full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elyn Saks: A tale of mental illness -- from the inside

Unscramble the Blue Letters


During the next year, I would spend five monhts in a psychiatric hospital. At times, I spent up to 20 hours in mechanical restraints, arms tied, arms and legs tied down, arms and legs tied down with a net tied tightly across my chest. I never struck anyone. I never harmed anyone. I never made any dicert threats. If you've never been raeinetrsd yourself, you may have a benign image of the experience. There's nothing benign about it.

Every week in the United States, it's been estimated that one to three people die in restraints. They stgrnale, they asatirpe their vomit, they saffucote, they have a heart attack. It's unclear whether using mechanical restraints is actually saving lives or costing lives. While I was preparing to write my student note for the Yale Law Journal on mhcanaecil rsrtteains, I consulted an eminent law pesfsoror who was also a psychiatrist, and said surely he would agree that restraints must be degrading, painful and frightening. He looked at me in a knowing way, and said, "Elyn, you don't really understand: These people are psychotic. They're different from me and you. They wouldn't experience restraints as we would." I didn't have the courage to tell him in that moment that, no, we're not that different from him. We don't like to be sppretad down to a bed and left to suffer for huors any more than he would. In fact, until very recently, and I'm sure some people still hold it as a view, that restraints help psychiatric patients feel safe. I've never met a pthycsaiirc patient who agreed with that view. tdoay, I'd like to say I'm very pro-psychiatry but very anti-force. I don't think force is evffeitce as treatment, and I think using force is a terrible thing to do to another person with a terrible iesllns.

Open Cloze


During the next year, I would spend five ______ in a psychiatric hospital. At times, I spent up to 20 hours in mechanical restraints, arms tied, arms and legs tied down, arms and legs tied down with a net tied tightly across my chest. I never struck anyone. I never harmed anyone. I never made any ______ threats. If you've never been __________ yourself, you may have a benign image of the experience. There's nothing benign about it.

Every week in the United States, it's been estimated that one to three people die in restraints. They ________, they ________ their vomit, they _________, they have a heart attack. It's unclear whether using mechanical restraints is actually saving lives or costing lives. While I was preparing to write my student note for the Yale Law Journal on __________ __________, I consulted an eminent law _________ who was also a psychiatrist, and said surely he would agree that restraints must be degrading, painful and frightening. He looked at me in a knowing way, and said, "Elyn, you don't really understand: These people are psychotic. They're different from me and you. They wouldn't experience restraints as we would." I didn't have the courage to tell him in that moment that, no, we're not that different from him. We don't like to be ________ down to a bed and left to suffer for _____ any more than he would. In fact, until very recently, and I'm sure some people still hold it as a view, that restraints help psychiatric patients feel safe. I've never met a ___________ patient who agreed with that view. _____, I'd like to say I'm very pro-psychiatry but very anti-force. I don't think force is _________ as treatment, and I think using force is a terrible thing to do to another person with a terrible _______.

Solution


  1. professor
  2. psychiatric
  3. direct
  4. hours
  5. strangle
  6. restraints
  7. aspirate
  8. today
  9. strapped
  10. restrained
  11. effective
  12. illness
  13. mechanical
  14. months
  15. suffocate

Original Text


During the next year, I would spend five months in a psychiatric hospital. At times, I spent up to 20 hours in mechanical restraints, arms tied, arms and legs tied down, arms and legs tied down with a net tied tightly across my chest. I never struck anyone. I never harmed anyone. I never made any direct threats. If you've never been restrained yourself, you may have a benign image of the experience. There's nothing benign about it.

Every week in the United States, it's been estimated that one to three people die in restraints. They strangle, they aspirate their vomit, they suffocate, they have a heart attack. It's unclear whether using mechanical restraints is actually saving lives or costing lives. While I was preparing to write my student note for the Yale Law Journal on mechanical restraints, I consulted an eminent law professor who was also a psychiatrist, and said surely he would agree that restraints must be degrading, painful and frightening. He looked at me in a knowing way, and said, "Elyn, you don't really understand: These people are psychotic. They're different from me and you. They wouldn't experience restraints as we would." I didn't have the courage to tell him in that moment that, no, we're not that different from him. We don't like to be strapped down to a bed and left to suffer for hours any more than he would. In fact, until very recently, and I'm sure some people still hold it as a view, that restraints help psychiatric patients feel safe. I've never met a psychiatric patient who agreed with that view. Today, I'd like to say I'm very pro-psychiatry but very anti-force. I don't think force is effective as treatment, and I think using force is a terrible thing to do to another person with a terrible illness.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
mental illness 7
law school 6
yale law 5
severe mental 3
psychiatric hospital 2
loose associations 2
florida sunshine 2
metal bed 2
legs tied 2
feel safe 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
yale law school 3

Important Words


  1. agree
  2. agreed
  3. arms
  4. aspirate
  5. attack
  6. bed
  7. benign
  8. chest
  9. consulted
  10. costing
  11. courage
  12. degrading
  13. die
  14. direct
  15. effective
  16. eminent
  17. estimated
  18. experience
  19. fact
  20. feel
  21. force
  22. frightening
  23. harmed
  24. heart
  25. hold
  26. hospital
  27. hours
  28. illness
  29. image
  30. journal
  31. knowing
  32. law
  33. left
  34. legs
  35. lives
  36. looked
  37. mechanical
  38. met
  39. moment
  40. months
  41. net
  42. note
  43. painful
  44. patient
  45. patients
  46. people
  47. person
  48. preparing
  49. professor
  50. psychiatric
  51. psychiatrist
  52. psychotic
  53. restrained
  54. restraints
  55. safe
  56. saving
  57. spend
  58. spent
  59. states
  60. strangle
  61. strapped
  62. struck
  63. student
  64. suffer
  65. suffocate
  66. surely
  67. terrible
  68. threats
  69. tied
  70. tightly
  71. times
  72. today
  73. treatment
  74. unclear
  75. united
  76. view
  77. vomit
  78. week
  79. write
  80. yale
  81. year