i went to the hospital, they sent me home

Sure. I have heard that there are basically two different types, one for assessment, one for treatment. I went to one for assessment. Most of the people there were there because of suicide attempts, so I don't really understand why it wasn't meant for treatment. I have also read the opinions of others. Its kind of hard to find much in the way of good opinions on them. To me, it really depends on what you want. After a suicide attempt, a person might want to get better or they might just want to die. In my opinion, the assessment wards main purpose is to prevent you from having any means of killing yourself. They didn't really work towards fixing issues. Generally we would gather together once a day and play a game or get told a story by the staff. But it isn't necessarily a bad place to be. There was one girl I had been friends with there, she had been there for about three months before leaving. I'm not sure if she liked it but she didn't want to leave because it does feel like a safe place. But many of the people I knew there had been there more than once, there was one girl who got there a week after me, left after a week, then was back a few nights later. So in my opinion, mental health wards have short term benefits, they make you feel ssafe, but they don't really do much for you in the long run. You will also be able to talk to psychiatrists about medications while there but I did have a bad experience with them giving me a medication that probably shouldn't have been used as a sleeping med which is what I needed it for. I can't really say much about what the treatment facilities are like, I'm guessing that that was the type you were aiming for and it does seem to be harder to get into. I do think you can just check yourself into an assessment ward whenever you want. This has the opinions of some others about treatment facilities: http://www.reddit.com/r/depression/comments/2wtrh4/has_anyone_ever_been_hospitalized_before_if_so/

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