I woke up in a psychiatric hospital with no memory of how I got there. I didn’t even know my boyfriend had committed me.

I still do not know how I got to the hospital or who brought me. All I know is that I was there, in a strange room I didn’t recognize, with a low ceiling and an unfamiliar bed. I was disoriented and in pain.<br><br>I reached down and realized my feet were shackled to the bed. The panic started rising up. Why were my feet chained to a bed? Where was I? What day was it? How did I get there?<br><br>Then I looked around the room more closely. There were bars on the window. This wasn’t my house. And there were call buttons mounted near the bed. Oh God, I was in a hospital.<br><br>I tried to call for an attendant, but there wasn’t much point. I was already here. I was going to have to figure out how I got here on my own. So I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, wincing in pain as I did so. My head and shoulder throbbed.<br><br>I stood up, wobbled a little, and walked over to the window. I could see the outside world, but the bars blocked my way. I looked down at the ground and saw that there was no way to get down from the window without climbing. The building looked high. I could not even jump down from the sill.<br><br>I gave up on the window and started searching the room for clues. There was a dresser with two drawers, but neither drawer opened. They were locked. There was a closet, but it was empty. There was a door, which I opened, and found myself in a short hallway. The door locked behind me as I left the room.<br><br>At the end of the hall, I found stairs down. I descended them and followed the hall around a corner into a longer hallway. I saw two nurses at the far end of the hall. I started walking towards them, but they did not look back.<br><br>As I got closer to the nurses, I saw two orderlies pushing a cart of food down the hall. The food cart was between me and the nurses. I tried to walk around it, but one of the orderlies blocked my path. <br><br>“Let me pass, young lady,” he said.<br><br>I tried to explain that I was looking for answers, that I didn’t know how I got there, but he didn’t listen.<br><br>He stepped aside, allowing me to pass, but he walked on either side of me. So did the nurses. By the time I reached them, they were no longer ignoring me. One of them spoke.<br><br>“Hi there, sweetie. Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.<br><br>“I’m going to figure out how I got here,” I replied.<br><br>“Well, I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere just yet,” said the nurse, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You have somewhere to be, and you need to be escorted.”<br><br>I pulled away from her hand and walked faster. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and then another. Both orderlies were now holding my arms, and the nurses were walking on either side of me. I was not going anywhere.<br><br>After what felt like only minutes, but was probably more like ten or fifteen minutes, they stopped in front of a door. One of the nurses unlocked it and pushed it open. The others stopped holding my arms. I was told to enter.<br><br>I stepped inside and the door closed behind me. I heard the click of a lock turning and I realized I was trapped.<br><br>When I turned around, I saw my boyfriend. He was sitting in a chair and he was smiling at me.<br><br>“Hey there, beautiful,” he said. “I’ve missed you so much.”<br><br>I didn’t know what to say to that. How could he think I hadn’t noticed he was missing? And what the hell was he talking about, anyway?<br><br>“Where am I?” I asked.<br><br>“You’re in the safest place for you,” he replied. “You’re in a psychiatric hospital, sweetie.”<br><br>That didn’t make any sense. Why would I be in a hospital? And then I realized that he must have put me there.<br><br>“You put me here,” I accused.<br><br>My boyfriend stood up and took a step closer to me. I backed away from him.<br><br>“Yes, I did,” he said. “I had to, sweetie.”<br><br>“Why?” I asked. “I’m fine.”<br><br>“You’re not fine,” he said. “You’ve been acting strange. Remember all those times you’ve acted strange?”<br><br>I felt a knot forming in my stomach. Was he talking about the times when I forgot things? Or the times I got confused? Or the times I got lost?<br><br>“Yes, I remember,” I said.