- What makes it hell as some of you have expressed?
How it's assumed you're mentally incompetent and spoken to like a child, even if you're perfectly rational. To these people (I was in a religious-backed hospital... I'm atheist) anyone who doesn't think like they do needs to be "reformed". How quickly any due process or rights you may have in your country evaporate. How you are effectively in a prison. The isolation. The lack of privacy.
- Did you pay for the stay?
Insurance supposedly covered it, but the resident psychiatrist (who showed up only twice during my stay and met with me for only minutes) sent me a bill for over $700 and the ambulance wasn't happy with their contracted insurance payment either and so attempted to bill me more than $1000. The ambulance wasn't even necessary, but the response team called it to avoid any possibility of liability. Both bills were illegal under my state's laws at the time they were issued (it's called "balance billing") and I spent weeks clearing my name, including with a collections agency. I refused to pay.
- How long did you stay there?
The statutory maximum they could bill to keep me there without getting approval from a court, because there is no way they would have gotten such approval - 72 hours
- How do they know that you are "safe" for release?
Their policy was to release only after a "confirmed" appointment with a therapist. This is about their liability if sued, nothing else. I wasn't in treatment and it was at night, so in my case this meant just calling a random therapist in the area and leaving a voicemail for an appointment. Good to go, called me an Uber and good luck. They had no idea, all they had is my word. They just took their money and let me go.
Pretty accurate, but no doors or locks, the staff's job is primarily to prevent you from hurting yourself or others so there is nothing present that would allow for any privacy. Multiple beds were in the same room, with cases ranging from perfectly sane people who self-admitted to a heroin addict in full on withdrawal to a guy who kept asking what day it was every 15 minutes.
- How did the employees treat you?
The nurses were mostly professional but civil, did not engage with us other than to do their job.
The shrink just wanted to bill as much as possible and prescribe meds without much interest either way when I declined. By the time I was admitted the story that was being told about my case escalated from "he called to say he was okay and is not going to do anything" to "he's actively suicidal" to "he's armed and making threats" (reality: I was asleep) so I was placed into the "high risk psycho lock them up" portion of the ward. At least the shrink immediately pulled me out of there. I placed my back against the wall and did not take my eyes off the other inmates until I got that reprieve, which took 8 or 10 hours for him to show up (this was just a side gig for him).
The guy they brought in for group was a total sleazeball, talking down about patients to two trainees he had right in front of us like we weren't even human, just zoo animals. He mostly seemed interested in picking up his female trainees. He proceeded to lecture us about the importance of good sleep, while the periodic check-ins with flashlights shined into our faces to make sure we weren't dead and/or other patients were so disruptive that it wasn't possible to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. A nurse helpfully transferred me and another guy to a different room, where there was an equally disruptive patient. I barely slept at all until I got out. Yeah thanks for the sleep tips, very helpful.
- Other information/description you'd like to share.
Like others have said, to get through it keep your head down, shut up, be lightly social with other patients and go to any activities or therapy they offer. You learn to just completely shut down any emotions or reaction you may have that can be used against you. Anytime you deviate from this course they will use it as an excuse to "reform" you or talk down to you further. Be careful about getting too close to other patients beyond being friendly. Odds are you're relatively rational but they may or may not be. Overall I found them much more helpful than the staff though.
The intake forms included a privacy agreement that they would only let through calls from a list of people you specifically approve in writing. The nurses totally ignored that, and to that end there was an open line in the public area that anyone could call. The staff couldn't be bothered, so it would just ring and ring until a patient picked it up and then asked for you by name in every room. In my case my work called and fired me without even getting the facts. Not really interested. Potential liability, see ya. "We really wish you well". Three years later and I still hate those fuckers for what they did to me (they're the ones who called the cops on me in the first place, a huge overreaction for - you guessed it, liability reasons).
So yeah, all around patronizing and totally dehumanizing.
