Yes, avoid it if you can...and if you can think about this, making this decision, you probably can find another way to stay safe without having to go to the hospital.

Hospitals and lock-up stays are very traumatic and can "easily" make a patient worse.

The ONLY real reason to go to one is if you KNOW you will kill yourself or someone else unless someone locks you up. That is a thin line imo because if you can determine that you do have enough control to stay out.

Once in lock up you're there for a short time, just long enough to run the system, run up the bill and go through your insurance and not long enough for any long lasting therapy. You aren't treated like normal human being, you line up for medication and your mouth is checked to be sure you swallowed it---but before that you have to wait for the psychiatrist to evaluate you and determine the medication (even if you have a consulting shrink, it's still a process) You might wander around without ANY medication or help for a FEW DAYS before the psychiatrist sees you. Then it will take more time for the prescription to get to and be filled by the pharmacy and sent back up to the floor for you to take.

And you will meet other patients that are worse than you...and you'll watch as they act out and the staff re-acts... .... you are locked out of your room (which you will share with a stranger) when you are "supposed" to be some where else...where THEY want you to be. You can't watch tv anytime you want, you can't use the phone, you won't have your computer or smart phone... they search all your luggage and sometimes your body so you don't take any "sharps" in with you to do harm... and if you are on suicide watch they come around every 15 minutes or so to check on you. Often this is a cursory look as they can appear to really not care about the patients, they just want their paycheck.

Ok... now how do you feel about keeping yourself safe at home?