---
title: Committed to the asylum
date: 1991-04-01
week: 891
location: “Hyland Center at St. Anthony’s”
geo: [38.506229,-90.38486]
type: life
---

Though I had [moved out](/logs/events/1991-left-home/), I was not emancipated. I was still in a private high school my parents were paying for and they were my legal guardians. So when they _expressed their concerns for my well-being_ to the school, the Vice Principal for Discipline[^zinselmeyer] called me in for an interview where I made the critical error of admitting that yes, as a teenage boy, I had entertained the thought of suicide. This was cause to have me involuntarily admitted to a psych ward.

[^zinselmeyer]: They later renamed this position to “Dean of Students” but at least with the occupant of the time, that is a euphemism.

I spent some weeks there, ineligible for discharge until I had completed a set recovery program, although the staff shared that they were confused about my presence. The other patients here were kids that had seriously attempted to kill themselves or harm others, and continued to do so. I was just the nerd that entertained myself by finding ways to pick the locks.

In hindsight, I must have been a serious anomaly. Even clinicians charged with diagnosing me shared their assessment with me during my stay, and expressed that they would discharge me as soon as protocol allowed.

Naturally, the result of this experience was not me returning to “normal” and moving back in with my family. It probably did, however, contribute to me later adding psychology to my college major.
