1) Mental hospitals are more like dramas/comedies than horror films. When people think of psych wards they think of criminally insane people rocking back and forth, talking to their imaginary friends and throwing chairs. Don't get me wrong, there's some of those. But most of us just do word searches, color, joke about serious things. 2) We aren't monsters, we are your brothers, your daughters, your mother, your co-worker we are just regular people who have lost our way and need some help finding the path again 3) I am closer to people I knew for 2 weeks than I will ever be with anyone on the outside. Yes we all call it the outside 4) Sometimes talking to people who understand what you're going through is more therapeutic than the actual therapy groups. This is not to say that the doctors there are crap it is just to say that no matter how much they read and listen they will never truly understand what it feels like unless they have been there and we can tell who has been there, they go the extra mile to make us feel like people 5) It's not a vacation, it's not fun, it's not an escape from the real world. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. It is work. 6) Everyone in there is a person in unbearable pain but it isn't just a bunch of people sitting around crying. We go from group to group and then color and go to bed nothing about it is really fun but you get used to it 7) The mental hospital is like a camp for empty people, just like a band camp we can all relate to each other and makes you feel less alone 8) Getting discharged it a great feeling because you are free, but it is also completely terrifying, in the hospital it's safe, people get it, there is always someone to talk to and now you're all alone 9) Just because I've spent 7 and a half weeks in a mental hospital over 2 stays doesn't mean I am fixed there is no cure for my illnesses and that's just the way it is 10) We are not who you think, the kindest people I've ever met were also the ones hurting the most.