My experience is that 35 years ago it was much better in some ways, hospitalizations were longer, until you stabilized, the staff better trained and respectful There was art therapy, music therapy, movement therapy as well as CBT and meds. The bad thing was that no Pdoc wanted to believe or hear about side effects of meds. Hospitals had more than one psych unit at least we're I was there was a trauma unit that was less stressful. That was with medicare or medicaid.....never happen in today's world, medicaid and medicare are no longer accepted many places. Hospitalizations are in and out with staff that disbelieve every word and don't listen to the patient. One guy I saw just wanted an orange, he ended up in solitary. Such an easy fix, but no they fought him. They couldn't say we're busy at this moment, later, no they told him he was out of order and if he didn't sit down there would be consequences.

Things started going down hill in 2000.

As for the Pdocs there seems to be a wide variety. Very bad, pill pushers to very good listeners. the most recent ones have a more enlightened view of meds and listen and are respectful to me when I say this or that had bad effects for me.

Ts I've never had a problem with.

Some things have gotten much worse, like access to services and some things have gotten better like more open minded doctors....of course the recent Pdocs I've met are younger and differently trained.

That's my experience, I don't want to go into the horrible experiences, maybe later.