I live in Washington State, USA and we are dead last in the country for quality mental health care. I have been to about 6 or 7 different hospitals and they all have wooden boxes with mats on them for ‘beds’. I can hardly sleep on it. The showers always have marginally warm water with very little water pressure and only one of them had what I would consider ‘decent’ food. They always drug me to high heaven and I put on 15 pounds while I am in there. Of course, the ‘reason’ I end up there is because I wasn’t on meds and I started acting out my chronic delusion of thinking I am in a brain study and believing I am an epic savant connected to the universe. It’s always a miserable experience and I hate it the whole time I am in there. There is also always a couple violent patients that I am afraid of so I have to hide in my room. I was so bad 5 years ago (severe paranoia that I was going to hurt myself. VERY unstable) that I considered ‘living’ at the hospital and toured one near where I live. It was such a pit! Plastic boxes with mats for ‘beds’, a run-down building from the 50’s, dirty bathrooms, one room for TV, no internet, horrible food. Need I say more? I wouldn’t rule out living in the hospital, as crazy as I am, if it had regular beds and showers, good food and WiFi.
What are the hospitals like where you are? Like mine? better? worse? also, there is nothing to do either. You can ask for a ‘flexi’ pen or some crayons and paper and that’s about it.
The beds are better and the buildings somewhat newer and better maintained, but otherwise as miserable and boring. Avoiding them is good motivation to stay med-compliant.
That’s the main reason I am med compliant. If the hospitals were better, I would prefer to be ‘crazy’ and live in my grand delusion.
They remodeled one of them and the last time I was there it was so much better and even the food was good. Had 4 stays in my life and one partial hospitalization.
Nothing grand about my delusions, they were pretty terrifying. Glad to have insight and know I can safely ignore what noise is left in my head now.
The Army hospital I went to several times had a tread mill you could use. It was kind of weird in socks but the Geodon hadn’t yet hit me so hard then and I could use it. But I got severely hazed there and it made my health worse.
No complaints about the beds but I don’t think we had any hot water or I was never in there long enough for the water to get hot. The food was good.
The civilian hospital I was in was really bad at first. I was really bad. Off my meds and in one big room with several beds with all the real crazies but my memory wasn’t in tact so I don’t remember much. After I got stable they moved me to the military unit there and I only had one roommate. No hazing there so that was good but the food was horrible.
I don’t like hospitals. It’s meds for life for me. Haven’t been in a while now.
All the hospitals where I live now are nicotine free campuses so I really don’t want to go.
At least all the ones I went to had smoke breaks.
The VA hospitals I go to are nice. 
My last hospitalization was about 9 months ago and, like I said, I take my meds mainly to avoid the disgusting, violent, boring, fat gaining, miserable hospitals in WA State where they are factually the worst.
I’ve been hospitalized over 20 times, so I have been to a LOT of hospitals. Most of them were okay. I live in Oklahoma, but I’ve been to a hospital in Tennessee and one in Arkansas. I have a high tolerance for boredom, so I kind of like being left alone. A few of the hospitals had me in planned activities for the whole day, but probably more didn’t give you that much to do. The hospital I was at in Tennessee had about 90% black people in them, but nobody gave you a hard time, probably because they would be put on worse drugs if they acted out, or sent to a worse place. That’s what always kept me in line. But everyone there was just fine. The food varied from place to place. Sometimes it was kind of skimpy, but mostly it was okay. The condition of the physical plant varied from hospital to hospital. Sometimes it was kind of worn and unpleasant, but most places were okay.
Someone figured out long ago that it was cost efficient to make mental hospitals not too attractive.
I am glad most of the hospitals you went to were OK. WA State really is dead last but, having said that, maybe my bar is too high. I wish it were more like a regular hospital with TV’s in the rooms and all that. Were all of your hospitalizations involuntary? or did you take yourself sometimes?
Most of the hospitals I have been to had proper beds, decent or better food and mostly good natured staff. That is not to say I liked being in them, but for being in captivity and having your freedoms taken away, they weren’t to bad.
Most of them were “voluntary”, but I was so caught up in the process that I didn’t know I had alternatives. When I found out I had the right to a mental health trial decided by a jury of six people, I went for that. It didn’t make any difference, but I was thinking that if I kept doing that they would get tire of taking me to the mental hospital. The thing I hated most about the hospital was the psychotropic drugs.
When I went to trial, both times relating to my involuntary committals, there was only a judge, no juries.
I had a judge and a jury of six people. If they ever take me to the mental hospital again I am going to ask for a trial and I will start making motions, like a change of venue, and more time to prepare my case.
They have all been different.
One hospital was a hole with 1 small TV and that is it.
One looked nice, had a big screen TV, a radio and some colouring books so it was a touch better.
Then there was the mental health facility. That was like a vacation resort. Gymnasium with basketball nets, cafeteria with descent coffee, exercise room, billiard room with good pool tables, multiple TVs, play station,. freedom to leave the floor any time you wanted for a smoke or a walk. I wouldn’t want to live there but it blew away my expectations of what a mental health facility could be.
There is nothing like that in WA State unless it’s a private pay rehab for drugs or alcohol. There are no ‘mental health facilities’ that even come close to that.
What’s this supposed to mean?
I went to a nice one supposed to be one the best in the country bed was okay food was okay. Otherwise it’s horrible boring as ■■■■ and like many others have said the only reason I take my meds is to stay out of there.
I felt it really went a long way to improving my mental well being while I was there, I didn’t feel like a prisoner. I actually have some good memories being there. I was there for 5 months.
The other places I couldn’t wait to get out of. They didn’t make me feel better at all, I was locked up on a small ward and couldn’t leave, plus there was very little to do. I hated them.