If you have decided you need to admit yourself, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it. The first thing you need to do is see your regular family practitioner, someone who knows you and has a good understanding of your history. Tell them why you want to admit yourself, omitting nothing. Let them know exactly why you think you need this stay, explain all the things that are happening to you so they can make a recommendation for you to go in. This will usually mean a forewarning phone call to you local institution and a letter to take with you.
When you arrive, you will have to go through triage, usually a nurse who will ask you why you are there. This is where you hand over your letter and give a small explanation of why you think you need to see a doctor and be admitted. Unfortunately, you will need to repeat yourself quite often, but don’t try and take shortcuts by leaving things out because someone who is in the same hospital has already heard you. Every new person you speak to needs to know just exactly why you are there.
After you have been seen by the doctors they will usually leave you in an observation room if they have not just admitted you on the spot. This is not a place where you want to sit and be polite. It is best that you allow the full range of what you are thinking and feeling be expressed. Sitting back and playing nice is not your best course of action. If you are irritated, frightened, under stress or feeling or thinking any range of thought or emotion that is unpleasant for you, here you need to let them express themselves. Of course not in ways that put the staff in a fearful or unsafe position.
The next thing they will do is admit you, where you will be taken on the ward and spoken to by the admitting ward doctor. This will be the last time you need to explain yourself, but even more fully. They will also do a physical, possible ask for blood and urine and test your cognitive skills.
A stay in a ward need not be a long one. They average between a fortnight and a month (provided you haven’t been brought to the ward in only your socks after running through the mall singing “I’m Henry the Eighth.” If so the courts might have something to say). A lot of people think they should hide what they are really thinking or feeling just in case they say something that might keep them in for longer. Actually not telling the full story will keep you in longer, if those who are there to help you don’t really know what is going on and have holes in their understanding they will more likely ask you to stay till they have a clearer picture of how to provide better care for you outside.
If you have not come in on your own accord they will ask you if you are willing to undergo treatment. It is generally better to say yes. This keeps you in a voluntary status, which helps immensely at discharge time. If you are involuntary you’re a little stuck, but as a voluntary patient, after some treatment, you can ask to be discharged yourself under your own supervision and continued support of professionals and friends or family. Often times, you have a good chance of the powers-that-be agreeing. Generally compliance to treatment is a good way to go. It shows that there is a good understanding of a need for help. I remember a friend of mine running through the halls naked, pumping his first and yelling, “Screw the system.” It was very funny, but didn’t go down well.