Snap!

Hanging on

Dunno about you, but something scared the shit out of me when I first went to my local psych unit. I had this Gothic image of my CPN caging me, screaming, when I flashed him the foetid recesses of my brain. Fuck knows why. Logically, did I really think that I was his first interaction with someone who was, er, brainally challenged? Then again, logic didn't come into it back then. In fact logic didn't come into many things at all.
Anyway, I'm burdening you with this information because I've been chatting to my mental health mole, K-Fix. And you know what? He tells me that when patients come to him, not only does he have professional experience of plot-loss but he has experienced it personally too. 
Now that shouldn't be a surprise. But it did make me realise that none of us are infallible. Here's what K-Fix says: "My first experience of mental health problems was when a friend of mine, who was a father figure to me, went to a hotel and committed suicide. No one knew it was going to happen and he hadn't told anyone that he was feeling this way. It was terrible.
"Then some time later I went through some personal difficulties and I too became depressed.  
"These experiences helped me decide to go into mental health nursing when I was in my 40s.  If nothing else all of this has given me an insight into what my patients are going through." 
And isn't that all any of us want? Someone who knows what we mean and how we feel when we sit there blubbering or raving or panicking? And OK, we want the expertise too but remembering that CPNs, therapists and counsellors have all had their shit times makes one frig of a difference to anyone else having a shit time.
So here's a mad idea. Perhaps we should grill our mental health professionals on their own personal woes before we start spilling our own guts. I know, I know, it'd never work but I'd be more than happy to hand my fevered brain over to someone who'd suffered from their own stint of brain fever. If nothing else it'd be a kindred spirit to cling onto and that's a good start for any recovery dontcha think?