jacrazz

I am a nursing student and today was my first day of clinical at a psychiatric facility. It was very emotional to me to read the charts, meet my patients, and see that along with the schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and bi polar disorder came alcoholism and drug abuse. It really made me sad I guess because I am an acoa, have an AS and still reeling from a breakup with and alcoholic/addict.

To see these people instutionalized for the past 10-20 years was just to much for me to today. I saw my loved ones not being far from exhibiting these types of behaviors and it shook me to the core! Maybe I'm just being overly emotional but I really feel like took al lot out of me! I came straight home and took a 3 hr nap!

honeypig

jacrazz, I work as a medical transcriptionist and I can't tell you how often alcoholism, whether called by that name or not, is a factor in the reports I type. I'm not just talking about psych reports, either; it's the whole spectrum of medical issues and especially common in ER reports. I guess I didn't pay that much attention to how often it's a factor until the last several months when I became aware it was involved in MY life also.

I can easily understand how you'd be upset and drained by seeing this "up close and personal" and making the connection to people you know.

Know that going forward, your firsthand experience w/alcoholism could be very valuable. You may be able to recognize the signs where someone else might not, and that might affect choice of meds or other treatment for that patient.

Take care of yourself, breathe, and know just how helpful your experiences will be someday to someone you've not even met yet.

BlueSkies1

That's got to be hard, especially the first time, watching these people who are not balanced and the lack of quality of life.
I think it would shake up anyone.
It reminds us it could be us in there, we are human too.
I think it's the depth of sadness for humanity smack in your face up close and personal.

The bright side is that you could take a nap and let your subconscious process what you saw.
Lucky you that you could fall asleep.

BoxinRotz

I know when I was in depth with AH's neuro team, the nurse told me, Unfortunately, we see a lot of this in our patients. The only thing I can say about it is... IT'S SAD!!!

jacrazz

The one thing I did learn is that we have to see people as "people" first and the disease they are suffering from as second.