Mental Health & Institutions in Holland

[rikku_cheerio]

I'm trying to find information on how the Dutch do inpatient mental health care.  I know here in the US, you can go to a hospital, say you're having suicidal ideations, and they'll admit you (generally speaking--I'm summarizing my sister's experience

Comments

Tangentially...

[verrucaria]

I wonder how quickly your character stopped paroxetine. Stopping many antidepressants too abruptly can be a pretty miserable experience. Manufacturers don't like to call it withdrawal, so it's called "discontinuation syndrome" instead. Quitting SSRIs/SNRIs/TCAs cold-turkey can make you feel physically unwell, including so-called "brain zaps," which feel like static electricity in your head.

Not everyone experiences withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants, and antidepressant withdrawal is not technically potentially life-threatening (the way benzodiazepine/anticonvulsant or alcohol withdrawal can be), but I'd say that if you were already in a bad state of mind, experiencing discontinuation symptoms could suddenly make it a lot worse. FWIW, paroxetine tends to be among the most likely antidepressants to cause discontinuation symptoms.

If the medication was effective, though, actual depression or anxiety symptoms (the ones the medication was started for in the first place) may take a while (weeks to months) to return. Antidepressants start being effective very slowly, and they typically stop being effective slowly as well. (And some people of course only need meds during particularly stressful periods in their life.)

On the other hand, people tend to experience discontinuation symptoms right away (if they're going to experience them at all).

I don't know whether any of this info (if you were not aware of it yet) helps or hurts the plans you had for your character.