I was inpatient for 7 weeks last summer & while I was terrified of going in it was a really good experience. I was in a major depressive episode, my self injury was getting pretty bad, I had suicidal thoughts, was really struggling with sobriety and my life was just generally falling to pieces. I was lucky though I got into a dedicated women's program for women with acute mental illnesses with a trauma history. We had lots of good group therapy sessions, as well as one on one time with the nurses. Plus I could see my pdoc daily which was important as she was adjusting my medication.

the only downside was the lack of privacy - none of the doors, not even the bathroom stalls had locks and the nurses checked on us every hour. Because I was in voluntarily I could leave the unit to go for walks pretty much as I pleased, except for when I needed to be in group.

It was good to have a total time out from my life and just be able to focus on myself and getting better.

--splitimage