion of happiness. It was also during the day, but I forgot to take it off.

26) And walk. Outside is good. I turn on the phone music and throw the phone into the hood. Headphones are lost.
On a walk you can walk around the hospital ...

27) ... Or you can (carefully) go beyond the perimeter and walk to the store, to the temple, as far as your feet will take you. The main thing is to return on time.

28) For nicotine addicts there is a place:

29) I return about six:

30) Today is Women's Day in my soul. We must hurry.

31) I did it!

32) Tomorrow I have an EXTRACT! I pack things. As advertising here is a photo of the game "Imagenarium". In our institution - a nice thing!

33) Time, why are you so slow?

Chief Physician of the Samara Regional Psychiatric Hospital Mikhail Sheifer told the DG correspondent about friendship with patients, meeting with two Lenins, why patients run away and return, when obsession helps to write a book, is it possible to put a razor in the hands of a madman, who are old-timers, and whether it is possible to improve life after discharge.

Mikhail Solomonovich, last year's day open doors you said 10 years ago different kind psychiatric disorders were observed in every seventh Russian, and today - in every fourth. Is the number of mentally ill people increasing so rapidly?

- There are official statistics. She says that in the world traditionally 1-2% of the population is mentally ill. One in a hundred may suffer from schizophrenia. If we take our region, then here the statistics are the same - about 2% of the population suffers from schizophrenia. For several years, this figure has not increased. However, it is necessary to clarify here: the statistics include those who asked for help. And among them there may be people with chronic disease psyches, or maybe those suffering from insomnia, anxiety or memory loss. Both at the beginning of this year - a little more than 52 thousand residents of the Samara region. But this number is false. After all, we must understand that there is a big difference between people who seek help and people who have a disorder but do not seek help.

- How many potentially mentally ill people are there then in Samara?

- According to various studies, up to 30% of people who seek help in an ordinary clinic show signs of a mental disorder. That is, they are not mentally ill, but in fact, presenting complaints of a somatic nature to the doctor, they do not realize that the cause of their suffering is a mental disorder. It is clear that a person will not go to a psychiatrist, but rather go to a clinic. These people do not see their problems: they blame everything on the physical state but are actually sick nervously or mentally.

How can you tell if you are mentally ill?

— clear sign- inappropriate behaviour.

I was driving the metro to you now, and a man was sitting opposite me and was talking to himself in a whisper. Or just thinking out loud. So, is he mentally ill?

- There is a term “presumption of mental health” on this subject. A priori, we are all mentally healthy ... until proven otherwise. Therefore, when we talk about the signs of a mental disorder, we mean a change in a person’s behavior that is noticeable to others. Let's take your example of a person who was talking to himself - this is similar to the objective signs of hallucinations. Or maybe you just didn't notice the earpiece in his ear. Here you have to prove it.

- What other mental illnesses do people have that are difficult to recognize on their own?

- Delusional disorder. The man says that he is being watched, that he is being irradiated with rays, that someone is getting into his apartment, that he is special, and in this world he must fulfill a mission, therefore he is connected either with the devil or with God.

Or, let's say, an arrhythmic syndrome - insomnia. It can be forced when a student is preparing for an exam, or intelligence officers are about to have an operation, and they take phenamine [a strong stimulant nervous system – approx. ed.]. And there is insomnia associated with a mental illness - like with bipolar disorder. The person is in a manic state. He doesn't need sleep at all.

When a person has mania, he feels good. High mood, accelerated physical activity, accelerated thinking. A person can eat a lot and still lose weight. This state is very pleasant. Moreover, it can also be productive. Here we had one scientist, he had a state of mania, and he wrote a whole book in the hospital.

The problem is that the main symptom of a mental disorder is the weakening of critical abilities. A person cannot determine the painful nature of his condition himself.

In all previous interviews, you indicate that the most popular diagnosis among hospital patients is schizophrenia. And it is interesting to know - what is the rarest diagnosis made to a hospital patient?

