First off it's pretty hard to have anyone institutionalized against their will. Most places require a court order or at least the signature of two psychiciatrists.

That being said, I've been in rehab twice and a psych hospital once. Addiction to alcohol and mental illness are two different problems, although they do feed off each other.

Re rehab for alcohol addiction. Like I've said I did it twice. I was in patient for 28 days once. Wasn't scary at all. the facility was actually quite nice and we had lots of group therapy and AA meetings every day. The second rehab I did, was a better fit for me, because it also addressed mental illness, was outpatient - 4 days a week for 10 weeks. I loved it.

I went IP to a psych hospital voluntarily last summer for 7 weeks to deal with depression, SU thoughts and self harm, that were all exacerbated by my getting sober. It was really scary at first but wound up being a really good experience and exactly what I needed. We had group therapy, lots of opportunity for exercise, I saw my psychiatrist every day, and got my meds adjusted. It was also just a good chance to focus on nothing but myself.

In my experience meds alone won't help with an alcohol problem, if you have one. Rehab is one way to go. But if you really want to to stop check out AA as another alternative. I go to AA a couple of times a week and find they've been incredibly helpful.

Good luck.

--splitimage