An in-patient psych unit exists mainly for the purpose of providing supervision for people who are temporarily a danger to themselves, or others. In the latter case, it is getting more common for people to be shunted to jail. It's not a place set up to provide a lot of comforting to people in emotional pain. (Unless you've got the money to go to some pricey private facility.) A lot of the population that is in and out of psych hospitals and the psych units of regular hospitals are not the pleasantest people to be around. Your doctor is right to caution you against looking for something in a psych hospital that isn't there to be found.

I've been inpatient a few times. I found there was absolutely nothing going on in psych units that was going to improve how I was feeling. It's a lot closer to being in jail than you might expect. Each time I went in, I left even more upset and depressed leaving than I was when they admitted me. One time it did lead to me getting hooked up with some intensive out-patient care, and that was so worth it. Try to get into a partial hispitalization program, if you can. What needs to happen for your life to get better isn't going to happen in a hospital setting. That's just a holding pen.