What to do in the psych ward?!

Megardoodles17 provided a good general idea on what you are going to experience. However every psychiatric institution is going to be a little different in some small way. When I was in the psychiatric hospital we had a lot of time to hang out with other individuals, but again it is not going to be clear until you get to the particular hospital you are going to, but more than likely you will have time to hang out with other children, however there are several group therapy sessions, doctor exams, and personal therapy throughout they day. It's a bit of both I suppose, here is my daily routine with my experience at the mental ward.

+ They come knocking on your door early, around 5:30 in the morning everyday
+ They take your vitals (blood pressure and weight)
+ You wait in the main area that you stay in during the day for about an hour
+ During this time, new people are put in
+ During this time, certain individuals go see the doctor
+ During this time, medications are given out
+ During this time, you have to write a morning journal
+ You leave out, with your entire group to go to the cafeteria for breakfast
+ If you were bad, you have to stay up and eat by yourself
+ You go back up to the main room
+ You sit there for like an hour
+ Then this annoying lady comes in for what they call school time
+ You go the gym for exercise
+ You go back up in the main room and wait for your counseling session
+ You are split into different group sessions each day
+ You go down to the cafeteria for lunch
+ You come back up and get free time for like an hour
+ Then you have to do game time, it's pretty lame
+ Then you have to write a paper on why you shouldn't kill yourself, every night
+ Note: Even if your not there for trying to kill yourself, you have too
+ Then you write another night journal on how the day was
+ You go down to the cafeteria for dinner
+ You come back up and get free time for a little while
+ You take showers, and go to bed
+ Wake up and repeat, every day, the same thing

Also note that a lot of times during the day you may be pulled out for family sessions and special private sessions. If you act up, they will give you a shot that knocks you out and they will drag you to the "enhanced" area. It's pretty horrible, isolated, and a very lonely place if you ask me. They didn't help me with anything, and probably just made things worst. They treat you like a little kid, the school time is a joke, it's just an overall disaster in my own opinion. I hated it, and I never will go back, ever again. Just keep your head up, do what they say, and get out of there as fast as you can.

Also, one last thing, you do get to make phone calls right before you go to bed, that was the best part being there for me, like I still had this life outside of this damn hospital. You probably won't be there more than a week or two, unless you push it. Anyways, good luck, I hope I helped.

When I was in the Psych ward (3 times), There was a "lounge" with some computers and a TV. Problem was every time I was in there, there were other kids so the TV was almost always taken. Usually I ended up playing solitaire on the computer, and sleeping. Sleeping a lot. It's so boring, but it's the quickest way to get fixed up.

Also, no it's not just constant therapy, usually the doctor will do his rounds once a day, and do whatever med changing that needs done then for the day, then come back the next day and see how you're improving or whatever.

It's not a fun experience, but it's the best thing for some people. Cheers!

ok my schedule was like this:
wake up
they take your blood pressure/weigh you/etc (every morning)
breakfast in your room by yourself (they also monitor how much you eat)
you get dressed
have group therapy
have other activities
have lunch with the group
more therapy and activites
school time in another room
more activites
dinner time
shower time
last group therapy
free time in your room or in the group room (like a movie)
then bedtime

not much freedom at all. they treat you like children and monitor everything you do. i remember when i was discharged, i saw this huge binder that was all information from my week-long stay. it was insane.
but i'm happy i went and that i'm out. i never want to go back!!!!

personal experience

You do get time to hang out with other people during dinner times and time in the evening in order to watch movies or sports, depending on what stations they have.

There are a great amount of scheduled activities during the daytime, but after dinner it is pretty much socializing with others and being visited by family or friends in the evening for a stated period of time.

You will learn a great deal as to when it comes to why you are experiencing what you are and how to deal with it in the future should it occur again.

It's just like a regular ward apart from they may have a games room, a Tv room or something like that. There's usually like an area outside which is like a garden. You will get checks every now and then and the doctor will need to see you at some point.