Thank you all again for sharing your experiences and offering the encouraging words.

My first hospitalization was like something from a nightmare: They invited me in to view the facility and then LOCKED ME IN because I had vocalized a specific suicide plan (stupid, stupid!!) during the chat with the intake person. I received NO treatment other than one short visit from the head shrink; like I said in my first post, I just lay on my bed each day. They never checked on where the patients were or whether they ate. Food trays were left at the front desk for us to collect if we wanted to. Between the apathetic staff and the inpatients shuffling around in bathrobes, I felt like I was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. If the episode weren't so humiliating I would report this facility to the state licensing board.

online user: The experience you described sounds exactly like my second hospitalization. I was frustrated, though, because the group therapy seemed useless (one involved watching a videotape about life at Rikers Island - wtf?), and the individual therapy wasn't to helpful either. Plus they had one schizophrenic woman in full-blown psychosis who was allowed to wander around and literally terrorize the other patients.

Gently1 & ladyjrnlst: Maybe I should give a day treatment program a try. There is one of those in my area. My ex-therapist (I walked out in tears in January and canceled all remaining sessions, but that's a story for another thread) has been trying to encourage me to try it for several months now. Of course, now summer is approaching and with 3 kids at home it won't be an option 'til fall.

Thanks again. You all have given me much food for thought!