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Re-Posting this for a friend to get his article more visibility.

High Point Hospital
Published by Bryan Krisher

If you have any comments, or info, email me at rsarno (at) aol.com

High Point Hospital
Port Chester, NY
1980 – 1983

By
Bryan Krisher

Last edited 05-21-2010

First off, I would like to start out by saying, this site is not sugarcoated at the least. There’s all kinds of profanity and drug references. It tells it like it was, ….from my perspective anyway.

This story is gonna sound Alice’s Restaurant crazy, …sorry I don’t have the 27, 8×10, color glossy photographs, with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was, to be used as evidence against them, …..Boy, do I wish I did!!!

High Point was a strange, even sometimes evil, place …in a strange time period.
We were just ending the 70′s and starting the 80′s, but it wasn’t quite the “Me” generation yet.
Drug rehabs weren’t really that common as they are now, it was like the dawn of drug rehabs (insert Angel choir here).
Mental Hospitals were just realizing there was a whole new market/$$$ of suburban kids, who were on drugs, …with rich parents, or at least parents that covered their family members with the best available insurance plans of the time.
Most of the places nowadays are either one, or the other. Not High Point.
When I went there. We were all slung in together, so if some mental nut went off, us normal people would be right there in the/their way, usually deflecting a chair or something.

Well having armed you with a little hospital history. Next I’ll say……

WAS THAT THE MOST FUCKED UP, TWISTED, BACK-ASS-WARD, WORLD YOU EVER CAME ACROSS OR WHAT!!!??

High Point Hospital was a mental/drug rehab institution located on upper King Street in Port Chester, New York.
I was a patient there from October 1980 to August of 83.
If you were a patient there and remember me, toss me an email and let me know how you’re doing now, and what the hell you have been up to for the last 20+ years!

Other than that, ….ON with the show!

Well let’s see as of this original writing, March 8, 2004, I have heard that the place burnt down somewhere around 1995. I don’t know, or really care, if they rebuilt it or not. I have looked on Google Earth and they did not rebuild it.

That was one of the worst experiences I have ever endured in my life!!
And brother, I’ve been to 2 years of military school so I know what I’m talking about …LOL.

Let’s see some thing’s, yeesssss, are a little cloudy, but I’ll try my best to get it right.
I came to High Point in October of 80, maybe not even a month or so after I got home from summer camp.
My parents thought I was out of control cause I smoked a little weed every now and then, so they had me arrested. Wasn’t the first time for me, in my hometown I had a reputation for being a bad boy, so I had ran into the law plenty of times before, without my parents help.

I guess I should explain a little about my folks since they’re the primary reason I was in that hell hole.
I lived with my dad who had divorced my mom and now was with a young, kind of still new wife {my Stepmother}, who never thought she would have 2 kids to raise. To this day, I still don’t know how my dad was gonna pull that one off …perhaps he and her would simply disappear??
I lived in a neighborhood that wasn’t designed with kids in mind. Something along the lines of the movie “Over the Edge” with a very young “Matt Dillon”. Watch that one and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, neighborhood wise.

Anyway, my dad drives me from my court hearing, of which I had the grand choice of 5 years in prison ….orrrr drug rehab till they say I am well and can leave.
Like that was a hard choice???
Hmmm …Let’s see, which one to choose ….A: getting fucked up the ass and being someone’s bitch/frag for 5 years or B: going to a drug rehab?
It’s tempting ….. but I think I’m gonna go with B Bob.

I gotta swear it seemed like I only talked with Dr. Del (the head shrink) for about 5 to 10 minutes, but in that short period of time he came to the conclusion that I was psychotic and on drugs and admitted me, “and my dads & his insurance companies, money” right away.

Yeah, that’s right I said it, his money.

Also, I just found out, that the hospital had been charging my dad double for a good amount of the time that I was there, and giving the excess to my mom down in Texas cause she couldn’t pay her taxes. My mom, in Texas, had developed a little realtionship with my Doctor, since I had called her a few times from her office. Seems she somehow talked my Doctor into helping her out.
Can you believe that shit!
Everyone is benefiting from ol’ Bryan being locked up. My dad and stepmom are traveling the world and really enjoying their time alone, and my mom in Texas is milking my rehab account to pay her taxes.
Life just doesn’t get much better!

My dad had plenty of money, although I never really saw any of it. I’m not saying that to be conceited either. I just felt it played a large role in me getting in.
….And brother once you got in, it was hard as HELL to get out!

Cruelest thing about this place?
Directly outside the gates were my old stomping grounds.
My last girlfriend, I had before summer camp that year, lived 2 blocks down on the street across from the hospital. My house was no more than a 10 minute drive away (remember that for later.).
I used to ride my bike passed the huge iron gates on numerous ocassions. I used to wonder who lived behind them?
Now I know better.

