It really depends on where you go. I’ve been in some great hospitals and some terrible ones. I used to use it as an escape from my life. Spikes is right, it’s very boring. Lots of free time. Depends on the place for visiting hours too. One I went to had visiting from 6-8 every night. Another I went to did visiting by last name so you only got two hours of visiting time every week.

The ones I’ve gone to do not allow you to have your phone or anything electronic. They have payphones if you want to make a phone call but you must have money or a phone card (which they don’t really sell anymore). But one I went to allowed free calls and another I went to had a desk phone in addition to a pay phone that they would allow you to use when there were no groups going on.

So in my mind it’s not that bad. Yeah you do lose your freedom for awhile but if you need to be safe then it’s best.

There are people here though that will tell you that the hospital was the worst experience of their life and they’re never going back. And there are people like me who say it’s not that bad. So you have to take it all with a grain of salt.