[unicornlady]

Hi all,
I arrived home 2 days ago. I spent 20 days in the hospital's behavioral health unit. I wanted to share how positive the experience was for me. If I had been at home, the hallucinations, paranoia, and compulsions would have led me to destroy property and possibly even harm others, but since I was in the inpatient unit, with kind people caring for me, I did just fine. I learned so much in my time there, and I don't think of it as time wasted. I have avoided going in to the hospital like the plague, but now I know it is a safe, viable option.
Does anyone else have positive or negative hospital inpatient experiences? I would be curious to hear them.

Dx: BPI, OCD
Rx: Zyprexa 20mg/day, Lithium 1200mg/day, Neurontin 900mg/day

[gayleggg]

I'm so happy for you. I, too, had a good experience with hospitalization. It made the difference in between being miserable and being happy.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[~Christina]

I'm so glad you got much needed help and had a positive IP stay. I think members reading this will hopefully realize IP is not always a horrible thing and be more open to going if they are in a bad way and can't keep safe on there own.

Not everyone posts a good IP , but damn near everyone posts if they have a bad one .

Thanks for this

[wiretwister]

Though I only have fleeting memories of my ip it was what I needed at the time and I am thankful for it....never be afraid to seek help...

[lunaticfringe]

Happy for you!

I had one pretty negative stay in the hospital and another positive one. I think it just depends on the facility and the staff and a bunch of other factors!

i'm so glad you're feeling better.

inpatient has made me a stronger person. i've hated almost every minute of it - yet i've made friends for life and realised what it really means to be alive. it's made me appreciate my life so much more. it literally has given me a new lease of life. i needed the wake up call.

[Nammu]

I've had both good and bad experiences like lunatic fringe said it depends on the hospital and the staff. Mostly I don't remember a whole lot, except for the couple of bad experiences they tend to blur together. Is say the staff is what really matters.

[Resident Bipolar]

I LOVED my stays in a psych ward - every one of them. I felt so, so safe and cared for; it was great to get away from life, bullies, stress and even worried family members. Of the four different psychiatric units I've been to, only one of them was difficult. For one of my admissions, I was supposed to be staying at a new (at the time) NHS unit but they didn't have any beds available and, because I was an emergency admission, they decided to put me in a private hospital about 80 miles away until a bed became available. That hospital was awful - there was very little control of patients and I found myself repeatedly bullied, staff were unprofessional and revealed their personal opinions of patients, sexuality, religion etc to patient which is completely inappropriate and some of what was said deeply offended me, I was left by myself when I said I needed some observing (this ended up in me badly self harming and having to go to the ED) and there was barely any facilities and the hospital was aesthetically rundown and in awful condition. I was so eager to leave that place and go to this different unit that I repeatedly asked about my transfer, and I cried myself to sleep most nights. Once I was transferred to the NHS unit (after two and a half weeks) I felt so much safer and it was 100x better than the "private hospital".

I still have distressing flashbacks from that one admission. The others were all great. Two of the other units were private and they were wondrfully beautiful places with wondrfully beautiful people. The NHS unit was surprisingly great - in the top two units I've stayed in.

TL;DR: It depends on the ward, the staff and the other patients. Luck of the draw, I suppose.

[quasicrystalline]

I've found myself missing it a lot lately. I had a dream about being back there, and it was a good dream. I agree with what others are saying—it's a safe place. Right now I'm sinking into a depression, and the suicidal intrusive thoughts are taking a toll on me. I have a plan to be safe and I probably won't go as far as inpatient, but I do miss the comfort of it right now.

Funny, because at the time I HATED it. Maybe because I was off the wall manic at the time, lol.

[tommyp]

I have also had good experiences in the psych ward. The most helpful thing for me was talking to the other patients and knowing that I was definitely not alone. I felt safe too.

[chasms]

I have been to the hospital twice and both times i liked it! Of course there were some bad things, but it was more of an inconvenience (like the strictness with schedules and stuff). I have OCD which made it kind of hard, i couldn't do my rituals. Also I am vegan so I ate cereal there and my parents had to bring me other food, which was a whole different problem haha. Other than that, i did enjoy it. I was extremely afraid the first time i ever went, the first night i only got 2 hours of sleep and i was crying the whole time. But both times i went, i met great people and i loved loved the nurses, my social worker and my doctor. I miss it sometimes, actually haha.