They get you pretty sedated when you first get there, I felt like I slept for about 2 days. After that I learned from others how things around there worked.
Well, …they were right, ….it is a mental/drug rehab, ….too bad they don’t bother separating the 2.
You weren’t allowed to keep your personal hygiene stuff.
You could check it out from a closet every morning during “cosmetic” time.
They had a “quiet room”(unpadded) to put you in if you became uncooperative.
They also had straight jackets. Lucky for me I never got to try any of those 2 items out.

The system was easy to figure out, although it took me a good 2 years to get it perfected.
What it basically boiled down to was; If you came in using drugs, …they wanted you to leave a preppie.
Yep, I know it sounds hard to believe, Bryan a preppie?
Even in the strangest environments you have to learn to adapt. After living with my dad for so many years, I learned how to adapt to most any arena.
Military schools, religious camps, boarding schools etc… My eniviroments were always changing.

I knew the minute I went in the hospital that I was still going to smoke pot when I got out, it was kind of like a vow I had made to myself.

That being said, My thoughts on Marijuana; I don’t think there’s anything wrong with smoking pot. It’s no worse than alcohol or being an alcoholic. I mean, what’s the biggest fight you would ever see two people having when their high on weed, maybe something like: “Hey, dude give me back my Oreos!”.
It just doesn’t happen. You see drunks getting in fights all the time.
Here’s another: You’re at a concert and you only have 2 choices of rides to get home, a drunk or a pothead? ……I thought so. Also, I work to get my stuff, I don’t steal or beg for the money and weed is all I do. I don’t do any cocaine, crack, meth, pills, or anything else ..period.
Don’t believe that ” …it’s a gateway drug” bullshit either.
I rarely even drink any kind of alcohol these days either. Maybe 1 beer with a nice dinner out.

I’ll get back to the preppie thing later cause I really got ahead of myself here.

The hospital was housed in what used to be, the Strauss’s home. They owned Macy’s department store or something.
If you saw the new movie “Titanic”, they were the older couple hugging each other in bed as water rushed into their room.
So I had that going for me …LOL.
Anyway, it was a huge mansion; we’re talking huge. 8 bedrooms on the second floor alone. The place was 4 stories counting the basement. It had about 15 acres of land it sat on with pool and tennis courts with attached buildings and stables that were incorporated into another 3 -4 story building that at one time housed the staff of this huge mansion. About half the property was the landing airspace for the Westchester County airport.
Kind of reminded me of the Vanderbilt place.
Kinda sounds like a country club, huh? …I mean swimming pools, stables, tennis courts, ….so what am I bitchin’ about?
Well, I only saw those places a total of 2 times the entire time I was there. The pool was, when I was there, a disgusting, stinking, black swamp that weeds were growing out of. The tennis courts were nothing more than cracked asphalt with weeds poking up through the cracks, and all the buildings were dilapidated and falling down. It was all they could do just to keep the main building running.

The only way to explain the layout is to walk you through it.
As you came in the front door, immediately to your right was the receptionist/switchboard person. Up a small flight of very nice stairs and we’re facing the, what I could only call “the fancy seating area”.
The only time we ever got to sit in this area was visiting days and Christmas.
If you went left from here you would go down a long hall (about 20 yards) with DR. Gralnicks (Sr.)office on your right about halfway down. There were three doors at the end, one on each wall. To the left was the bathroom, straight was the business office, right was into what was, at one time, a ballroom. At least 1,500 sq.ft.
We used it for talent nights, square dancing nights, slideshows, meetings, slideshows, and watching TV on Friday and Saturday nights. It was also the way outside, if you were privileged enough. Coming into that room on the left wall was the entrance to still another room. This was the arts & crafts room.
Monday thru Friday you would come here for an hour or two and work on any arts & crafts stuff that you wanted to. My choice was doing car models. They would show you a selection from a catalog and you’d pick them out and they’d buy them for ya.
Yep, the same ones you see in the stores.

Back out in the center of the ballroom on your far right near the end of the room was the large door that led to outside. Once outside you were up on a raised hill patio area, with picnic tables and chairs, overlooking about 8 of the 10 acres.
Actually it was a lot bigger, they just kept the grass mowed on about 8, and those were your boundaries. One giant large square. To the right of the patio area just below the slope was the volleyball area.
Now back inside, back to near the beginning. You’re facing the “fancy seating area” again.
This time you go right, down another, but shorter hallway. Immediately on your left is the dinning hall, where we would eat most of our meals, again if you were privileged. I think there were like 8 tables in there, 4 people at each table.
If you spun directly around you would see one of the many doctors offices, we used to call him Dr. Wally. He was of Pakistanian descent and I always found him to be very sneaky.
Now keep going down the hallway, now your off carpet and on linoleum. To your right is a small alcove with 2 vending machines coffee/hot chocolate and candy. Just off the alcove, next to the vending machines was a doorway to the employees eating area, which also doubled as your visiting area should anybody come visit you on the weekends.
Straight thru that area was a doorway that led to Dr. Dels office and a general meeting room, and a few more doctors offices. Back in the alcove area and there’s some stairs that lead up in the back right corner of the room.

