Thank you, Helpmegetbetter. That's enlightening. Last year my long-time psychiatrist told me my local mental health facility (VA in my case) would "not be therapeutic" for me. That information has reshaped my thinking about how to handle any future "unsafe" emergencies.

Perhaps the phrase my psychiatrist used -- "not therapeutic" -- could serve you in discussing things with your therapist or with another therapist. In case of need, you could point to prior counterproductive experience with the mental health care facility as support for rejecting voluntary commitment or for objecting to involuntary commitment. The fact you could extricate yourself from the facility by putting on a happy mask demonstrates they weren't careful about you.

Your goal should be getting healthy, and I regret the very system designed to help you imposes additional depressing stresses.

Edit: I fully recognize some individuals here have had outstanding, healing inpatient experiences in various facilities. Clearly, some places are far better than others.