If at all possible, you should try to avoid entering a mental hospital unless it's absolutely necessary. I say this because being in a hospital can be extremely annoying to anyone, but especially to someone with a mental illness. There are times, though, when you really must enter one, especially when you are a danger to yourself or anyone else.
This is my attempt to prepare you for what you may experience there.
Although the days of cuckoo's nest are over, a mental hospital "ain't no country club" either. It is an unfortunate fact, but because hospitals are so afraid of lawsuits, they put safety front and center. This means that the patient's needs often take a back seat. For this reason, they can be aggravating places. Isn't ironic that the place that is supposed to help you often cannot meet your needs?
Since you have a mental illness, you are probably more sensitive than most people about how you are treated. If you are in a state where you need to be hospitalized, you are probably even more sensitive. There are a lot of strangers in a hospital, which makes for that many more chances to be hurt by social interactions.
Remember, the staff at the hospitals—although experienced—are still human beings with human failings. In some ways, I think their experience works against them. It is likely that they have become desensitized to emotional pain the way emergency room workers become desensitized to the sight of blood. This makes them more efficient, but less empathic. Remember that if they were empathic with everyone they met, they would burn out quickly and have to leave the profession.
Some hospitals discourage contact with outside therapists. This is an unintentional
set up for distress: more opportunities for wounding and fewer opportunities
for processing.
If you are a go-getter and this bothers you, tell your insurance company. The more people complain about the lack of therapy, the more likely things are to change. Do not be cynical. You are the customer. Make it clear that if you find an insurer that covers inpatient psychotherapy, you are willing to switch. This will put economic pressure on them to change. This is using capitalism to your advantage. Think of it as voting: your one complaint will not change things, but if we can encourage enough people to, the likelihood of change increases manifold. We are all in this together.
Wait until you have been discharged before pursuing this. If you are still sick, this is likely to aggravate you further. Also, you will be more effective in stating your case when you are healthy.
With the exception of some very expensive places that insurance will not cover, modern hospitals do not do real psychotherapy on an inpatient basis. They will have the occasional therapy group here and there, but this is no substitute for weekly ongoing therapy. You can often get more done with outside therapists and psychopharmacologists.
It is my sincere wish that insurance companies realize that there is a need
for therapy in the inpatient setting and the pendulum will find the midpoint
between the past—being admitted for years with daily one-on-one therapy
and the present—short term admissions with the weekly 45-minute group therapy.
The staff is really there to attend to a large number of patients and duties. Unfortunately, this leaves little time for one-on-one. Each shift you will be assigned a contact person. This is the person you go to when you need something. Find out where they post the list of contact persons every shift so you know who is assigned to you.
Some hospitals encourage the contact person to seek you out and spend 15 to
30 minutes with you. Others do not and if you need to talk, you have to find
your contact person and arrange a time to meet with them. Do not expect miracles.
They are not therapists. I have even had the contact person make things worse
for me.
There are some diagnoses that are more sensitive to noise, such as the manic phase of bipolar. All of the hospitals I have been admitted to have over looked the small things they can do. Foam rubber stripping around the doorframe to dampen the slam when they close the door would be a big help for little money. If you can afford it, offer a contribution to the hospital on the condition that they agree it will go toward noise proofing.
It can take a while to learn to trust them. As I mentioned before, since you have a mental illness, you are probably more sensitive than most people about how you are treated. If you are in a state where you need to be hospitalized, you are probably even more sensitive. There are a lot of strangers in a hospital, which may make you feel uncomfortable.
The priority of a mental hospital is your safety, not your entertainment. The vast majority of the budget goes to staffing and safety, not amenities.
Think stone ages, here. Many don't have cable and have small TV's. Many of the VCR's are twenty years old and hard to operate.
Most don't have internet access.
They limit when and where you can have guests.
And there are few opportunities to exercise. I've been known to power walk
the corridors.
At home, you chose what and when to eat, when to go to bed, and when to wake up. In
a hospital, all this is decided for you.
Like all institutional food, hospital food tends to be dreadful and you have to eat it at certain times and in allocated spaces. To make things worse, the dietitian and kitchen are often on separate pages. In other words, the dietician may be telling you to eliminate lactose from your diet and your specially prepared lactose-free dinner comes with carrots drenched in butter and a little packet of parmesan cheese.
Once you are in a hospital, expect to be treated like a child. The staff have
very little rein to bend the rules, even if bending the rules is necessary
for you to meet basic needs—such as getting a good night's sleep. They usually
have one or two ways to deal with an issue. Once those are exhausted, don't
be surprised if they give up on you. I have been told to go back to my room
and suffer when pills didn't fix my insomnia. The irony here is that staff
will treat you like a child, but tell you to act like an adult.
In spite of all of the negatives, some people become hospital dependent. My
guess is that these are lonely people who like the attention and being taken
care of.