I was hospitalized 5 times involuntarily for periods ranging from 3 weeks to 1 month over the last 10 years. The last time I was almost declared incompetent to make medical decisions and would have been forcibly medicated on a community treatment order but the doctor at the end decided not to go through with it and I had my own lawyer too at that point. I would call the treatment I received on the whole barbaric and cruel. If it had been longer I would start also to wonder about becoming 'institutionalized', which scaredandconfused brought up. I did not at any point get the feeling that anyone cared about my well being, rather they were simply trying to control me and get me to obey their instructions at all times no matter what the instructions were. I was still psychotic each time I was discharged from hospital because I never talked about my delusional beiefs because I was afraid I would be incarcerated longer. I think it is true that if I had talked about my delusions they would have kept me longer. The fact that I was being kept against my will fed into my paranoia too, so I didnt trust any of the doctors and I don't think of psychiatrists as doctors of any kind of scientific medicine.