- Quite rarely, there were patients with neurosyphilis [the causative agent of syphilis penetrates into the nervous tissue - approx. ed. ]. During the year, a maximum of 10-12 people pass. The disease is difficult to diagnose. And it doesn't show up right away. Approximately only 10-15 years after infection of the body directly with syphilis.

While preparing for the interview, I noticed that many experts associated the unstable social situation in the country with an increase in the number of mentally ill people. What do you think, is the insanity and the unstable situation around connected?

These two concepts are very difficult to relate to each other. For example, there were no mental disorders in the concentration camps. People in such a terrible atmosphere gathered and mobilized themselves for life. Always difficult living conditions presuppose the resistance of consciousness to them.

Of course, stress can provoke a mental disorder. For example, in the crisis year of 1998, the number of suicides increased sharply in Russia. But we cannot say that the insanity was due to the worsening economic situation in the country.

Let's rewind time at least 10 years ago. Outside in 1989. No crisis. Everything in the country is relatively good. And then the sessions of Kashpirovsky begin, and the mass of people experience an exacerbation of mental disorders. Television programs, which were supposed to help, in a number of cases provoked, opened mental illness, which until then proceeded gently and imperceptibly.

Since outbreaks of mental illness can cause almost anything, how much can patients be trusted then? For example, do they shave on their own? Are their knives and forks blunt?

- Some physical condition does not allow to shave on their own. We have special barbers for this. However, most of the patients are not in an acute condition. As usual, shaving takes place: the staff on duty collects patients, seats them in front of a mirror, distributes razors and makes sure that they do not cut themselves.

As for cutlery - knives, of course, we do not give the sick. But it is allowed to use forks, spoons. Dishes are glass. But we do not give patients matches, lighters. We do not allow smoking in the office. Some patients do not have a free exit - either with staff or with relatives. And there are patients who can freely walk around the territory and even go beyond it.

- Are there frequent escape attempts?

- Quite recently, a patient who is on compulsory treatment left us. They put him with us after he committed the murder. His sister was sure that he came to us by mistake. Say, completely healthy. I note that recent times his condition was stable, but the court did not stop the proceedings. So we couldn't release it.

Several times the sister tried to remove this patient without permission. We stopped these attempts. But the court once again refused to discharge the patient. And the next day, his sister still tricked him out. Of course, we have already reported to law enforcement agencies. We will look for him and bring him back.

There are cases when patients run away because they simply did not talk to them. For example, we have a patient who ran away very often before. But when one of the heads of the department promised him that every year for a day the patient would be able to travel outside the perimeter, visit the grave of his mother, meet his sister, the escapes immediately stopped.

There are cases of escape, but they are extremely rare.

“Some patients come back on their own. Why do they choose life in the hospital and not in freedom?

“Sometimes they come back. Sometimes the psychiatric team brings. Sometimes they are police officers. When they themselves - most often due to the fact that they do not find shelter. It happens that the patient runs away, gets drunk, spends the night in not the best environment, and will return. Because he knows for sure that they will wash him here, feed him, and put him in a warm place.

- Before the interview, I also looked into the regional library, the local history department. I came across Hardin's 1913 medical report there. He pointed out that one of the main problems of the hospital was overcrowding and the extreme crampedness of the premises. Today, walking around the hospital, I talked to one employee, he also said that the patients are now "lying on top of each other." It turns out that the problem has existed for more than 100 years?

Indeed, the problem persists. Until now, patients do not have enough space. But we are trying to solve it now. And I can tell you that today is not the worst of times. When I first came here to work in 1978 and read the hospital reports, it was indicated that 20-30 people were placed on the floor. Now this is no longer the case.

- Are there, let's say, old-timers in the hospital? Why are they here for so long?

“We have patients who have been on treatment for 15, 20 and even 30 years. For the most part, these are those who were still treated in a psychiatric hospital No. 2. There was one at Gavrilova Polyana. In 1993, the hospital burned down, and most of the patients were transferred to us.

There were patients with chronic diseases. Their consciousness was greatly altered. Their passports either burned down or disappeared during the fire. It is quite difficult to restore the history of such a patient. We conditionally know his name and patronymic, since there are no documents confirming this.

