This is just a random picture of our home in NY after we got 80 inches of snow...we ended up getting 108 inches in that week. It really has nothing to do with this post...I just found it and wanted to share it with you.
So I work with crazy people...sorry...the mentally ill. Some are mentally ill....some are just crazy. I sort of fell into working with this population. I remember my college professor telling us that two areas of social work will affect every person: addiction and mental illness. So far I think she was right. So as long as there is mental illness...there is a need for mental health workers aka job security.
I hope this doesn't come across as crass or uncaring, because I'm not. I have the privledge of serving some of the most facinitaing and courageous individuals I have ever met. Like the young artist who painted amazing landscapes and thought that the FBI was bugging his studio to record his thoughts and steal his ideas. He ended up not sleeping for a week, beating up his father, and spending his entire life savings. Then we locked him in the inpatient unit where he kept telling us how we were torturing him with our "sh***y Andrew Wyeth pictures on the wall."
Then there was the little man who looked like Danny Devito on his worst hair day. He had been laid off, his wife left him, and his child died all within the past week. He came to us after a 9 hour stand off with the state police where he had kept them at bay with his shot-gun threatening to "f***ing end it all." He didn't want to hurt anyone else, and that is ultimately why he surrendered to police to come see us. He didn't REALLY want to die either, he said he just wanted the pain to end and didn't know what else to do.
And then there are just the crazy people. Like the lady who was crawling on the ground "looking for her diamonds" and demanded to be called "her magesty" She commanded respect until she went into the bathroom, promptly took off all her clothes and splashed water at anyone who tried to some in yelling "I'm the g**-d**Nehertite B**ch! Get me my gold!" She got two shots, woke up the next morning and was much improved.
There was the 60 year old post menopausal woman who had not slept for a week. After day 5 of no sleep she started believing that she was pregnant with twins, evidence to the contrary that her reproductive hayday was long past. She kept calling me "Jan" as she put on every single piece of clothing that she had brought into the hospital...swimming suit included...and lathered herself up with baby oil and announced to the whole unit that she was "sunbathing" She layed in the middle of the hallway with sunglasses on shouting out possible baby names for her twins. She used to call her lawyer several times a day with the intention of telling them that she was being unfairly confined to a psychiatric unit. She would forget why she called and instead, would tell the receptionist all about her day, focusing mainly on her wardrobe.
And then there were facinating people, like the 31 year old woman with no psychiatric history who had been trying to get pregnant for 8 years. When she finally did become pregnant she went psychotic...she broke away from reality. She didn't know who she was and refused to believe that she was pregnant. She saw things that weren't there and didn't respond to people that really were there. I personally got to pry this woman from the fence on two occasions as she attempted to scale and dismount the fence in the psychiatric building's courtyard. She stayed in our hospital for a month and a half. Then one day, a miracle happend. Her face softened, her color improved. She knew who she was, she would talk to you and she sat smiling out the window rubbing her belly....she could feel her baby kick somewhere inside her. She was at home painiting the nursery two days later.
So here are some of the most memorable people who I have gotten to work with in the past three years. Nathan asks me how work was...I answer, just another crazy day.
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