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The scariest of all stories come from the unimaginable horrors that live within our own minds.
Death, illness and tragedy have long been part of the history of insane asylums, and for as long as they have existed, so too have the scary stories associated with them. From haunted hospitals to sadistic doctors and nurses, psychiatric wards have been the inspiration for many of our favourite horror movies and books. Yet, the true stories told by the psych ward workers below far surpass any horrors that we might have seen at the cinema or read in a book.
Without further ado, here are thirteen of some of the creepiest psych ward stories on the internet that have been shared by health care professionals.
1. Holding her own Eyes
My mom told me this story from her time at a neuropsychiatric ward while she was in grad school. She was making her routine room checks and happened upon the most horrific scene I've ever heard.
This was during the night shift, and generally, all the patients' bedroom doors should be closed. So my mom turned a corner and noticed an open door. She saw a staff member's legs on the floor, halfway out the doorway.
When she looked into the room, she saw the patient, a woman with a severe postpartum psychiatric disorder, who had just gouged both of her own eyes out with her bare hands. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding her eyes in her hands.
The first staff member to witness the scene, who was now lying face down on the floor, had a heart attack when he first witnessed the woman while he was making his rounds.
My mom screamed for help and frantically tried to perform CPR on the staff member. All the while, the woman just sat rather calmly, holding her own eyes.
– nevergotchallenger
2. The Saw
I work as a psychotherapist in a hospital system. My definition of creepy is probably quite a bit different from other medical professionals.
The one that got to me the most was a patient who came to us after attempting suicide by sawing both his arms off at the forearm with a table saw. His arms were reattached, fairly successfully too, with only limited impairments in mobility. All I could think was how bad it would have to be to live in his head that sawing his arms off seemed better than that.
He has since completed suicide.
– psychotherapistthrow
3. Jane?
We had a young lady in our custody with quite a few issues. We'll call her Jane. Jane's first night at our facility staff doing a bed check found Jane in a puddle of blood. Turns out Jane had been slicing the skin around her shin with her finger nails and was pulling her skin up her leg, essentially de-gloving her calf.
Jane also had a ritual she performed every night before bed. While in her room she would run between walls in her room touching them in a crucifix pattern. After doing this for a few hours she would sit on her bed and go to sleep. This particular night Jane was frantic in her pace, practically running between walls. Our night staff observed the entire interaction and reported Jane screaming late into the night. When the staff went to check on Jane she reported Jane standing in the doorway smiling. The staff asked what was wrong and Jane replied, "what makes you think you are speaking to Jane?"
– HUGE_PIANIST
4. The Vampire
My mom worked in mental institutions in her younger years (and actually worked at a large, well-known asylum before it was shut down.)