I remember how I participated in the evacuation of patients from Gavrilova Polyana. It was spring, flooding on the Volga. And from Gavrilova Polyana came a whole ship with the sick. I accept them, I try to establish an identity. One says to me: "I am Lenin." Another after him repeats: "I, too, Lenin." And until we figured out the personal history of each, there were two Lenins in the hospital.

Now there are at most ten people left with no name. We call them what they called themselves. Of course, no one calls himself Lenin anymore. Complete loss of memory is a rarity. This only happens in Mexican shows. Patients even with severe forms of mental disorders give their first name, last name, sometimes even patronymic.

Another thing that the patient can call different names. We have case histories, where two names are indicated at once. The patient changes them for delusional reasons, as if hiding from someone.

Can we say about the patients who have completed the full course of treatment that they are completely healthy, or do they come for prophylaxis for several more years?

- In psychiatry there is no concept of "full course of treatment." You cannot cure a patient by giving him 10 injections of one remedy and 20 injections of another. Many mental disorders require lifelong treatment. It's not a course of treatment, but a long one. Now there are "prolongs" - drugs that can be taken once every two weeks, once a month or even once every four months. And all this time the person is in a normal state.

But we also have a certain repetition. Some patients have a relapse. By different reasons: refusal of treatment, non-compliance with the treatment regimen, alcoholism or social troubles. And sometimes there is a spontaneous deterioration for no apparent reason.

- What awaits a person after discharge from a psychiatric hospital? What can he become?

- Mathematicians who were engaged in computer affairs were treated here. Highly smart people. They had an attack. We have cured them. Now they are back to teaching and scientific work. Or there was a case when a young man was admitted, who fell ill for the first time, and the disease proceeded so malignantly that after 3-4 years he became completely demented.

It is impossible to speak unequivocally about the future of the former patient of a psychiatric hospital. If a person has a family, support, social status, education, then the possibility of adaptation is much greater. For example, we have a boy being treated, he is very seriously ill. But his relatives help him, and we effective drug write to him. And, despite the illness, the boy graduated from the university, and now he is getting a job.

Let's say you woke up from an unfamiliar noise in a completely unfamiliar environment. By the look of pajamas on people like you and white coats on “not the same as you”, you come to the understanding that you are in the hospital. Well, by the look and behavior of the neighbor tied to the bed, you begin to guess that this psychiatric hospital.

For the sake of the experiment, come tomorrow to the emergency room psychiatric hospital and try to pretend to be sick. I bet you won't be able to. ( And if it works out, we are not to blame and did not engage in incitement. approx. editor.) The fact is that in such a science as psychiatry, there are clear criteria for each psychiatric diagnosis. And even if you read about them on the Internet, you are still doomed to failure. I'll explain why. In general somatic medicine, all diseases have three outcomes:

• Recovery
• Chronic disease with improvements and exacerbations
• Death

AT psychiatry to these three is added another fourth criterion - personality defect. This is what the psychiatrist reveals, comparing your stories with the stories of those who brought you, and the clinical picture.

What personality defect? Imagine yourself as an alcoholic who has "tied up". You can easily identify such a person, even if you are not an HR inspector. Or remember that among your environment there are people "with oddities." When a doctor interacts with such patients on a daily basis, he intuitively identifies sick people, even if they seem “normal” at the time of the examination. So pretend mentally ill almost impossible. ( We are talking, of course, about a normal situation when doctors take their duties seriously. approx. editor) Therefore, think about the question “?” before “download rights”.

Long gone are the days when psychiatry was dissenting or uncomfortable people. Since 1992, the law “On psychiatric care and guarantees of the rights of citizens in its provision. This means that whoever placed you here is criminally responsible for this. If you think you're here by mistake, here are some helpful tips.