In all my years that I was there, nobody ….I mean NOBODY, other than patients, nurses and doctors and the occasional handyman or school tutor, were ever allowed to go up those stairs …EVER!
And brother, they had good reasoning for not letting anyone else up those stairs. Because it was nothing like the floor below. Below was nice carpets, fancy furniture, wood walls (not paneling), custom built crown moldings and panels.
You know, I’ll never be able to forget all those damn mounted fish hanging all over the place …lol.
Upstairs it was; pissed on carpet, along with the smell, plaster-mellow neutral colored walls, industrial furniture which I figure they got cause it was supposedly too damn heavy to throw.

Anyway, going up part of that stairway brought you to a locked heavy steel door, covered with wire/glass to prevent breakage. There was a doorbell that you rang so someone could let you in, if you weren’t already with someone who had a key.
Go through that door and you’re in the middle of a hallway. To your right is 3 bedrooms housing anywhere from 1 to 3 patients each.
My first room was the one at the end on the left. I shared it with 2 other people.
Go to your left and the hallway widens a bit, another bedroom on the left. By the way, we’re on the guys end of the building. On the right is the dumbwaiter, still used to send food up for the un-privileged.
Keep walking’ and the nurses station is on the left, up 4 stairs to the next landing, on your right is a hallway, down this hallway, on the left is the sliding door closet that houses all your cosmetics. Straight ahead is the “quiet room”. The hallway hangs a right to another bedroom.
Back at the top of the 4 stairs, and to your left was the cigarette closet.
Continue down the hallway on your left is a heavy glass wall; shatter resistant for your protection. Believe me, it is too. I once saw a guy pick up one of those heavy ass chairs, and throw it at the glass full force. No breakage at all. It was more or less just a barrier to keep you from using the stairs that would lead you staright down to the “fancy seating area” and the front door …..and freedom …for some.
On your right is the pay phone room, a small closet with a pay phone in it. Keep going, glass is still on the left. We used to look out it and you could see down to the receptionist/switchboard, and yell down warnings to RUN to any new patients we saw coming in. On your right is still another bedroom area which marks the beginning of the girls area. Keep going and you come to an alcove(about 10′x10′) on the right. Tables, chairs, TV, ashtrays etc. At the end of the hall, you go straight into another bedroom or to the right into yet another bedroom.

Now I’m going to explain the privilege thing that I have mentioned a few times.
It basically broke down like this:

Group 1: No privileges, you stay on the locked floor 24/7, what we called the 1st floor. You ate and did everything else on that floor …NO LEAVING!(except for sessions with your doctor, and even then only with and escort.)

Group 2: Group 1 priviledges + You got to leave the floor for arts and crafts and to get outside for about 2 hours each day. Other than that you ate and did everything else on the 1st floor. You could go off the floor but only with a escort and generally only to your Dr. sessions.

Group 2 Dining Room: Group 1 priviledges + Group 2 priviledges + You got to eat downstairs in the main dining room and stay up watching TV in the ballroom with group 3 people. Someone reminded me that this group was also called 7 to 9er’s, due to the fact they could only stay and watch TV from 7pm to 9pm, with group 3 being able to stay up later.

Group 3: Now this is where things got better. You moved up to the 3rd floor, or 2nd floor if you were a 1st floor person. No escorts. You got to stay up late and watch TV down in the ballroom as a group. You could be on hospital committees, ie; newspaper, entertainment, and other committees.
Usually you got group 3 if you were close to getting out or just by being a kiss-ass model patient. The whole time I was there I only saw 2 people ever go from group 1 directly to group 3, and one of them was me.
Also, instead of having the whole staff watch you, you only had one watching.

Group 4: Now this wasn’t an official group, I was the only one I ever knew that was in it. I would go off property to go summer school, back at my old High School no less. The Doctors/staff ok’d it all. I would leave out in the morning by taxi, go to school (get high) and come back around 2 in the afternoon.
That was great, ….till I got caught. More on that later.

I know this place was crooked. ….and you may well ask “how does Bryan know this?”
Simple, I talked with more than one person who worked there, Doctors included, …after I was there.
They told me flat out that I should have never been there. One Doctor even told me this while we were hittin’ on a doobie(at the time …I was his dealer). Even the all powerful Dr. Del Castillio told me this, when he picked me up hitch-hiking one day.

I have seen perfectly normal people come in there and leave as veggies. Case in point …my roomate when I first got there. He spoke normally, walked normally, but within the 1st year I was there he was reduced to a veggie. He could hardly even talk, much less walk.
He would stand in the hallway …all day long and just sway from side to side, satnding in one place. He got so bad they had to have someone with him 24/7.

Original link:

http://highpoint80.tripod.com/