Time flies by so fast. Prior to my psych rotation this quarter, I watched "Fourth Kind" online.. It's basically a story of patients with the same sleeping disorder of seeing a white owl every night when they sleep.. then they discovered through the help of a psychiatrist who does hyponosis to them that aliens abducted them. It was kinda creepy.. but in the end, i just concluded that the psychiatrist there was mentally unstable as well. lol
I asked my mom if she thinks being with patients with mental illness will also make you mentally unstable. She said "yes". I thought so too. If you are the only one who's sane in an setting where everyone else is insane, i think you'd be one of them too.. well if you will be in that place for a loong time, then most likely. It's hard to know what is real or not especially if everyone has a different perception than yours.Anyways, I had my first psych rotation today.. and I worked at the Psych Emergency Center. Oh Lordie! I walked right in, and saw 8 patients being evaluated by psychiatrists and nurses. I spent my whole day talking to patients.
Two things i realized after my chat with at least 4 patients:
1. Most of the patients' mental state is caused by ruptured relationships. I was kinda surprised that the main reason why most patients are in this unit is because of broken bridges of relationships. Most of them had an abusive childhood, had divorce, they lost someone they love, torn relationship with their parents, or just really weak support system in general. I feel really bad for them. I can't help but think it's not these patient's faults that they are mentally ill, but because they just had bad coping strategies. Even those who had drug induced psychosis or those who had chronic alcoholism-- their main reasons for having all these vices is because of a rough relationship with someone they care for.
2. Everyone has a story behind them. No matter who they are or where they came from. We can never judge someone just by looking at them. Everyone has a story to tell. These patients we had in the unit can be your neighbor, your classmate, the person who serves you pizza in the pub... they can be people we normally see everyday.. and we won't even know what they are going through. It really helps to really get to know the person first before judging them. :)
One day of psych rotation is already mentally exhausting.. i got home and fell asleep for 5 freaken hours. WOW. talk about being a sleepy head. I admire the nurses, doctors, case workers who take the time to make these peoples' lives better. They're really making a difference.. as for me, i don't think I want to be psych nurse in the future-- i am a good listener, but it takes more than that to be a great psych nurse.