First. Sooner or later a doctor must come to you or you will be taken to his office. In a calm voice, ask his last name, first name and patronymic, and also take an interest in the name of the hospital, number and profile of the department. This will make it clear to the doctor that you do not remember the circumstances of the hospitalization and, accordingly, could not give your consent to this. If the doctor assures that you yourself asked to “treat” you and signed a consent to hospitalization, then ask him to show you this consent. Don't be surprised to see a signature on a document that looks like yours. If you are sure that this was not written by you, tell your doctor directly about it. The doctor will ask you questions. Some of them will seem strange, and some offensive. For the sake of an example:

What season is it now? Day of the week, month? Where are you? State the name of your parents. What do you do, what educational institution did you graduate from and what is your current job? What were you doing yesterday? And a week ago? Well, and so on.

This is ideal. In fact, the doctor does not care WHAT you say. It is important HOW you say it and whether your story matches the stories of those who brought you here. Think for yourself - if you don’t work anywhere and drink away your mother’s pension, you smell of fumes, and you are a regular client of the office, then what can I talk about with you? AT psychiatry They don't listen to what you say at all. In this science, your words are compared with your deeds. So I repeat once again, take a critical look at yourself and your life before “downloading rights”.

But it also happens differently. In my practice, there was a case when a woman, making repairs in an apartment and inhaling paint, “caught” a real psychosis. The hallucinations stopped as soon as the inhalation of the toxic substance ceased. The woman was assisted and discharged with a neutral diagnosis the next day.

Second. Patient psychiatric hospital signs at the very beginning of his stay in it two informed consents. The first is consent to hospitalization, and the second is consent to treatment. If you think you're here by mistake, don't sign any papers. In this case, the doctor will be required to call a judge from the city court to issue an order for involuntary hospitalization. The doctor has no more than 72 hours from the moment of hospitalization for this. When the judge arrives, you will be called back to the doctor's office. In addition to the doctor you already know, other doctors will be present in it. For example, the doctor who “put you down” or the dispensary doctor who wrote out the referral for hospitalization, the head of the department and the deputy chief physician for medical work. In a calm voice, ask the name of the judge, and ask to see your official ID. Tell the judge that you think your hospitalization is illegal. Also report abuse by staff towards you, if any. There is no need to suspect the doctor and the judge of conspiracy. Even if your relatives pay one of the doctors, the judge will not want to risk his salary and official position for the sake of momentary profit. Or do you really value yourself so highly?

Third. If the judge considers that your hospitalization is legal and justified, then prepare for the fact that the hospital stay will be long. And even after discharge, it will be almost impossible to prove or challenge something. But don't despair. The release is inevitable in any case. Ask your doctor for a document called an "extract from the medical history." Also ask to be given the opportunity to review the records in the medical history. If you find it difficult to make out the doctor's handwriting, simply photograph all the sheets of the "story" or demand a photocopy of it. If you are denied this, then apply with an application addressed to the head physician to the hospital administration. You are entitled to it. With an extract and a “medical history”, go to Department of Psychiatry at medical school. Ask you to examine and give an opinion about your mental health of people with degree. If they consider you sane and do not agree with the diagnosis of the doctors who treated you, then with this conclusion you will apply to the court with a charge of illegal hospitalization and to the prosecutor's office with a statement against the judge. Let this thought warm your confused mind, although this has never happened in my practice.

And, fourthly, I will reveal to you a professional medical secret. You don't care at all. Starting from nurses and ending with a judge with professors. The doctor thinks only about how to comply with the protocol of examination and treatment. One patient more, one less. Since after this work, the doctor will go to combine in another hospital, and the next day he will go back to work, and so on. Therefore, no one will hold you against the law. Nobody wants to be responsible for you. Nurses also think about their sanitation and dream that you do not kick her in the head when she washes the floors next to your bed. Nurses dream of going home as soon as possible and forgetting "this madhouse." The judge and the professor are thinking, “how not to“ mess with you ”. So calm down and try to think that maybe you are here and not by chance?

Health to you survivors not only of the body, but also of the soul!

On a February morning, I couldn't get out of bed. Then all day, evening, night and the next morning. And then others. I was depressed for the first time in three years.

