Mental illness.

So, by now you may or may not know that I'm in a BSN program if you don't know that then you at least know I slack at writing posts (I blame it on school). ;) 

Anyways, mental health is a class that I'm in and we get to go to different psychiatric sites! At the beginning of this semester I was 101% sure I wanted to be an Emergency Department nurse BUT of course my mind has change yet again. At this point I am almost certain that I want to be a psychiatric nurse, and this thought keeps getting confirmed every week I'm in the hospital with these patients. Honestly, I feel like God keeps directing me towards certain patients in my setting right now. I only say this because the past few times in class I have been getting "rejected" by my choice patient (we get to pick who we would like to work with for the day), and because I get "rejected" by the patient I have to search for someone that doesn't mind working with a student. God does wonders because for some reason I have clicked and had those "ahh" moments with the other patients I get to work with. It's been amazing. Sometimes I can relate to a patient and other times I feel like I help bring them back to reality of how things would be. I don't know if that makes sense, but I'll elaborate in another blog post later. I want to get today's message off my chest and out to the world. Not sure if anyone will read it, share it or find it helpful but at least I've tried!

Soooo... To the meat of my post. Today I had someone ask me: "So Clair, why do you even want to work with crazy people?"

My reply was something along these lines, I said to him:

Well, for starters I don't look at these patients as "crazy people" ...I look at them for who they are. They are human beings. Yeah, certain things have happened to them whether it's genetics or whatever but they're patients that need help just like any other patient. 

He then asked if I thought he was crazy to which I replied:

No, I don't. I think certain things happen to us in life and they are just like hiccups. A hiccup happens and then it's over with. We continue to go about our life and it didn't disable us. Just like this situation. 

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Now, this is just my further thoughts on this. Yes, having a mental illness may or may not be disabling. Sometimes it's not a hiccup, and sometimes it is. I'm not saying that as a hiccup it happens and then we go about our lives like it never happened, no. That's not how it is and you know it. Hiccups happen and sometimes we search for water to help calm them. They can last a very short amount of time or they can last quite a while. But we hiccup and we remember and know that we have hiccuped. Certain episodes cause patients to be placed in the hospital and the ones that I've seen are hiccups. They happen and a patient can continue on with their life. There's hope. Mental illnesses aren't a joke but they shouldn't define who you are if you have one. 

Who am I to judge someone for being on a psych unit? Who am I to judge someone for having a mental illness? Who are we to judge? People with mental illnesses are human beings. Don't let their illness cause you to define who they are because of it. Or if you have a mental illness don't let it define you. 

I don't know, maybe I'm weird. But I'm very passionate about mental health and these patients. Maybe this isn't where God wants me to be or maybe it is, I'll figure it out soon enough. 

Goodnight y'all,

ckp

Everybody has their own battles within.

I definitely have slacked on blogging. I'll admit it, I'm horrible at this. Anyways, recently in the town that I'm from a teen couple commuted suicide. Kids around here are referring to them as "The Romeo & Juliet of (town name here)". What bugs me is why would they do this? They have a long life ahead of them. What happened? Could this have been prevented? Were there any warning signs? What could have been done differently to help them. We can't say, "oh well, it's too late now." It's never too late. There are others to save... Other voices that are silent yet yearning to be heard. I've been in dark places too. I wanted to be heard but something kept me alive and going. We all have battles and demons that we are constantly fighting within. However, some of us need help and we don't know how to ask for it. 

I think what I'm eventually trying to get at is that we should simply be nice. I'm guilty of this too. I'm not always nice and I need to be. When we are having a bad day we want others to be nice to us, to listen to us. We don't want people or other things piling onto our stressors if our day is already spoiled. Suicide is a big problem everywhere. Most of the time it is because no one acknowledged that person. 

Here's my challenge to you: when you're driving around try waving at someone, anyone. You'll make their day even if you don't know them... And who knows, you might save a life. 

If you, or anyone you know are thinking about suicide... Or you see something that is a red flag here is the website for help: http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org 

Remember:

You're beautiful and you mean something to someone. Use your words for kindness and think twice about being negative towards someone. You never know what battles or demons they're facing. Treat others the way you wish to be treated. 

Peace and blessings y'all. 

ckp