Welcome to the mental health "industry". I avoided it, thank god, though by rights I probably shouldn't have in some ways. I self medicated with heroin to avoid being locked up in hospital, with little visitation, no computer, no life, for six months, just like people I knew had. Now I've spent the last year and half getting clean, after 7 years of addiction... And what scares me is that I seem to be doing better than those that went through the real system.

The American mental health system is what's going on here. And it gets worse.

Just the other day I was listening to an NPR article about how jails deal with mentally ill inmates. Alot of them seem to end up there for committing minor crimes that stem from their health problems (such as, to quote the article, "action out"). They receive some care in jail (but very little) and none when they are out. Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/2014/01/20/263461940/mentally-ill-inmates...

Not precisely. You get restrained to ensure that you will cause no self harm or harm to others. Some of it is harsher than perhaps is warrented for the 'lightweight' case, but the procedures have to deal with very difficult individuals who have cut the hawser to the land of rationality.

You can find the laws for each state listed online. Some of the laws for mental health management and confinement are very reasonable. Others, less so. And there is no blessing that means laws are followed all the time.

I am personally surprised at the level of restraint in this particular case, but I do not know (1) the standard procedures in this hospital and (2) the amount of other issues going on at this particular point in time.

I am also surprised that the author was essentially tossed out and not given a medical withdrawal.

However, the author may have left out bits of her story that would explain these aspects and provided the full context.