Text: Lyudmila Zonkhoeva

I was in such a state that I needed help immediately - here and now. The same friends who brought me the pills advised their specialists. But their disadvantage was that everything was by appointment, and when asked what the nearest time they could devote to me, I heard the classic answer: “On next week Thursday night will suit you?” If it doesn't work, I won't live.

One of my colleagues has a mother who is a psychotherapist, I called her, told her everything, and she decided that I needed pharmacological help, immediately gave the psychiatrist's phone number and recommended me to him. Thus, I finally found myself on the couch of a psychiatrist.

She told everything that I had already shared with you (well, a little more), the psychiatrist crossed his legs, asked a few clarifying questions and said that I needed hospitalization. I agreed with him. The doctor took out the phone, called the head of the department of the psychiatric hospital, clarified about the availability of space, ended the call and answered me: “Well, pack your things, tomorrow at nine in the morning they are waiting for you at the hospital.”

Hospital

March 16, 2016, Wednesday. Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 3 on Matrosskaya Tishina in Sokolniki. Through the fence - a pre-trial detention center. The yellow building was built in late XIX century and immediately given over to a mental hospital. A place with history.

A neighbor friend accompanied me to the hospital. There are high ceilings with arched vaults in the paid (my) department, Pasha the schizophrenic sits in the corridor, who repeats every half a minute: “Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes” (once he told me that I don’t belong here , "it's all some kind of disease and a big, big secret").

The head of the department asked in surprise: “Are you drawing up a contract for yourself?” - usually patients are placed by relatives or other relatives. The cost of "accommodation" per day in a single room is 5,100 rubles. They put me on for two weeks.

I was settled in the seventh ward, through the wall - while the sixth is empty, we share one compartment. The window cannot be opened. The room has a TV, refrigerator, own shower and toilet - more like a room in a very cheap hotel, if not for the security camera. You can't go outside. Absolutely impossible.

They took my knife, spoon, fork, plate, mug and shaving machine. In exchange, they gave me towels, liquid soap and shampoo. Thus began my new life.

In our paid department, there were patients of different sexes and with different diagnoses: from neurosis to schizophrenia. Age - from 20 to 75 years. For the first week, I didn’t get to know others: I ran into each other in the corridors and in the smoking room (you could smoke in the common toilet for patients, where schizophrenics sometimes relieved themselves, others preferred their own, in the wards).

Once a big man in a checkered hospital pajamas came into my room, extended his hand and introduced himself: "Dima-Kolobok." In confirmation of the nickname, he shook his belly in front of my face. He asked what I was reading. "Flaubert," I replied. "Pythagoras?" he asked. Then Kolobok rode along the corridors and yelled: “I am the king!”

A 20-year-old from Ward 6 knocked on the door and asked, “Was that breakfast? Or dinner? Honey, I'm lost in time." It turned out that he set off on a pilgrimage and hitchhiked from Komi to Adler. Since he traveled without documents, he was detained in Adler and returned to his parents, who decided to put him in the hospital.

I met some of my neighbors at the session group therapy(the so-called pre-graduation, it teaches how to live with your disease after hospitalization). The schizophrenic who told stories about how past life was a secular journalist. An Azerbaijani who ended up there after a quarrel with his parents. Depressed grandfather. A devout lady with schizophrenia teaches drawing and architecture to children in Sunday school. History student with social phobia. A guy with a walker (heel fracture after falling out of a window). A girl with a birth injury tried to commit suicide. A girl with psychosis from St. Petersburg, who recently gave birth, is making a documentary film. Family psychologist with personality disorder.

A psychiatrist came to see me every day. Due to the fact that he is young, I did not particularly trust him. First, he listened to the story of my life and declared that I live cheerfully and cheerfully. Then he inquired about my well-being. The problem is that they could not find antidepressants for me: I had nightmares after Valdoxan and amitriptyline; after mirtazapine there were mood swings and inadequate perception of space (doors seemed more bulging than they are).

