Two patients:
One looks “crazy”
(unwashed young male, excessive scratching, fidgeting, creepy eyes, wiping snotty nose, picking ear, picking at skin, irritable*)
One doesn’t look “crazy”
(well dressed middle aged woman, well groomed, hygienic, no abnormal movements or speech, polite, cooperative)
Guess which one got a psych admission into the locked ward?
yup.
Because no matter what you look like
if you think you’re a CIA agent with a GPS in your head
you’re in.
*otherwise known as the state one gets in when police have just seized amphetamine producing equipment from your apartment and you have a court hearing on Monday and would like a convenient psychiatric admission (for “like, seven days?”) to avoid dealing with those particular issues. Oh, and you’re really high. And may have confused ‘Hospital’ with ‘Hotel’, “I really wouldn’t mind, like, a sandwich or something?”
Tags: drugs, emergency, Medicine, Psychiatry
October 16, 2011 at 8:14 pm |
Isn’t it rather ironic that the ones who exude the most normal of demeanors often turn out to be the craziest types?
Loving your blog as always.
Mandy xoxo