"Overall my stay has been perfect"

On arrival I was very shaky and anxious, more from leaving my home (which I love more than the drink) but the staff were so welcoming and let me waffle away about my worries whilst I was checked in. 

In my room with bag check I was very pleased and calmed that the 2 nurses treated my belongings with care and respect they didn't just hoik things out all over the bed so to speak! (very important to me as was one of my worries as I am very fussy about my belongings being neat and orderly)

I didn't mind being stuck in my room until I blew zero as it gave me the quiet time I needed to adjust before meeting new people.

After 4hrs I was shown around and introduced to others. 

Given that I had struggled to eat over previous months the doctor was very patient with me when explaining that I must go slowly when starting to eat as I needed to understand why. Similarly a real plus was that she took on board my concerns about Librium dosing for me as in the past I have been given too much and was pretty non functional for a week and at the end of the 7 days was feeling addicted to it. So... now that I am so underweight I was pleased that GP worked out a lower dose with additional PRN to see how I go, and it worked perfectly as I only needed 4 doses and was able to get straight into groups and engage fully. 

Groups were good; a house meet is good as it is an opportunity to get niggles out of the way before they fester/escalate and potentially cause stress! The workbook is a very good tool.

Food on the whole was good but just one sausage roll for tea was not quite enough!!!

Good point about rooms is that we can retreat to them as and when we need if tired or in my case communal noise is too much.

One important point I would like to add re room 9 is that people forget that the occupant may be sleeping or resting or just taking quiet time so if the TV is too loud it travels something I did struggle with. When all the guys were constantly watching horror, war, violent movies with lots of screaming shouting in etc I didn't feel able to ask them to close the lounge door as I am personally afraid of conflict and also didn't want to risk create an atmosphere or alienate myself.

The only other negative re the downstairs room is staff mopping the hall at 1:00 am +  as again the bucket and mop hitting the skirting disturbs. 

The wardrobe part of the room 9 backs onto the office so if staff voices are normal to loud it again is disturbing overnight. Don't get me wrong I appreciate work and life for staff has to go on too it's just the nature of the build! 

The w/e whilst nice not to have strict commitments and a chance to have time out, I and others found it made for a very long day and actually we were all just pretty bored with no structure. So maybe something could be put in place as an option, especially as some will be on meds and some not.

Overall my stay has been perfect for me, and chance to take stock mentally and I have found ALL staff lovely and amenable and very supportive and happily give us time to talk if we have mini crisis or emotional moments for instance.