When I was 22 yrs old, I checked myself into a mental health facility. I was encouraged to do so by a psychologist I was seeing at the time, for chronic depression. I was told that my stay would be no more than a few weeks, just long enough to get stabilized on some new medication. I was very poor & had no insurance, but luckily, there was a state run facility that would take me.
When I arrived at the hospital, I was escorted to a small room by 2 giant male orderlies, where I was told to remove my shoestrings & belt then undress down to my underwear. I honestly didn't know why I was asked to do this. My 1st thought was how hard it would be to walk around w/o laces in my shoes, so I asked why they needed my shoe laces. The 1st orderly explained it was to keep me from hanging myself. I really didn't want to walk around in laceless shoes, so I said, "Just think about it, a shoestring could never hold a person's body weight!" Neither orderly replied, or even acknowledged that I had spoken. I got the impression that resistance to the procedures was so common yet futile, they had decided that ignoring the patient was the easiest way to get through it. So, in response, he said, "drop yo draws, then bend over & grab yo ankles." "wait, what? are you serious?", I asked. They both got visibly irritated and one said, "we aint got all nite, cuz!". So, reluctantly, I followed the instructions. I pulled down my underwear as i began to slowly bend over. When I was about halfway finished bending over, I heard, "Ok, put your clothes back on & have a seat." then they left. I was humiliated & relieved. Humiliated because I was forced to do undress in front of two men & relieved I didn't have to complete the task.
Only one orderly returned, he handed me 2 sheets, a towel, a pillow, a comb, toothpaste/brush, & a hotel sized bar of soap. I followed him down the hall to a room with 2 single beds, 1 made & 1 bare. Before leaving me to settle in, he said that my roommate was with the doctor, but would be back soon. Then said something like, "You'd be better off staying away from Arthur (my new roommate). He'll just get you in a bunch of trouble" I asked, "How can I stay away from him when we're roommates?" he said, "He'll get you in trouble, so just stay away from him the best you can." When he left, I tried to imagine what kind of trouble a person could get into? There was steel grating over every window, doors automatically locked. Someone had to push a buzzer every time it opened. There were cameras everywhere, security personnel, stainless steel "mirrors" instead of glass, no knives or razors. I had no idea what he was talking about.
Soon after the orderly left, Arthur walked in. Ran in, actually. I heard him running all the way down the hall then barrel thru our half- opened door. He proceeded to run around the room in circles while waving his arms wildly. Finally, he fell onto his bed & said, " ahhhh, I'm FUCKED UP! Ewww weee, I'm FUCKED UP!" he got up, repeated the running around & waving of the arms. He jumping onto his bed a few times then started whispering to me. The closer he came to me, the more I could make out what he was saying, & it was jibberish! It didn't mean a thing. He wasn't even saying words, just random sounds. Like some primitive language. Like when people "speak in tongues". It scared the shit out of me. Then, as quickly as he started whispering jibberish, he stopped, fell on the tile floor, crawled under his bed & began to fake cry. It was very obvious that it was fake, & that he was putting on a show for me. I felt like a hostage who's trying to keep the hostage-taker from turning on them. No matter what, HE needed to think that I liked him. I needed to appear to be on HIS side. The last thing I needed was to have a 6'5" raving lunatic suspicious or angry with me, so I pretended to believe he was really crying & asked if he needed me to go get a nurse. He came out from under his bed so fast, I thought he was going to attack me, but he howled at me, "what's yo naaaaammmmeeee?". I said, "Bart, but do u want me to get a nurse for u?" he just stood there, staring at me, Silent, with a confused look on his face. He tilted his head to one side, like a dog does when it hears a high-pitched whistle. Sort of robot-like, he tilted his head to 1 side, then the other, then back. I did not know what to do. Finally, he howled again, "Maaaarrrrttt!". Then again, "Maaarrrttt. My name is Arthur, but u can call me KING Arthur...what's my name?... What's my god-damned name?" So to cover all the bases, I said, "King arthur. Your name is arthur but I'll call you king arthur."
This is when I realized that my chronic depression & anger issues were minimal compared to the mental issues some people had, like King Arthur. Keeping up with him & staying on his good side was going to be a very difficult job, but I really didn't have a choice.
His mania continued on for a while, but he was never physically hostile towards me, so the longer he carried on, the less threatening he seemed to me. He eventually settled down & I was able to figure out that "being fucked up" just referred to him being given his medication. Apparently, he had a habit of cheeking his meds, so now, they were delivered by needle. He had just been given his daily shot of mellaril when we 1st met. He later said he was just kidding about calling him king, but he never quit correcting me when i just called him Arthur. So, when I called him King Arthur, he said he was kidding. When I said Arthur, he said King Arthur. Over & over.
At 10pm, an orderly came back to the room for a "light's out" check. Soon after he left, I fell asleep.
The next thing I remember is being partially awake, not quite coherent, but definitely not asleep.
That's when the sounds that had obviously woken me up, became clearer. I was hearing someone moan. When I opened my eyes, King Arthur was standing over my bed with his pajama pants around his ankles, moaning & masturbating directly over me. I rolled onto the floor on the opposite side of the king, then got up & ran out of the room, to the nurses station. I was very lucky that night. Had I not woken up as soon as I did, the effects of that night may have had a worse impact on me.
King arthur spent the rest of my time there in solitary, padded room. I know this because I walked past the padded rooms each day on the way to the cafeteria, & was able to peek through the small window into the room. I never found out if masturbating above me while I slept was what the orderly meant by "trouble".