Ever Have One of Those Days?

ninety percent of the time I am on. I mean ON! I connect up with people, get intimate with them in sessions (emotionally - get your head out of the gutter), and generally get tears flowing, them having AH HA moments and such. Well today was a bunch of arm folding, mistrust, and a feeling like the clients felt like I was hasseling them.

Hey, let's face it. THis is real life. Some days it's peanuts, some days it shells. I can't expect everyday to be thunder and lightening flying, God rushing in, and miracle after miracle taking place - as it seems to happen (in my own mind of course). Still, when clients aren't motivated in having simple conversations and are THAT paranoid, I need to back off.

One client was so rigid I excused myself and left them almost in mid sentence. Why push when someone is so resistent? I don't need to work harder than them. So I let the Nurse and the Psychiatrist grab the rest of the information that was needed. I know when I am not welcome. The funny thing, the client in the end thanked me. Can you imagine that?

But hey, therapy is a give and take scenario. Both parties have to involve themselves in order to have some success. Sometimes the rewards are great - almost inspiring! Other times they plop on the floor and need to be swept up. Do you think I want to engage myself in every person who enters my room? Well actually my percentage rate is very high, because I give a damn. I felt frustrated today when I left the interview room because I truly wanted to help this person who was just released from a psychiatric hospital and still seemed a bit (alright a lot) unstable. But again, I know the limits to the counseling arena.

Then came the next client and it was almost a repeat. They too were guarded, didn't want to talk about their past, or talk about their past traumatic experiences. The best interview of the day was with a psychotic Spanish Speaker who grinned a lot and thanked me for the help.

Oh well, it could have been worse. One good thing, days like this helps me appreciate the times that are really special.

It is over eight years here and we, as an organization have serviced over 16,500 people with mental illness. That is amazing! I have literally seen thousands of people and trust me a day like this is very rare for me. If it continues to be the same, perhaps I too need to go through counseling. I don't want my connection with God to get permanently closed.

May you all have great mental wellbeing.

A Calm Day

For the past umpteen days we have been working our tails off and I haven't had a moment to settle down and gather my thoughts. I love writing this blog in particular because of how important the work is that we do here. Crisis stabilization is insane work. We have to nestle up to some people that are literally nuts and try to fix them to the best of our ability. This takes patience, team work, good ethics, and a compassionate heart. I am proud to state that I have these qualities and the years of experience to prove it - and I don't.

Who did I see today? This was an average day. A client that has regular suicidal tendencies, an alcoholic, a person who hears voices to harm themself and has never taken psychiatric meds, who is almost fifty years old and homeless. A person with mulitiple personalities (five) who get's violently paranoid. A spanish speaker who had major depression and psychosis who was off their medication for two months. A young person who wanted to go back into a hospital after just being released because life is too overwhelming. A foreigner who had a scuffle during immigration interviews at the airport. And on and on and on. Each day is another saga, another soap opera, another sitcom.

I have always thought that this job would be perfect for primetime televison. Each day could highlight cases, the crazy staff, and our administration that tries hard and places more responsibility on an already overburdened staff. Sound like good viewing? There is a lot of comedy for sure.

So it is now August and the entire staff can't believe it is coming up on the holidays. I can. Yes it's been a fast year. That is because we are so busy in doing meaningful work. I remember what it was like when I was a kid with nothing to do. My friends might have been away and I was bored and watching the times slowly tick away. Now I blink my eye and it is six o'clock. WOW! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

May you all have great mental health.