Paranoia Will Distroy Ya

It comes with the territory. Treating individuals who are paranoid. You can spot these people a mile away. They wear seatshirts with hoods, dark sunglasses, and slump low in the chair at the corner of the room. Many have headphones blasting in their ears. Most look so angry they could punch holes into the wall. Often these people trigger me. Who wants to put their head in an angry Lion's mouth? Unfortunately for me I have to treat them.

Every once in a while these people are lucid. They can carry on conversations, they want to be helped and seem to, on a certain level be normal. It is the angry ones that make threats I can not stand. Hey, I'm human and I know these folks need the service we provide. Imagine if there wasn't any psychiatric medication for them? This planet would have self destructed years ago.

Our plan of action is to rush these people through our doors. Until they are stable on medication, psychotherapy is impossible. Yes I can give them some tools to curb their anger, and often will, but when somebody doesn't trust you and sees you as being part of a Government plot against them, a therapuetic bond is impossible to achieve.

Today we had a person completely paranoid and irritated - a favorite of the entire staff. NOT. At first this person shook my hand, smiled, told me they remembered my face then started to get angry with me. Fast forward a few hours when they left, they shook my hand and told me they remembered me. Here is an example of a brain ailment. Could you imagine living your life this way?

We have staff that really connect with these people. They become compassionate, communicate well with these people and often redirect them into calming down after getting agitated. They to me are heros. In the face of anger they remain calm and loving. I can do this under most circumstances but fail miserably when people taunt or glare at me.

Antipsychotic medication is crutial for the treatment of paranoia. Unlike the movie about the schizophrenic musician on skid row where they didn't get him to take proper medication, people respond very well to the current meds and go on to become functioning members of society.