Tower Of Babel

Well, I have no idea what is going on. This evening, I was on the computer when a friend called me. He sounded a bit low. I asked him what was wrong? He reported that he was distressed by the news that one of his friends had relayed today. Apparently, his friend’s wife had gone away on vacation and he had to go away to bring her back home as she ‘lost it’ over there. I was sorry to hear.

He then continued to tell me that he was surprised to know that this would happen to this woman as she was well provided for, had her two kids, a good job and so on. In other words, as we say here in Jamaica, she a tek life (life was treating her well.) I paused and listened some more.

I said that mental illness is most unpredictable and can strike anyone at any time. It does not discriminate, it affects all social classes and even the most well adjusted individuals are not exempt in any way.

We chatted at length, and then I had to cut him short as the pager sounded. A doctor in Casualty needed some advice about a paitient he was seeing. No problem, I dealt with it on the phone and did not have to leave the comforts of mi yard!

I then went and was reading e-mail, when up comes one from a schoolmate who resides abroad. He was asking me if I knew about a study done on Jamaicans who had migrated to the U.K. in the sixties, that showed there to be a higher incidence of schizophrenia and paranoia in these migrants. Unfortunately, I do not know about this study. But it made me wonder, strange in one evening that I was being asked about mental illness. Now, this is not my area at all, but, we do get our fair share of Psychiatric disease manifesting in skin disorders. Typical are the ones with ‘itching for twenty years, with things crawling on the skin. I can see the eggs sometimes doctor and I have to dig out my skin in order to get the insects out.’

Quite often, there is absolutely nothing to see on these patients skin, apart from self induced excoriations. Recently, I had one that demanded to see another doctor, as she did not think I was qualified to diagnose her, and she tripped in, “And every patient is entitled to a second opinion.” I agreed with her, after all, if she wished a third or fourth opinion, she is indeed entitled to it. So, I asked my boss to see her. She promptly (as I had suggested subtly to the patient), referred her for Psychiatric evaluation.

I did think of doing Psychiatry indeed, as I found it most interesting. However, on the occasions that I have had to deal with these patients when they are out of control, it has made me confront my own sanity too often. Another thing about Psyche patients, is that they are too needy and demand too much of your time. If they call you at 4AM when you are in the throes of REM sleep, and tell you they feel like taking their life, you have to be able to sit them down and talk them out of it. It is indeed, a specialty that demands much of the practitioner.

Another thing with it, is that there are many people who would be ashamed to admit that there are people in their family who are mentally unwell. This is because mental illness, sadly, still carries a stigma to it, hence the title of this post, MAD TO RASS! It is rude to refer to a mentally unwell person as MAD. Mental illness, is just that, an illness. Do not discriminate against the mentally unwell, you do not know when your day may come as you are by no means exempted! I suppose I could go on at great length about this. But, what I thought interesting, is just how by chance in a matter of about an hour, I should be approached by two friends with questions pertaining to mental disease. Hey, I wonder if me a get MAD TO RASS?? I guess I really should not make jokes about serious things, but, you all know me. The Comediat. Have a good night.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 24th, 2002 at 10:24 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.