from wrongplanet --
1. "I recomend you dont and if you really want help go straight to a psychiatrist in your own time. Ive been in the psych ward twice (involuntary) and seen many people join in voluntary and then get baker acted for no reason. They then have to stay for an extra 72 hours minimum plus the 24 previous. Trust me you do not want to be in a psych ward, it is no real help and likely will only cause extra problems in your future."
2. "That depends on your goals. You are dehumanized. Remember, you presented yourself as unable to function outside of their environment. You are not considered to be in full control of yourself.
3. "Sometimes I wanted to be able to get away, but mental hospitals are not the best places. Unless you believe yourself to be a risk, carefully consider the committal."
4. "I was involuntarily committed once as a minor. My other time in such a hospital was more of a voluntary thing.
My outpatient shrink who I was seeing regularly and I thought of it. He arranged an appt with a nurse who asked a number of questions and I sort of straddled the line in describing how depressed and hopeless I was but it was enough for her to recommend a stay. As for my experience there as an adult, it was absolutely benign but maybe as pointless as anything I've ever done. I re-introduced myself into routine of showering everyday and eating and sleeping properly but really no hope of getting any value out of it. It felt like a place where people are churned out, come in full of despair and get revitalized back out into the world. My disposition didn't really change the whole time and people probably mistook my introversion for something more negative. If the cost of my insurance covering the stay didn't get passed on to society I'd say meh, but that's a decision I sort of wish I didn't make.
Everyone's different but I'm not sure why to do this except as a last resort. Will say if the real world were half as orderly as it is inside such a place I'd be coping better."
5. "In many places they will not allow you to stay in your room; you have to be out and with people all the time. If you stay in your room, they may assume you are isolating yourself and keep you hospitalized until you can force yourself to stay with everybody else all day every day for several days.
There's very little reason to go to a psych ward other than being suicidal or psychotic and wanting not to end up dead or injured. You do not receive therapy that's any better than what you can get outside; and you'll almost certainly be heavily medicated. In fact, in many places you do not get individual therapy at all.
If you are in danger of losing your life or doing something exceedingly stupid or dangerous because your brain is running away with you, then yes, check yourself in. But if you are not in that situation, then you will not get any better being in a psych ward. The primary benefit of a psych ward is that you are less likely to be able to kill yourself there. All they do is basically stabilize you and send you home. You cannot do long-term learning in a psych ward because you have to do that in the real world.
If you want help, you should find a normal therapist. It's a very incorrect idea that because institutionalization is more intensive, it will help you more. In fact, it will probably help you less. Being in your own home, in your own environment that you can control, facing the real problems of everyday life, you will be much more comfortable than staying in a place where you have no privacy, where people treat you in a very condescending manner.
I thought the first time I went inpatient that they would help me, because going IP meant getting serious about getting better. I was sorely disappointed. All they will do is medicate you and check on you very often to make sure that you don't kill yourself."
and more on How to voluntarily commit oneself to a psychiatric hospital? - General Autism Discussion
