Does psychiatric hospitalization actually help?

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A friend of mine is being threatened with it. Long story short, their parents are abusive but are pubic figures in the community so they try to shut them up any means possible to avoid being exposed as fake. It's a VERY conservative hick town in the deep south where disability laws don't really seem to exist. A teacher at their school has made some comments that would have gotten her fired in a larger city. School used to be an escape for them until Mrs. Ass-Face came along. Now,t hey dread school. Thanks to Mrs. Ass-Face. Even other teachers do not like her. Her husband, Mr. Ass-Face is a teacher at the school too, and just as nasty. But thankfully, my friend isn't in any of his classes.

Anyway, the parents want to send them to a local psychiatric hospital. It has horrible reviews on Google and even quite a few reports of the staff abusing patients. Most five star reviews have no comments at all or are vague.Their mother says that an internet troll just made them all up and that's not true. Even if they were made up and this is a good place, does psychiatric hospitalization really help people with Asperger's? Getting away from the abusive environment at home would be beneficial but I don't know, would a psych hospital be any better? Especially for a person with Asperger's? I was put in one twice as a kid (once at nine and once at fifteen) and both times I was worse than when I went in. They thought things that were perfectly natural for someone with Asperger's was a symptom for something else. They wouldn't let me self-isolate and I need solitude like most people need air. Why is it so hard for people to understand that I am not a social person? I am not killing anyone by refusing social contact but people act like it is. I don't know if my friend requires solitude on the same levels I do. But my friend isn't me. Just because I need months upon months of solitude doesn't mean they do. Would this benefit them at all? Or just make their situation worse?

Some people are helped by hospitalization, and some are harmed. This includes autistic people. I have read both kinds of opinions among WP members.

Some hospitals really suck, and others are quite good.

You just can't generalize.

What she said, but I would add, I wouldn't trust reviews of places people are forced to go to that much. Most people who get out happily don't say anything, and the people who have problems are sure to post even if they embellish a bit. That doesn't mean that there haven't been bad incidents, but reviews always tend to be slanted towards the extremes, and when you have people forced to go there, it makes sense that its the negative extreme.

It seems the parents are just using it as an empty threat. My friend isn't actively suicidal. I've always heard you can't commit a person that isn't suicidal or homicidal against their will. Hell will freeze over before they go in voluntary.

I was in a psych hospital for two months. I've also been in other psych hospital but the two-month stay was my longest. The psychiatrist couldn't "read" me at all, like I was really from some distant planet. BTW, some of the workers were abusive to a few patients, but you dare not say anything because you sleep in a dorm and, as such, was open to retaliation at night by the workers.

When I stayed in one at age nine, I had to share with another girl. But I think it was her last day or something because I don't remember her staying with me for that long. When I was fifteen, we had our own room and we were not allowed to go into each other's rooms.

I am not a lawyer, but I would guess that if the person is a minor and you are their guardian, then you can.

They are over 18

I remember my 18th birthday I was locked up in a adolescent psychiatric hospital. The only gift I got for my birthday was cool Styrofoam cup with a bunch of neat artwork on it and stuffed to the brim with candy bars. one of workers did this for me. I still remember that gift and her she made my birthday. Reason I was in the psych ward was because I ran away from home. Because I was living with an abusive nanny and a mother who wouldn't listen to how horrible I felt. I was living with a guy but physically and emotionally and emotionally abusive. my mother would make me apologize to him for my behavior but she wouldn't do anything about him jumping on my arms with his knees when he restrain me. Things had gotten so bad at home after a behavioral blow up I had on the family vacation and that they took my privileges away for an indefinite amount of time. After that home life just became nothing to me anymore and I just had to get out. The next year of my life i spent in and out of hospitals. Because every time they would let me out and send me back home where nothing had changed I would do something to get myself thrown back into the psych ward. That year of my life ended with me spending six months in psyche ward while I went to court and they figured out a conservator for me. And I was finally released into a group home associated with a special ed school that I went to. But that group home was far better than the home I had ran away from. And after a year I got off of the conservatorship. But the hospital became the way out of an abusive home so in a way it's saved my life it started me on the road of the dependents I've been on ever since.

It can. Safe place to completely crash.

I could never relax when I was in one.

Can someone be put in one if they are NOT suicidal?

I was hospitalized twice in college; in extremis. Not at all sure that I would've survived otherwise.

Sure. The standard for confinement, in the US anyway, is "imminent danger to self or others." So, if you are aggressive or homicidal, due to psychiatric issues, that is a basis for involuntary confinement. But with the consent of the patient, you can enter hospitalization voluntarily, which usually means you can also leave when you feel ready. It is probably always better to "check yourself into a hospital" than getting worse until you can be forced to go.

Tell me about psychiatry. Has it improved?

As far as I know, the operating theory of psychiatry is
that the (bad) personality must be completely destroyed
in order to build up a (good) one.

The psychiatrist must have absolute authority and
the patient must be submissive and accepting of
Dx and pills.

Because psychiatrists use the DSM, they must fit a
patient into one of the pigeon-holes, and prescribe
accordingly.

Are they still like that? I would like to get care but not under a psychiatrist.

I can't comment about the OP's question because I don't know about psych. hospitals, but I'll answer for Claradoon. I had a psychiatrist for C-PTSD as well a psychologist. The psychiatrist was a woman who was intent on prescribing medication and refused to reassess me with anything other than C-PTSD even after nine years of treatment. When I asked if I could be assessed for autism she said "No, you don't have Autism. You're too articulate". (???! !!) Apparently people on the spectrum can't have a wide vocabulary despite having no social skills or eye contact. She also told me that autism is almost unheard of in women.

If I took my medication and asked for repeats she said I might get dependent, and that I shouldn't want medication. However, if I didn't take my medication or I requested that a dosage be lowered / discontinued / changed, she said I was refusing treatment and challenging her judgment. It was a lose-lose situation.

I got my ASD assessment done privately from a very reputable doctor who specialises in female ASD. She sent my psychiatrist a 20 page report with all the test results and my diagnosis. When I next saw my psychiatrist she said she never received / read the report, and she insisted again that all my issues are from C-PTSD, not autism, because I have a wide vocabulary and I went to University. My trauma didn't start until I was 34 years old but she believed it explained my entire childhood, retroactively.

After nine years I was terrified to see her because I always went home crying, feeling like I'd said the wrong thing. I was never so excited in my life as when I was finally allowed to discontinue treatment.

Sorry for derailing the thread, OP. That's just my answer for Claradoon.