Every hospital is different, but after several hospital stays in different institutions, I can confidently say that psychiatric hospitals are nothing like the way they are portrayed in movies and on television.

There are many problems within these systems, and they are far from perfect. I am not going to sugarcoat reality, but they are certainly not as frightening as people often believe. They are by no means places for a vacation, but their purpose is to keep people safe and help them move in the right direction with their treatment. And for that, there is no need for straitjackets or padded rooms like those shown in movies.

Here are seven examples of how modern psychiatric hospitals challenge the stereotypes associated with psychiatric institutions of the past.

1. Myth: Everyone in the “mental hospital” is a helpless zombie drooling and unaware of what is happening.

Reality: In the past, when I thought about people with mental illnesses, I imagined something like the living dead. I pictured pale people in robes and slippers slowly wandering through the hallways, almost like zombies. I imagined that staff gave people so much medication to make them obey that they eventually just wandered around aimlessly and stared into space.

But the reality was completely different. The patients I saw and got to know were energetic and full of life. They played games, worked on puzzles, and talked with their loved ones. Of course, there were also people who were going through difficult situations. From time to time, I saw people crying or staring into space, but this was related to dissociation or illness, not because they were being forcibly subdued or medicated against their will.

2. Myth: All people with mental illnesses are aggressive and dangerous.

Reality: People with severe mental illnesses are not more likely to be violent than other people. In fact, they may be more than ten times more likely to become victims of violent crime compared with the general population.

I met many kind people in psychiatric hospitals. Some of them certainly had problems with anger, but none of them posed a threat to me. On the contrary, many were shy and withdrawn on the unit.

Of course, some people admitted to psychiatric facilities may have a history of aggressive behavior or problems with controlling their impulses. However, in my experience, most aggressive impulses were directed not toward other people but toward harming themselves.

3. Myth: The staff will force pills down your throat.

Reality: I recently had a roommate who did not want to take a newly prescribed medication, and she simply did not take it. I never once saw anyone being forced to take medication or do something against their will.

Psychiatrists regularly meet with patients to determine the course of treatment and develop an appropriate medication plan. Doctors make recommendations about medication because it is part of their job, but that does not mean they force anyone to take pills.

These are the medications that were prescribed to me and that I chose to take voluntarily.

4. Myth: ECT is a frightening and violent form of punishment.

Reality: ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) is still used in psychiatric facilities, particularly to treat treatment-resistant clinical depression and bipolar disorder. However, the procedure is nothing like what is shown in movies.

People are not dragged into treatment as a form of punishment, screaming and resisting. They are not tied down with huge leather straps or forced to experience seizures while conscious.

In my experience, I entered the treatment room, lay down, and was given anesthesia so that I would not feel anything. The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room.

It was still a difficult and emotionally challenging experience, and I have experienced memory problems since then. But I was not conscious during the procedure, and I was not subjected to electricity as a way of forcing me to obey.

ECT can also be very effective for some people. Jessica Bishop, a fellow patient who had been hospitalized seven times, said:

“ECT has been a lifesaver for me so far. I am able to function and work part-time. I recommend trying ECT if depression and sadness become overwhelming and too difficult to manage.”

5. Myth: All hospitals are the same, and you are locked inside without being allowed to get fresh air.

Reality: In movies, all psychiatric hospitals look and feel exactly the same. In reality, there are many different types of facilities. There are public and private hospitals, as well as residential treatment programs.

Some facilities are open, while others are locked. In some, patients spend all their time indoors, while others have enclosed outdoor areas.

During my last hospitalization, there were supervised walks with staff twice a day.

6. Myth: Your phone and other devices will be taken away, and you will be completely cut off from the outside world.

Reality: At every facility I stayed in except one, I was allowed to keep my phone and computer with me.

At one facility, I was not allowed to keep charging cables in my room, so I had to charge my devices one at a time at the nurses’ station. But at least I was still able to use them.

I was allowed to talk to my family and friends as much as possible. I even wrote a blog while I was in the hospital.

I was also able to continue running my nonprofit online photography gallery, Broken Light Collective, every day during three different hospitalizations.

If you want to and are allowed to, there is usually a way to stay connected with the outside world.

7. Myth: You will return home completely “cured.”

Reality: I really thought that once my treatment was over, I would leave the hospital happy and completely healthy and return to normal life. But that was not how things worked for me or for many of the people I met.

The main things a hospital can do are keep a person safe, adjust and monitor their medications, teach them different coping skills if they are willing to learn them, and then create a plan for continued treatment and support.

Aftercare can take different forms, from partial hospitalization programs, where patients return home each evening, to intensive outpatient programs or continued care from doctors outside the hospital.

The main work continues even after leaving the hospital. A hospital can help, but it is definitely not a quick solution to every problem.

If you ever need to be hospitalized at some point in your life, how that experience goes will depend, to some extent, on your attitude toward treatment.

If you take care of yourself, follow the rules, attend group sessions, and learn coping skills, you may leave the hospital in a much better condition than when you arrived.

If you resist treatment at every step, break the rules, and refuse to attend group sessions, you may find it more difficult to benefit from the program.

I have experienced both approaches, and I would recommend the first one.