The psychotherapist came almost every day. The conversations with her were more relaxed than with a psychiatrist, not about me: “Lyudmil, do you know the writer Dmitry Bykov, whom I would characterize as a syntone-like schizoid?” She brought an album to one of the sessions Tretyakov Gallery and showed the work of Surikov: “And this is how people of an authoritarian-tense nature draw. epileptoid personality type.

In the middle of my "term" I had a conversation with the head of the department of psychiatry of the entire hospital to clarify the diagnosis. In fact, this is an exam with a commission of five experts: for an hour you tell strangers about how bad you feel, and answer their tricky questions like: “Didn’t you get lost as a child? In a store, for example? As a result of the conversation, the neuropathologist prescribed me Phenibut.

In one of last days I underwent a psychological examination. It is mainly aimed at identifying schizophrenia: arrange the picture cards into categories, combine the categories and leave only four; Name the common and different between two things. One of distinguishing features schizophrenia - insufficient associative reaction. Ideas and words that should be connected by analogy in the patient's brain do not connect, and vice versa, those that in normal people are completely unassociated with each other are connected. But there was also a simple personality test "Draw a non-existent animal."

I passed all the tests, underwent an ECG and encephalography, was at the gynecologist, laura, therapist, ophthalmologist. I had an x-ray of the nasal cavity and chest in order to cure the cough. I was taken for examinations through other departments, where general wards and the percentage of terrible diagnoses are higher than in paid ones. It was scary.

For the first two days I slept, because I was intensively given phenazepam and a powerful dropper (I don’t know what was in it). Over the next almost 12 days in the hospital, I answered emergency calls for work, consulted by mail, edited a couple of texts, read about 12 books and put on three kilograms on bad food. On Sunday, March 20, my friends brought me paints and paper, and in between reading I drew (I hardly watched TV).

I didn't tell my parents that I was in the hospital. But my friends visited me almost every day. From work they sent a bouquet of flowers, and when I was discharged home - a giant cardboard cat.

At the hospital, my treatment did not end: there I was taken out of a critical condition. I will have to take a number of drugs for six months, plus parallel work with a psychiatrist and psychotherapist should be carried out. It will take time to find out if I have fully recovered.

We were inspired to create this photo essay by Tatyana Vinogradova's article "The Seventh Section". A Russian photographer took a series of pictures that tell about the life of the Moscow Psychiatric Hospital. Peter Kaschenko. After talking with patients, Tatyana came to the conclusion that their strangeness is the result of a lack of our own experience and imagination.

In the hospital, treatment for people is free of charge, only service is paid. There are general wards, there are wards for special clients. Food is delivered to patients ready-made, in special containers.

Instead of straitjackets, hospitals now use special restraints.

Restrooms for women and men.

The department of neurosis is the first department where we got to. Patients are here on a day hospital.

At first glance, this room looks like game room in kindergarten. Here, patients spend psychological games, which help to find a way out of stressful conditions.

There is also a room in the hospital soft walls and floor.

And in this room, the patients of the neurosis department draw, make knick-knacks, watch TV and play chess.

This mountain goat was made by the patients in honor of the new year 2015.

In the workshop, we met Dmitry. The man is 51 years old. He loves to draw very much.

— I am a native Karaganda. I usually live where I find work. I have known this hospital since I was 18, and now I have found a job here as a janitor. Unfortunately, I have no family, my beloved woman Saule left this world 12 years ago. And it's still hard for me.

Anyone can go crazy. Psychologist Elena Ivankova told us about this.

- People are different. Alone psychologically strong personalities, others do not. Absolutely everything affects our consciousness - friends, family, work. In childhood, a person can suffer some kind of trauma, and it can later affect his mental health. It happens that people have a predisposition to a particular disease.

4th branch.

The girl in the pink tunic is called Anastasia. She herself came up to us and said she wanted to take a picture. She's 21.

“I came here because I was kicked out of school. I don't study anywhere.
When talking, she constantly grabbed my hand and smiled. The doctor said that you should not take Anastasia's words seriously.

