When i was in a paychosis, my parents took me to hospital for evaluation, its a big very known hospital. When the psychatrist started talking to me, i asked if i can be hospitalize, the doctor told me we have facility here but its better for you to stay home and take the medication, so i desided to go home. Many people say , once going to hospital with psychosis they imidiatly hospitalize you…but that wasnt the case for me…it sounds strange.
Wasn’t my mother’s case either, and I haven’t been sent to a hospital yet.
You aren’t missing much.
I voluntarily went to a psych ward the first time. months later I was escorted by van to a mental ward after observation meeting. both first two times I was hospitalized I didn’t have insurance to pay for the hospital to keep me until I was stable so I was released from the second hospital without being yet stable. months after that I was handed to the cops by my sister who was trying to help me and I was landed in a state hospital where they didn’t care that I didn’t have insurance and I finally stabilized. Hospitals are not pleasant from my experiences with them. I would say you’re lucky?
Available psychiatric hospital beds are way down in number and in demand. Maybe when the doctor evaluated you he decided your illness wasn’t severe enough to require hospitalization. Or it’s possible he made a mistake in not hospitalizing you. But here you are so maybe he made the right decision. Back in my day it was easy to get in hospitals. In the beginning of my disease in the early 80’s my parents are the ones who arranged for hospitals to take me in my multiple hospitalizations. I was NOT a danger to myself or anyone else. And when I relapsed in the late 80’s I actually hospitalized myself a few times. I just drove or even walked to the hospitals and checked myself in. I was never turned away.
What you’ve been told isn’t correct. You get hospitalised if you’re a danger to yourself or others, generally. Sometimes people will get hospitalised because there’s no one else to take care of them or they have nowhere to go. They won’t take you in unless the circumstances are pretty dire. It took a lot to get my non-compliant ex hospitalised and he was what I considered critical…eventually, they took him in because he was anorexic (as a result of the SZ) but not because of the SZ itself.
Hospitals are designed to be an emergency pit-stop, that’s pretty much it. You can get connected to social workers and other services through that system, but ultimately their intention is to get you out as soon as possible.
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Its not strange. In my case I have never been hospitalized either. I was treated in the community. Not enough beds available plus I wasn’t a danger to myself or anyone else.
my voices try and get me hospitalised all the time. in truth though i’ve been three times. once for 5 months, once for 3 weeks and once for one night. the last time i should have been sectioned but i wasn’t. that was about 5 years ago. had a little mini love bomb go off last year for a coule of months but it didn’t last long and i got through it ok at home. it was voice lead as usual but didn’t require hospitalisation. i refrained from posting whilst going through it as i knew it was shite from the start. hospital experience hasn’t been bad in my experience and i needed it all 3 times.
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There have been times I’ve been taken in by family and I was kept for 48 hours… stabilized and sent home.
There was a time when I was having a horrid psychotic episode at a family gathering and the cops were called and they somehow got it into their head that I was just very very drunk. So I got taken in, looked over and sent home with my Dad and Mom to “sleep it off”
Of course I couldn’t just sleep it off.
There are three times that I was brought in and was admitted right away and kept for a very long time. When I was 17 and had my swan song of a break down… when I was 21 and rabid… homeless in the park…
and when I was 23 and seriously tried to leave this life… I was admitted into the mental hospital the moment I was released from the ER.
Other then that… it’s been short holds and a bit in and out. If I’m not a danger to myself and others… they won’t keep me. Also I do know there are others out there who are in worse shape… so they do get the priority over me.
It costs less to keep you in the community and at home. So there is a push in the health care system to do this. Plus if you weren’t a danger to yourself or others they see no reason to keep you.
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We no longer have state hospitals in Louisiana. Governor Bobby Jindal took them away. I don’t know what I’ll do if I need to be hospitalized again. 
I’d never go to the state-run hospital if I can help it. Its like a prison institution, there are no groups during the day and they keep you locked in one room. Whereas the local hospital that I have been in, you have free range to roam the wing, groups and more care.
This is generally the crux of it - When I voluntarily was hospitalized for the first time, years ago - I was basically starting to be a danger to myself and others - I mean I was seriously cutting myself, contemplating suicide and trashing the house and threatening my family. My psychiatrist felt it was time for me to go to the hospital.
I was in no shape to go on my own to the hospital - the police arrived and escorted me to the hospital by cop car
Our state hospitals were pretty good. You could play basketball, do art, and walk around outside (in an enclosed area), all pretty much on your own time. At the one near where I live we had an art therapist come, and once you reached a certain level you could go outside with a nurse.
ETA the first hospital had groups and AA meetings.