I agree. People talk about "professional help" like it's categorically a good thing. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. It is incredibly important to u

I agree. People talk about "professional help" like it's categorically a good thing. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. It is incredibly important to understand that many inpatient facilities are profoundly hostile environments for some patients, despite claims of a "therapeutic milieu" (which is somehow exactly the same for both depressive and manic disorders; sure, of course that's credible /s). Based on my experiences at the only two such facilities in my metro area, I would be very, very, very hesitant to ever admit to suicidal ideation in the future. The idea of going back to such a place is enough to make me consider the risk of "going it alone", even knowing that doing so could be a fatal mistake. Comparisons to imprisonment are not exaggerations: it absolutely did feel like punishment, like I had no rights, like the staff merely treated me as a "problem" rather than as a patient or client. Some of the "professionals" were not worthy of the term, particularly the "clinical social worker" types (some of whom expressed, with complete confidence, deeply weird and absolutist "theories" of mental illness that correspond to no credible theory that I've read about in reputable literature). (punchline: my depression was almost certainly caused by a chronic physiological disorder, one which neither facility screened for; most of the "treatment" I received was probably exacerbating my condition instead of improving it) I guess if I had to make this venting "practical" I would say this: if you ever have a close friend or family member in an inpatient facility, and they tell you that they really, really need to leave because it's a bad place, believe them. No one else will.