What does going to a mental institution do for you?
If you get, say, depressed because of your life being constant shit, how will going to a mental institution help? How does therapy help?
It's not like therapy is going to solve the problems you face in life, like lack of money, friends, bad job, etc? I guess I'm asking what is the purpose of therapy and mental institutions?
I see you're getting a lot of answers from both sides of the spectrum. But if you're struggling, I want to help.
Being in a behavior health ward is good for when you can't help yourself anymore, or need significant treatment that's difficult to handle via outpatient (like electroconvulsive treatments). It's not like a hospital stay where you walk out cured of some infection. It's more like a stay in the hospital after a huge car accident. They'll get you stable, they'll set you up with a therapist for long-term recovery, and meds to manage the symptoms.
You're right that talk doesn't fix money problems and things like that. But what it does do is help you keep from suffering alone AND it teaches you how to manage the feelings in a healthier way. That can be the difference between falling apart in the face of money trouble and having the skills to focus on finding a solution--or even just a way to survive.
The thing about depression is that it makes everything feel worthless and hopeless. You have to trust that you can't properly interpret whether a solution will work for you, and that the medical experts you align with are going to have a clearer view of what will help bring you out of the depression.
That doesn't mean all therapists are good. Or that a good therapist for someone else will fit you. But those are problems you can start to manage once you've taken a few steps toward recovery (assuming they turn out to be problems at all).
I've been in therapy for over a decade, on meds for just as long, and once in a ward for a week. Does it suck to be "trapped" in the unit? Yep. It's not a party in there. I don't ever want to go back. But when I did go in, it was because I felt like I legitimately couldn't take care of myself or see a way forward. In that regard, it saved me. So if my biggest complaint is that I felt stuck for a few days, well... so be it.
But there are many other options before being admitted. There are social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, intensive outpatient programs, ketamine therapy, and more. You may never need to be admitted at all if you can get to treatment before you're completely overwhelmed. Sometimes the solution is incredibly simple, like getting more vitamin D and a proper sleep schedule. Sometimes it takes a little ongoing medicine with weekly talk sessions. Sometimes it's more. But whatever it is, it's worth it. You can be happy in tough situations, but if you're depressed you can't be happy even in good situations. And that's no way to live.
Long story short: if you're depressed you aren't equipped to judge whether a solution will work without trying it, you have very little to lose by trying therapy, and the potential gains are the difference between misery and a fulfilling life. A mental institution is an extreme measure that's only part of a longer-term solution, and you may never need it. But it can be the literal difference between life and death if you're at the end of your rope.
This is the best description of what short term hospitalization is like. The severe car accident analogy is great. In patient hospitalization is like being in the ICU to stabilize, and then you have to do the thousands of hours of physical therapy afterwards to get back to full functionally. I've been in a US PHP program twice in the last 25 years and the second time in 2007 started with 11 days of in patient hospitalization after a suicide attempt. The folks that hate in patient hospitalization most likely are early in their mental health journey (2000-3000 hours of various therapies, workshops, and PHP for me so far).
Being early in your mental health awareness makes the lack of control in an in patient hospitalization terrifying.
For me the 11 days were a godsend, and I needed the doc to stabilize me on my new meds. They weren't going to release me until they're saw me improve on the SSRIs and that took 11 days. I was then put into an outpatient program for 3 months. I will say the outpatient programs and my workshops are where I did the heavy lifting wrt emotional learning, learning CBT and DBT, etc. Those two PHP stints laid the foundation for my recovery.