And this patient's name is Muftal, he suffers from epilepsy. He is 38 years old.
- In 2002, I was attacked, hit on the head. Since then, I have often had epileptic seizures.

The department has a small library. Muftal often comes here, he has read almost all the books.

— My favorite writer is Valentin Pikul.

5 department for patients with acute psychoses. We visited the women's section.

Video cameras are installed in this department.

The doctors advised us to be careful. The behavior of people in this department can be inadequate and aggressive.

We went into the TV room. The women were watching a movie. It was very difficult to start a conversation with the patients.

While I was thinking about how to start a conversation, a little girl, Valentina, came up to me. The doctor said she had Down syndrome. But, despite the low growth and general form child, she is over 18 years old.

The doctor said that this girl would not tell me anything intelligible.

However, the look in her eyes was meaningful. Valya was childishly embarrassed when she said her name. The girl smiled at me and cuddled up to the doctor affectionately.

This is Olga. She's 42 years old. She is considered mentally retarded.

- Olga, tell me, something happened to you, why did you end up here?
- Nothing happened.
- What do you like to watch on TV?
— I like to watch cartoons. All are good there. There are no evil ones. There is no pain there.

This is Saule. She has a severe mental illness. She is 69 years old.
Saule, how did you get here?
- I do not know.
- And what's your job?
— I am a Kazakh language teacher. I love my job very much.

And this girl immediately attracted our attention. She looked at us with interest, even smiled. But the doctor warned us that her behavior is sometimes inadequate. This patient can attack at any moment, grab her hair. But we decided to take a chance.

The girl's name is Irina, she is 21 years old. Irina looked at me carefully. She seemed to know that I was lost and painfully figure out how to start a conversation. Irina was clearly not going to help me, so I asked the first thing that came to mind.
- You are very beautiful girl, tell me, do you have a young man?
- Yes, I have.
- What's his name?
- Nikolay.
- Draw it for me.

Irina took a notebook and a pen from me and began to draw.

She looked at me and waited for my reaction. I had to nod and tell her how great she was at drawing. After this unsuccessful conversation, the doctors took Irina back to the ward.

This girl's name is Umit. She lives in a ward for special clients. Despite the fact that Umit is in the department of acute psychosis, she is already almost healthy. He says he will go home soon.

My name means "hope" in translation. I'm Kazakh.

"Umit, why are you here?"

Patients of the male department of acute psychosis were delighted to see us. There was a noise, the sick crowded around. Everyone wanted to be in the picture. Elena Solovieva, acting head of the department, dispelled the myth about spring and autumn exacerbations:

Patients are always sick. There is no such thing as a spring or autumn exacerbation. There is deterioration or improvement. Patients are sensitive to changes in the weather.

Patient Dmitry was the first to approach us. He is 38 years old. He congratulated us on the coming spring. With zealous gestures, he declared that one should always rejoice in spring.

- I'm a good psycho. But me better hand do not shake, I can strongly shake and tear off. Happy holiday to you.

We asked Dmitry where he lives. Dmitry answered in a peculiar way:

— best home- native madhouse.

Dima did not want to let us go. He kept asking the photographer what pose he should take, where to look. Dmitry loves to be photographed very much.

This patient's name is Timur. He is 25 years old. He, like Dima, also wanted to get into the frame, but he didn’t really want to talk to us.

“I'm just healing here. I love spring. But I don't want to talk. Take another photo of me.

And about this young man we didn't know anything. All the time we were in the department, he followed us, looked at us, but did not say anything. When we were about to leave, he came close to us and just looked into the lens.

It's hard to be here. The air is permeated with the emotions of patients. "Psychos", as many people call them, are much smarter and more observant than we think. They know who they are and where they are. They also know that they are afraid.

“They are not social outcasts,” says Olga G. Trushkova, deputy director. - First of all, they are people who have a disease, an illness. But it's not their fault that this happened to them.

After visiting a psychiatric hospital, you realize how wonderful your life is. You realize that being in the ward of this hospital is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to you. To get here without regaining your mental health ... And you begin to appreciate every second of your life. Every moment of hers.

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