Room 120: Ernie, who had been incarcerated three times for aggravated assault, shows me: “Look, doc, I can do 50 pushups!”
“Impressive, Ernie; do you think strength is based on biceps?”
“Hey, Doc, go to hell.”
Room 121: “I’m sick, Dr. Guterson, real sick.
I gotta get disability and they told me I need three psychiatric hospitalizations to qualify.”
“Hmmm…” (I think to myself).
Room 122: “The bugs are controlling me, they control the weather, they control everything! They’re all over, Dr. Guterson .
There’s really no escape.”
Room 123: Frank, a gentle 54 year old, was found on the bridge, dazed and confused and suicidal: “Doc, it’s freezing in this place; can you please turn up the heat?!”
It turned out (via a blood test) that his thyroid was way out of whack. So we gave him the appropriate medication and voila!, a total turnaround, a new lease on life.
(Know that the first ‘law’ of psychiatric diagnoses is to do an organic/physical work-up before jumping to conclusions.)
Room 124: I ask Jill what brought her to the hospital.
She responds: “I’ve got PTSD, OCD, ADHD, MDD, BPD, and SAD.
“But why are you here?”
“I just told you.”
Room 125: “Purpose?? My purpose? You want to know what my life’s purpose is?
I never thought about that.
But I’d love to talk about it sometime.
What time is lunch?”
Room 126: Twenty nine year old Tina had ingested an unknown substance. Her desperate parents visited with her for two hours. After their visit, I asked Tina how it went. She answered: “those weren’t my parents. My parents are dead.”
Room 127: Brian is distressed and talks real loud: “Dr. Guterson, Dr. Guterson, the Bible says right here that God brought the flood because the whole world was corrupt. Looks like that could happen now.”
Me: “Not with fellows like you around, Brian.”
As I look back on my delightful morning of ramblings on the psych ward, I am privileged to share life with those who are struggling and suffering, whether it’s through their bravado, malingering, psychosis, innocence, or a low acting thyroid.
Life is difficult, on all sorts of levels, for all of us.
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