Actually, from what I've witnessed, the patients that get violent pretty much walked in the door delusional or psychotic or under the influence of some substance that is altering their reality in some way. They lash out generally without any provocation at all simply because they are not functioning at all in reality and their perceptions are not at all rational. They certainly may be "freaked out", but from what I've witnessed (and I unfortunately have put in quite a bit of time on psych units over the years), they are freaked out about something that isn't really there, isn't really happening, isn't really reality (which is why they have been admitted in the first place.)

Hospitals do have to take standard precautions because they don't know what kinds of symptoms patients will display, and obviously the most extreme behaviors have a tendency to occur in the early days of admission before treatment has been put in place.

Do I need all of those safeguards for me personally? Probably not all of them as I've never personally gotten violent towards other people although I can be a danger to myself, but if I have an item that another patient gets hold of and is able to use in some way to harm himself, a staff member, or another patient, the hospital has failed in the duty to keep everyone there safe. Most units aren't terribly large and don't have the facilities for separating patients into different wards for different levels of security/precautions, etc., so they have no option but to apply those precautions across the board.