My Friends
This will be the last I write about my crisis. I spent a night and a day in the state mental hospital. I made the trip to it with another guy with the same problem. We arrived about ten and I finally got to my area about one o'clock the next morning. After falling asleep about 2, finally tuning out a guy that was talking to himself and another who could wake the dead with his snoring, I was awakened at 7. The area was co-ed with 10 men sleeping in 2 rooms and 10 women sleeping in another two rooms. We shared a big room called the commons that had a couple of large tables and several chairs that rocked. The attendants were in a locked office area, but were among the group most of the time and led us to the various places we needed to go, such as medical tests, doctor visits, classes, and meals. The first person I saw when I got to the area was a blond headed man who looked to be in his 30's. He was just standing around in the semi-darkness. He was still awake when I woke up and was hogging the one telephone the group could make and receive calls, which irritated the rest of the group. I learned he thought he was a member of the Kennedy family(JFK branch) and thought he shouldn't be there. He kept saying he was innocent of the charges and when not on the phone, tried to leave the area. I found out he hadn't slept, eaten, showered, or changed his clothes since he arrived 3 days before and was getting kinda ripe. After several complaints from other members of the group, we were told they couldn't force him to clean up until after 4 days and it would take a court order to do it. Another guy was a pagan tattooed, spiked haired, punk rocker man in his late 20's who wrote Christian poetry and prayers. He kept a legal pad with him at all times and several torn sheets of his work under the pad and would share his writings with anyone who would listen. There was a guy who was constantly in motion as he walked around the walls of the room, sometimes acting like he was a train, complete with sound effects. Then, there was a guy who seldom walked unless he was told to. He would stand and stare at something on the wall(no one ever knew what) for several minutes at a time, his eyes never blinking. My favorite was a little woman who was delusional. And she knew it. Every once and a while during a conversation, she would stop for a reality check where she would ask what she was doing to make sure it was real. She had learned how she felt when she was going into a delusion and when she was coming out of one. Great progress, I think. If you walked into the area, you wouldn't notice most of them as being different. They were friendly, and even tempered, but they were there, like me, because they had a problem. Mine, hopefully, is easily solved. Theirs will take a little longer.
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