Psych Hospitals - Good or Putrid?

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I just want to know if anyone has had to do stays in mental hospitals. (My son wants to know. He is thinking of becoming a member.) He hates them and I think they are still pretty similar to the old movie, one flew over the Cuckoo's nest.

They are never a fun place to be, but they range from tolerable and useful to horrible depending on where you go. Most are tolerable even if they aren't the most ideal setup around.

The last poster summed it up pretty good. They're generally like small, single-floor motels with a large meeting room, and you can't leave. They are dreadfully boring.

What do you mean, your son is thinking of becoming a member? You mean like a patient there, or a nurse or psychologist?

I would say putrid. I'm not sure if it's cause I was the only Aspie there at the time or what, but I felt like a trapped animal the whole time I was there (you couldn't even see outside due to blinded windows and I was on the floor sobbing most of my week there begging anyone who'd listen to let me out). No one else was in this level of distress. It was definitely an ordeal. Besides that, they just didn't help me at all. They gave everyone sleeping pills whether they needed them or not, which was ridiculous. I don't need them. About 5% of the time there was actually spent on therapy, and it was with people who knew nothing of my situation and didn't seem to care to learn about it, just wanted to make a quick assessment (fit to leave or required to stay "incarcerated"), and they kept assessing me unsuitable to leave because I was crying the whole time. But I was cryong because it was such a horrible prisonlike place, not because of the suicidal depression that had gotten me in there in the first place. I had actually forgotten about that. I tried to explain this to them but they wouldn't listen. I could probably write a thesis on everything wrong with that place. Anyway: psychiatric hospitals, at least the one I went to, are HORRIBLE!

Everyone else summed it up pretty well. I was in one since they had an eating disorders program, but it felt like being in prision. All day everyday, we'd eat, have group and eat again. The windows have bars on them and all sharps are kept away from you, whether you have a problem with them or not. I felt more unsafe there than being treated well, like they claimed to do.

This exactly. Even though, from my own experience, it's not that bad.
You make friends with your groupmates or roommates, you do stuff together, you're safe from the outside world. The hardest part is being stuck, there are so many rules there. Be careful with medication, they'd give anything if they think it helps the slightest bit, without worrying about the side-effects.

I am kind of worried I will find that out some day.

Don't worry so much about it. Nowadays they try to get you in and out in under 10 days. Usually less if you are there on a voluntary basis.

Never been in one myself but from what I've heard unless you NEED to be there i.e watched 24 hours a day in case of suiside, there are not places you want to be, at least in England.

Having been commited to more than a few myself, I'll tell you this - they're pretty darn boring. The shrinks throw all the meds they can at you in hopes that at least one will turn you into a zombie. Food tastes horrible. If you go in depressed, having to listen to other patients' problems during Group (group therapy, where 8-10 patients sit in a circle and "share" their reasons for admittance in the first place) only makes you want to leave the unit that much faster. Each day that you stay, nurses wake you up super early, and the first thing you feel upon waking is the needle going into your veins (so they can tell if you've been swallowing the drugs they give you).

Mental hospitals may be boring, but they do save lives (assuming that the patients don't commit suicide later on, of course).

well the issue is I would not be going on a voluntary basis.

the one i went to was unnaturally boring and prison-like, though they did whatever they could to ease the boredom, i missed my jewelery making badly-they wouldnt let you have anything sharp, alcoholic, or toxic, nor would they let you carry strings more than 6 inches long, so almost everything in my art medium was forbidden, and there were some rather unsettling people there too, one was this obsessive catholic who insisted on watching the religion channel all the time and b***h about the other programmig the patients watched as being "satanic" no matter what program was on. i missed my music too.

Then they try to get you in an out in under 3 days if they don't really need to keep you. If they really think they need to keep you they give you the option to stay on a voluntary basis (usually about 7-10 days) or else they schedule a hearing with with you to see a judge to see if you meet the criteria to be court ordered in. You can be ordered to stay 2 weeks or one month at a short term facility, 6 months in any suitably secure facility if you are treatment resistant and a danger to the public, or 3 months in a long term facility. All judicial commitments can be renewed by a judge in another hearing if the doctors think you are not ready.

You have the right to be present at any hearing unless the judge accepts an explanation by the doctors why there is an extremely good reason why you cannot be brought to the hearing.

I suggest just going voluntarily if you are doing that bad. Involuntary commitments can be like a scarlet letter when it comes to future background checks, and not just for firearms either.

Pretty awful. The last time I had psychosis I called in sick to work, drove myself to the doctor, and then was put in a hospital when what I needed was therapy, rest, and a comfortable place to stay.

The only exercise you can get is to walk up and down the halls of the floor, as you're locked inside, I wasn't allowed to go outside and smoke, and there was no internet or cable. Most of the time I just lied in bed, trying to sleep, while what I needed was to go for a walk. Like everyone said, absurdly boring, but the lack of exercise is pretty much the worst.

Why does your son feel he needs to go into one?

In Western Australia, they're not so bad (I hear it's not so good in other parts of Australia though =\).

In the private mental health wards, they are all very pretty and comfortable. You get your own room and and ensuite, everything is carpeted. However, they make you constantly go to group therapy during the day, which I hate. It is too stressful, overstimulating, emotionally draining. You can take razors and scizzors and shave your legs if you want to.

It is a very comfortable place to stay, but not a good place to get better unless what you need is to learn CBT in a big hurry.

In the public mental health wards, it is not so pretty or comfortable. You get your own room but have to share bathrooms, and everything is lino. However, during the day you go to OT, where you can do art or gardening or learn self-care. Occasionally they have a class on medications or goal-setting or something like that, but it is all non-compulsory. Sometimes I just sat in the OT building playing poker with the lucid patients. They take away your sharps though, and if you are suicidal they won't let you have a phone charger or headphones unless you beg them and promise again and again to be good (though reassuring them that your suicide method of choice is not strangulation does not appear to actually reassure them).

Having stuff taken away form me is very distressing, but overall I'd rather go public. I actually got better there (temporarily). 3 weeks in a public hospital stabilized my moods and stopped the suicidal ideation, where 6 weeks in a private hospital just got me on medications that made me worse.

When I'm on the outside I think, "it's not so bad", and it isn't, and it undoubtably saved my life twice, but when I'm there I just want to go home. I don't ever want to go back though!