The Sanity In Insanity...

Dear journal,


I guess I was not born to be a psychiatric nurse.

It's really hard dealing with the not-so-sane people. You have to possess sky-high understanding and unlimited patience because they are not in their proper minds. If they tell you hurtful things, the only thing you can do is to let it out of your system, and not take it as it is, or else you'll end your shift with excess in emotional baggage.

The field of neurology, I think, is one of the most depressing fields there is aside from Oncology. The brain is a complex organ that is quite hard to understand more than the heart. It is the father of all the cells, enzymes, and impulses that are present in our body. Once the brain becomes sick, other parts will grieve and will be affected, too.

Our world is a big psychiatric ward with increasing number of affected people. Lunacy, as I see it, is a highly contagious disease with unstable incubation period. The differential diagnosis is simple even though they come in all shapes and sizes, dressed up and well-mannered at times. Crazy people think the same because studies have shown that they all come from the same causative agent. How do I know all these? It is because I am one of them.

Yes, I am crazy, too. I'm a difficult person to handle with frequent complex thoughts and ideas, that are signs of a decade old paranoia and infantile trust. I tend to manage these psychiatric manifestations by telling myself that being aware of my insanity is already the first step in recovery. Therefore, I am not just a plain lunatic; I am a recovering crazy person.

As nurses, we see people as patients who need our compassion and care regardless of how rude they act toward us. We don't listen to the words they utter, but we try to hear the sound of help that comes everytime they raise their voices to communicate something to us. We are expected to know therapeutic communication by heart, and put it into practice all the time.


One way or another, we are all weaved with a strand or two of insanity. Some can control it, while others don't. For those who lost it, the best way to deal with them is to let them feel that no matter what they say or do, we will still be there, with arms open and free, to accept them and to give them the same understanding we give to everybody else. 

Remember, lightning could strike anytime...