I've been hospitalized a few times and I'm thankful for those experiences. I've been hallucination and delusion free for over 4 years and that would not have been possible without those hospitalizations which gave a safe environment for us to find the right combination of meds for me. I have a really amazing life now and most of my experiences inside were okay. Most people are nice in there (the patients and nurses). Different ones focus on different things. Some have a lot of group and individual therapy while other's it's more free time. They usually have outside or recreation times and art or music therapy every week. There was chapel available on Sundays. I don't smoke but I kept a separate sweatshirt I would use to go out on smoke breaks so I could get outside a little. Some places have delicious food and some have pretty yucky stuff, but it's tolerable. There are usually snacks available throughout the day since so many people need to take meds with food at different times. It was hard being mostly cut off from people (although there were weekly visiting times). I came away with some crazy stories. I even miss it occasionally because although my life is really good now, there is something nice about not being responsible for things, just following a routine and going where asked. The people who knew I went in were really understanding. Other people didn't look at me differently (even though sometimes it felt like I should have been wearing a sign that said "Hey I'm Schizophrenic". Most people are really so focused on themselves and how they are feeling that they don't generally care or pay that much attention to other people's lives.