**Note: One of the many posts that got started, but not finished in the rushed panic that is the end of the semester. Enjoy!
I just finished my mental health rotation, which incidentally, is my final rotation of the semester. Whopp! Ee! (A mere 16-17 clinical days stands between myself and graduation. I need to find a countdown clock for this blog.)
The final part of the rotation was at a state run mental hospital. Many of the patients are there as a result of a court order or because they were an immediate danger to themselves or others. These patients are far more unstable and more acute (fancy medical term for sicker). It was quite different from the long-term care facility where I spent the first part of the rotation.
I’m going to be honest, I was not entirely sure what to expect from this rotation. I know that I had a couple of preconceived ideas about mental illness, depression, and bipolar disorder—but mostly I was dreading this whole rotation.
I realized two things. First, living with a mental illness like schizophrenia is really, really difficult for the patient, the family, and other people in the patient’s life. For those unfamiliar, schizophrenia is most commonly known as the disorder that makes people extremely paranoid and has delusions and hallucinations (you know, people talking to themselves and having imaginary friends). The medications the patient has to take are powerful and have difficult side effects. Often times, the medications don’t control all of the voices and the paranoia.
Imagine, every hour of every day you have the constant noise of the voices in your head or having the feeling that every shadow on every wall or noise around every corner is coming to get you.
Second, a lot of patience is required. Brain chemistry is tricky stuff. Medications take time to work. The first one may not work. The fifth one may not work. It’s hard to remember to have patience sometimes.
I just got a small glimpse into what it is like, and I was once again blown away by the compassion I felt growing for the people and their families who suffer from this and other forms of mental illness.
