I think that largely depends on a few factors in general:
- Why you are there
- In what kind of rehab are you? (Open/closed)
- how is the personnel treating you
- how can U manage with the other people there
- are you on meds or not
- are visitors allowed
- how long is your stay
- …
So in my case I’m lucky to live in Germany, so I don’t have to worry about cost. It still costs a fee per day but it’s not so much. I happened to not take any meds and was there, because I feared that I could harm myself or worse, given some more alone time. I think a large part of my rehab was the time I was able to spend just living and really getting a feeling of what live can be if you don’t have anything to take care of. You basically live in a closed/semi closed environment so you don’t really have any chores or similar stuff to do. You wake up and just live beside your therapy schedule (that was not enforced). I managed to even find someone I caught feelings for and am still in contact with (to make it short, I’m rambling enough) this someone was the true help that I needed. The rehab itself is hard to pin down, because you really only see your own progress when it has already almost completed.
Still I went to therapy for a year after the rehab. I would say it’s a good starting point (at least for mental illness) but it’s hard work and you really want to get better yourself, else it’s useless. In the end it’s up to you what you make of it, they only give you the environment and help to take the steps yourself.
Be well
Wow…this sounds amazing. I really could have used something like this a year ago. I wish this were more of an option here in the states. Our system for in patient mental healthcare isn’t exactly the most compassionate, from what I understand.
If you try to be out going and attend groups and stuff it’s not too bad. The food is hospital food. You sleep in a room with someone that may or may not be in a state of mind for being social. It really depends on what you want to personally get out of it.
It is rehab though. It’s not fun. And there are definitely all sorts of people there from people you’d talk to on the street to drooling pants shitters to always angry shit starters and also people that are in a different world or are fighting the voices.
I made a great friend there. We were close both in there and after for a few years on and off. She passed away recently though, could never get away from her self. I’ll always miss her.
There was a kid I really remember. He was fighting the voices and wouldn’t talk to anyone at all. A couple days before I left he started to acknowledge me and say a few things here and there. Really sweet kid, you could tell he was having a hard time. We don’t think he made it very long after that though, but we were never really sure.
The nurses were all hot lol and were all very cool to us.
I’ll probably edit and delete this, it’s extremely personal. But I wanted to share it with you.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. If you want to delete it, my understanding is that editing it will more quickly purge it from the databases, deleting will only set a flag that it’s deleted but will still be accessible for 30 days.
I was in Psychosomatic Rehab for five weeks here in Germany. It was actually hell on earth for me.
I liberal had to beg that they gave me my prescribed medications (like for blood pressure, pain and migraine).
The therapist and medical doctor were the only one who were actually decent, but the therapist didn’t even manage to finish to gather the „status quo“ in those five weeks and I only saw the medical doctor three times. The rest was unsuitable for me, most of the things I couldn’t do either because it was locked down due to Covid or I couldn’t participate due to phobia of wearing masks.
What actually helps are medications I get from my psychiatrist. but rehab was a waste of time for me.
I’ve spent time in two funny farms. First was involuntary after calling the suicide help line. That sucked. Stuck in an essential prison for three days which the rest of the crazies.
One doc later even said that he got PTSD from my stay. I certainly don’t feel like my experience justifies a PTSD diagnosis, but it really did suck. (Worst part was living down the hall from a woman who spent her entire time there shackled to her bed and spent every waking moment screaming. It really did suck.)
Next time was voluntary, but only because my life was literally falling apart and it was try again or die homeless. Now this facility was one of the highest rated in the world, at least at one time. Elvis stayed there.
This was a giant waste of time and money. This time I was segregated with similar crazies, which made the experience slightly more bearable. But overall the whole thing felt like summer camp for depressed people. I mean there was arts and crafts time for crying out loud.
But the worst of it all was the doctors. I’ve seen lots of shrinks and therapists. I have yet to meet one I actually believe cares about getting me the help I need. Not one. Without exception they all treated me like a chore to be dealt with rather than a human needing help. I have very little respect for the medical professionals in that field. In my experience they have all been awful. I’ve stopped using them.
And the nurses weren’t that much better. They seemed to care a bit more, but I could tell they were very tired, overworked, and dealing with an unwinable battle. I don’t necessarily blame them, but it was disheartening.
Now that I’ve trauma dumped a bit, I will say this. It works for some. It didn’t work for me, but I tried. So…. IF YOU FEEL THE NEED FOR HELP, GET IT. What’s the worst that can happen?
The doctors in my experience were horrible too. Those doctors that stop by for ten minutes every few weeks have zero clue what they’re doing.
The doctor I had came in and actually asked me how much I’d had to drink while I was there. I was in the damned coocoos nest how the hell was I going to drink even if I wanted to?
I was put in IOP for 6 weeks early this year due to severe depression, I couldn’t take care of myself and I was at risk of losing everything and killing myself.
IOP was helpful in the sense that I participated in group therapy 6 hours a day, 5 days a week which exposed me to other individuals also struggling. It taught me that I was not alone in my suffering, and that it is okay that I am struggling. IOP gave me lots of tools and coping mechanisms to assist getting through bad times.
However, the most important thing is that IOP gave me was the opportunity to step away from life and catch my breath, which was invaluable and it gave me time to reflect on my current situation and how to change it. I think I would have killed myself otherwise.
Now, I understand that my Job is eating my alive and I need to find a new one. Problem is, the job market is fucked. So, i’m going back to school to reskill and restart.
Not me but my fiance, it was the only thing that brought her out of a months long paranoid psychotic episode, intensive medication, involved observation, multiple times a day therapy sessions with actual psychiatrists etc. She hated the experience, it’s like jail but with softer furniture. It took about 2 months before they were comfortable signing off on her release.
This kind of mental health rehab doesn’t seem to be what everyone else in here has in mind though, everyone else just seems to be talking about going to counseling rather than actual inpatient treatment
They think they mean the sort they are talking about but it’s actually about this sort.
psych ward was worse than jail. I’ve been to both. did not help. caused trauma, more problems. going to an expensive dual diagnosis (mental & drug) rehab, then sober living was great and did help though
If the goal is to keep me alive , away from harm, then yes. Uhm , in other terms it was unclear for me. My mental health work hasn’t stop since being allowed to go. Keep in mind that my instutionalistion was forced. Hope this info helps somehow.
they want to “help you”.
bull fucking shit.
Sadly, I have. The best I can say for mental health residential facilities is that they help to stabilize you. They provide food, shelter, and care for you while you are there which lets you focus on recovery. Some are better than others. The better ones provide you with a comprehensive after-care program and ways to get continuing, ongoing support.
Tbh the mental health stays are a tool when you go to extremes on mental health where you need to learn better ways to cope with the problems. They focus on your problems in more of a groups type setting instead of one on one, depending on where you live.
With that being said a lot of the treatment relies on you doing most of the work, where they spend most of their time trying to figure out what medications will help you unless you are looking for a homeopathic route, which relies on you do 95% of the work and them using the other 5% to convince you that you can change your state of mind. Homeopathic or even religion based has a 85% rate of failure because they don’t want to admit that mental health is a chemical imbalance in the brain.
The main way it helps you is by you realizing you need the help they can offer.
