Talk:Voluntary commitment

Not always allowed to leave, Should be added/improved

I have voluntarily admitted myself to a mental hospital after voluntarily admitting myself to suicide watch in the United States, Illinois, when I was an adolescent. After filling out all the paperwork with my father, it was quite late at night. I went to sleep, woke up the next morning, and after seeing... well.. everything, by the time I was allowed a phone call, I wanted to leave. Later that night, I learned that despite my father filling out the necessary paperwork to get me discharged and my obvious desire to be discharged, I learned from my father that I probably wouldn't be able to get out of there soon. After "dealing" with this, some yelling and crying involved, I learned that they are allowed, Despite voluntarily committing myself to both Suicide watch, and the hospital, That they can hold me, Supposedly legally(Though they had no evidence I was a harm to myself or others, Except by my own word, And to this day I still call it illegal imprisonment) for up to 5 business days, and they fully intended to keep that long. Now, Technically, they actually held me for 7 days, because Saturday and Sunday are apparently not business days(even though the mental hospital never truly is closed), so unless you are admitted on Sunday night, expect to actually be held for a week. Yeah. Just thought I would share my personal experience with supposedly voluntary commitment, in the hopes that someone will come along and research it a bit more, and perhaps improve this article. 173.23.116.49 (talk) 02:01, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

This is probably a state-by-state issue. In Idaho, for example, whenever you voluntarily commit yourself it's a) signed by a judge and b) you are in a psychiatric ward for 24 hours. kencf0618 (talk) 22:56, 1 July 2022 (UTC)