<br><br>“Well, it’s gotten worse,” he said. “You started acting stranger and stranger. You forgot bigger and bigger things. You couldn’t remember where we lived. You couldn’t remember your own name. You couldn’t even remember how to take care of yourself.”<br><br>I knew what he was talking about. I had been forgetting more and more. And it had gotten worse. But I didn’t know how bad it was. And I didn’t know how much he knew.<br><br>“Did I do something bad?” I asked. <br><br>“No, sweetie,” he said. “You’re not a bad person. But you’re getting worse. And I couldn’t take care of you anymore.”<br><br>I was shocked. I had thought my boyfriend would take care of me no matter what. But he’d given up on me. And he’d committed me.<br><br>“Who committed me?” I asked.<br><br>“Dr. Kim,” he replied. “I found her online and I told her what was going on. She agreed to see you, and then she committed you.”<br><br>I felt a lump form in my throat. I had never heard of this Dr. Kim. I had never gone to see a doctor, unless you counted my annual check-ups. I didn’t even know if I had a doctor. But my boyfriend had found one online and he’d used her to commit me.<br><br>I looked at him and I could barely hold back my anger. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to get out of there and never see him again.<br><br>“Where are we?” I asked.<br><br>“We’re in Dr. Kim’s office,” he replied.<br><br>“But I saw nurses and orderlies. Where are they?”<br><br>“They work at the hospital,” he said. “You’re at the hospital, remember?”<br><br>I looked around the room. I had been so focused on my boyfriend that I hadn’t paid attention to where I was. I had no idea where I was.<br><br>“How did you get me here?” I asked.<br><br>“I called Dr. Kim and told her what was going on,” he replied. “I told her I couldn’t take care of you anymore and I didn’t know what to do. She said I should bring you to her and she would help us figure out what to do. So I did.”<br><br>I looked at him and I was disgusted. I had trusted him. I had thought he was my partner and my friend, but he had betrayed me. And he had locked me away.<br><br>“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to call her?” I asked.<br><br>“I knew you would fight me,” he said. “I knew you would try to stay with me. So I did it without telling you.”<br><br>I was horrified. He had planned to commit me and he’d done it without even telling me.<br><br>“Where are we going from here?” I asked.<br><br>“You’re going to see Dr. Kim,” he replied. “She’s going to try to figure out what’s wrong with you, and then we’re going to figure out what to do next.”<br><br>I wasn’t happy with what he had done, but I knew I couldn’t fight him right now. I was in pain and I was confused. And I didn’t know how to fight him anyway. So I nodded.<br><br>“Good,” he said. “I’m going to take you to her now.”<br><br>I nodded again. I didn’t know what was going on or what was going to happen, but I knew I was in his hands. And I didn’t trust him.<br><br>He led me out of the office and down a hall. We walked for what felt like a long time, and then he opened a door and pushed me inside.<br><br>I stumbled forward, wincing in pain. When I looked around, I saw a woman sitting in a chair and a man sitting on a couch. My boyfriend closed the door behind us.<br><br>“Come on over, dear,” said the woman.<br><br>I looked at her and saw that she was Asian. She had black hair pulled back in a ponytail, and glasses. And she was wearing a white lab coat.<br><br>I walked over to her and sat in the chair across from her. The man on the couch looked up and smiled at me. I recognized him as Dr. Kim.<br><br>“Hi,” I said to her. “Thank you for seeing me.”<br><br>“My dear, I didn’t see you,” she said. “You were committed to me by your boyfriend.”<br><br>I looked at my boyfriend and saw that he was standing against the wall, watching us.<br><br>“Yes,” I said to Dr. Kim. “He committed me.”<br><br>Dr. Kim nodded and wrote something down. I didn’t see what she wrote, but she was scribbling furiously.<br><br>“How do you feel, dear?” she asked.<br><br>“I don’t know,” I said.<br><br>Dr. Kim looked at me in surprise. “What do you mean?”<br><br>“I don’t know how I got here,” I said. “I don’t know where here is. I don’t know what’s going on.”<br><br>My boyfriend stepped forward.<br><br>“She doesn’t remember anything, doctor,” he said. “She forgets big chunks of time. She can