I am very curious to know others experiences on being inpatient on a Psychiatric Unit.

Over the last 13 years I have been going to the same Psyc unit. My Bipolar 1 disorder is called rapid cycling and very unstable. So I have been inpatient many times.

Last July my PDOC who is in his sixties stepped down as the head doc of the unit. When he was in charge, I would say it was a wonderful unit. Each shift your assigned nurse would spend time with you. There was an assigned outside walk with staff, if you had the right level. The walk would stop in the cafeteria, and you could get coffee, snacks, ect. If you had a level 2, when your family or friends came in the evening you could go off the unit with them for 30 minutes. If you weren't suicidal or out of control manic they weren't too restrictive with what you could have in your room.

Since the new young doc took over, wow has it changed. No more walks, or off the unit with family. Mind you they have never had a problem in the history of the unit. The nurses don't talk to you anymore. You can't have a plastic bottle with water in it, they say it is a weapon. No one can have any clothes with a string in or on it. They would not allow me to have a blouse that had two inch ribbons on either side of the neck opening. If you someone wanted to hang themselves the could just roll up a sheet.

They use to promote journaling. Now no one can have a pen or pencil. In another post I told how my husband had to go to the VP of the hospital to allow me to have my felt tip pens to journal about my son last Thursday. This was after a long battle that totally wiped me out when I went in for rest and support.

What have others experienced Inpatient ?