16 hours and counting

This may be a little premature but Im going to go ahead and say it, I survived psych! I only have 16 more hours left there and I'm home free, never to set foot on a pscyh unit again. I made it without being attacked, spit on, choked, or chased down the hall so I would say it was a success. The worst thing that happened was having a book thrown at me. Physically Im coming through the other side in tact but mentally is a whole other story. Being locked up with people who either tried to kill themselves and failed, have no wits about them, or are drug addicts takes a toll on you. The windows even have special screens on them to prevent people from throwing things (like themselves) through them. I dont like not being able to take my patient's word for it. When I ask someone how they are doing I expect an honest answer. In this place you are second guessing everything the patient tells you. Today was probably the most uncomfortable moment I've had here though.

I was standing at the nurses station doing documentation when out of nowhere this crazed looking man is suddenly standing with his face roughly a foot from mine. I looked up at him and said hi trying to act normal. When I looked into this man's eyes I got the most chilling feeling I've ever felt. He looked like the main character from a psycho thriller movie. You know the ones where the whole movie revolves around catching the pscyhopath who escaped from the hospital for the criminally insane. Well this guy was that psychopath. He had long stringy greasy hair, his eyes were bulging out from his face and surrounded by dark circles. He had a creepy grin that showed both his upper and lower teeth. He stared straight through me and started talking. Im not sure you could call this talking though. He was making jiberish words with this crazy sounding voice. Then he would randomly laugh this high pitched creeper of a laugh. He also decided that this time was as good as any to pee his pants. Im sure this only lasted for a minute but it felt like an eternity. I've never been so chilled from the look of a human as I was with this guy. The tech's came over when they saw what was going on and tried to convince him to walk away but he wouldnt budge. They had to physically remove him from where I was standing and put him in the isolation room. I will not be forgetting his face anytime soon. Unfortunately I will have to see this guy two or three more times before I'm done. Maybe with some luck he'll be sleeping everytime we need to see him.

I never thought I'd say it but I really miss my overweight hypertensive bacon loving cardiac patients.