It was Christmas time and so, to spruce things up on an otherwise dreary psychiatry ward, a tree was put up!
Imagine everyone’s shock and surprise when twenty year old Tina started sobbing and then grabbed one of the hanging Christmas ornaments, broke it, and held the jagged edge to her wrist.
“Dr. Guterson, come quick, we have a crisis!”
I ran to the scene and there was Tina in front of the Christmas tree. She demanded that everyone stay clear or she would surely cut herself deeply: “I’m gonna end my life, right now, just watch me”, she cried out. The scene was intense and her screams infected the other psychiatric patients whom I could hear weeping in the distance.
Twenty staff members were there, trying to talk her down, but to no avail. So they turned to me and said, “Dr. Guterson, you’re in charge, do something!”
Ladies and gentlemen… there I was, a rookie psychiatrist, recently out of my residency. I had no idea what to say or do. My thoughts quickly jumped through my education: organic chemistry, anatomy, peering into a microscope, brain MRI’s, neurons and serotonin and frontal lobe and cognition. I put this all together and blurted out two essential questions:
“Tina, what is your favorite Christmas song? Maybe we can sing it together?”
“But, Dr. Guterson, look at you. You’re Jewish. What do you know about Christmas music?”
“Try me.”
”Ok, ‘Silver Bells’”
“One of my favorites, Tina. Let’s go for it. But first, please hand me that thing in your hand.”
Disarmed, Tina’s spirit shifted and the two of us launched into:
“Silver bells, silver bells;
It’s Christmas time in the city!”
Soon the entire ward, workers and patients, joined in. The celebration escalated as we all chimed together:
“Ring a ling; hear them ring;
Soon it will be Christmas Day!”
Not exactly Freudian psychoanalysis but, at least for a day, disaster on the psych ward was averted.
All POSTS
"Ramblings on the Psych Ward"
Henry was 20 years old and had been committed, against his will, to the locked psychiatric hospital. Within quick order, he was hibernating in his bed all day: “I’m sick and chilled and need more blankets”, he implored.
It turned out that Henry was planning a getaway. First, he had somehow figured out that he could take apart the window in his room. Next, he convinced a couple other patients to create a chaotic scene at the other end of the hallway. Then, with the staff preoccupied and distracted, Henry quickly tied his blankets together and went out the third floor window.
We human beings crave freedom; it is a desire that resonates in us all. Prison escape movies, like ‘Shawshank Redemption’ and ‘Escape From Alcatraz’, are especially captivating. Perhaps it is because the movie viewer relates to the prisoner’s confinement emotionally.
And then cheers the escape!
In the words of the psychiatrist, Victor Frankl, our greatest freedom is the ability to choose our response to any situation that comes our way. We may all yearn to be free, but too many ‘free’ people become prisoners of their own base drives and impulses. Hopefully, we can learn to escape our own internal prisons.
As for Henry, well, unfortunately one of the tied blankets broke loose and he fell and broke both legs.
Henry then sued the hospital for not taking proper care of him.
She asked me why she has such a hard time smiling. What is the key to happiness, she pondered.
I told her that happiness is a way of thinking. We can decide the lens we look through in life.
I told her that happiness is not based on having things we want, but instead, just the opposite: wanting the things we have.
Gratitude. Giving. Invest yourself in these and I assure you that you will wake up one morning and realize you’re pretty darn happy.