Sunday, April 28, 2024

Simply Eric: Arriving At Pueblo State Hospital (Part 1)

 ***The following is a fictional account of a teenager who has Bipolar Disorder and Conduct Disorder. Some content may be triggering. Reader discretion advised***




My name is Eric Thomas and up until recently, I was living a normal life. I mean, I had everything a teenager would want. I had two loving parents, a beautiful girlfriend who was the head cheerleader,  a nice car, and I was the captain of Wasson High School's Varsity football team. I was pretty popular with the ladies, and many of the guys were secretly jealous of me. Everything seemed to be going good in my life. So, what could have happened that drove me to end up in a state mental hospital? It all started about two days ago after a grueling football game with our rival team, Mitchell High School. It was the fourth quarter and we were down about three points the Captain of Mitchell's team was getting pretty cocky toward me and I grew increasingly angrier by the moment. You can say that I was just getting upset because we were losing, but that would only be half true. Of course, I was frustrated because we were losing, but that was not the whole story. The truth is, I was getting upset because Mitchell's captain kept on making flirtatious gestures toward my girlfriend, Katrina. I know she would never cheat on me, but it still bothered me nonetheless. 

By the end of the game, Mitchell High School was declared the victor and that is when all hell broke loose. Their captain came up to me and spit on the ground in front of my feet and then said, "Better luck next time, chump!" How dare he say something like that! Doesn't he know who I am? Immediately, a surge of anger rushed through my body because I felt like he was challenging my manhood and I was not about to let that happen right in front of Kat. I made a split decision to walk right up to him and lay into him with a right jab to his jaw. When I did this, he fell to the ground, and I felt accomplished. Then, he stood up and tackled me to the ground, and then we began fighting one another. It took all of our teammates, on both sides, to pry us apart. But, by the time they got us apart, it was too late because the police had already shown up. What happened next is only a blur in my memory, and I am not even sure what exactly came over me. I began yelling at the officers and even took off my jersey and football gear. As I stood there shirtless and unashamed, I attacked the closer officer to me. I was handling my own pretty well with the officer until the other came up to me and hit me with the pepper spray. That was the worst pain I have ever felt in my eyes before and I thought I was going to go blind. I could barely breathe and my eyes began to water up. The whole scene was very humiliating. The officers handcuffed me and threw me in the back of their police cruiser. Kat was watching all this go down in complete horror. 

I thought they were going to take me to jail, but then to my surprise, they ended up taking me to something called a "Crisis Center". I am not sure why they brought me here but all I remember was sitting inside of an empty room with two chairs and a table. The cops told me that I would be evaluated by a psychiatrist and what happens next would be up to him. Then, the officers left my presence. I was pretty familiar with psychiatrists because my mother deals with one. However, I never thought in a million years that I'd ever be seeing a psychiatrist. I am not crazy. I am just a normal teenage kid with normal emotions. As I sat in this room for what seemed like an eternity, I immediately thought about walking out. I mean, no one would stop me if I did. I could easily walk out of this place before anyone noticed. Two hours went by and no one came in to talk to me. I decided that I would leave, but as soon as I stood up, the door opened. The woman who came in was a well-dressed African-American woman with glasses. She did not look a day over twenty. She introduced herself as Dr. McCay. That's a peculiar name. She asked me for mine and I told her. She then asked me to recount everything that went down tonight and so I decided to indulge her. 

"What was it about Mike's behavior that bothered you the most?" She asked me and I told her it was the fact that he kept making passes at my girlfriend. She simply nodded and wrote something down in her notepad. That made me nervous. 

"What are you writing about me?!" I furiously asked her and she just maintained her composure as she asked me why I wanted to know. That made me even more angry. Why is this woman writing about me and not telling me what she is writing? Is she saying I am crazy like my mother? 

"I just want to know what you are writing..." I say, as my voice trails off. Immediately, I imagine myself ripping the notepad from her hands and slamming her against the wall. I shake that thought from my mind, but I think she notices how tense my body is getting. I am even gritting my teeth. 

"What are you feeling right now, Eric?" She calmly asks with absolutely no fear in her. Doesn't she know that I could seriously hurt her if I wanted to? She should be afraid of me. Very afraid actually. Why is she asking me dumb questions? I slam my fist down on the table and tell her that I am fine, but I do not appreciate her lying to me. 

"I never lied to you," she says in response. Technically, she is right, but that fact merely angers me more. We end up going back and forth like this for nearly an hour or so. All of a sudden, she tells me that she thinks I need to be hospitalized for 72 hours for an evaluation. What in the world does she mean by that? 

"I refuse to go to the looney bin!" I scream at her and she still seems unfazed by my act of aggression. She simply says that she understands. 

"The fact is, you assaulted someone and you should be happy that you are not going to juvenile detention. You are getting off pretty easy, in my professional opinion. You will spend three days at Pueblo State Hospital and then what happens next will be up to the doctor there," She tells me in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, which only serves to fuel my anger even more. She then tells me that I will wait here until the hospital says there is a bed available and they send transportation to come get me. 

"Are you hungry?" She asks me and this surprises me, but I shake my head. I am so angry that food is the furthest thing from my mind right now. She says that she will have a tray sent down to me anyway because I could be waiting awhile. Then, she stands up and walks out of the room. I decided at that moment that I was going to walk out of this place. I might as well leave while I can before the transportation people come to take me away. However, as soon as I step out of my room, I am greeted by a huge security guard. He looks down at me and asks where I think I am going. I feel a little intimidated by his size so I just tell him I need some fresh air. He orders me to go back in my room and I do as he says. I do not want to cause any trouble with him. 

After about half an hour, someone brings me a tray of food. I take the cover off and see a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of Lays potato chips, and a brownie. What I did next does not even make sense to me, but I did it anyway. I threw the tray at the wall. I told that dumb woman that I did not want anything and she sent me a tray anyway. As soon as the guard heard the tray crash into the wall, he and a nurse came into my room. He pinned me down into my chair, as she stuck a needle in my arm. Almost immediately I felt very tired and I fell asleep in the chair. I am not sure how long I was sleeping, but I was awakened by two EMTs. One of them was a young man who looked like he was in his twenties and the other was a heavy-set woman who looked a little older than her partner. They told me that they were there to take me to Pueblo State Hospital. I reluctantly got out of my chair and slowly climbed onto the gurney. I was much too sedated to put up any real fight. They strapped me down into the gurney and loaded me into the ambulance. 

The ride to Pueblo State Hospital was only a forty-five-minute drive, but it felt like it took forever because I was half asleep. We arrived at around 1:00 in the morning, so the unit was silent. As soon as the EMTs released me from the gurney, I was greeted by a young man in hospital scrubs. His name was Michael Brown. He told me that he would do my intake. Apparently, I am in what is called the "Locked Adolescent Unit", which is a locked-down portion of the hospital. He asks me to recount everything that led to this moment and I am getting quite irritated with having to retell the same story. I give a very reduced version of the story and he seems pleased by that. He has me sign some papers and since I did not come with anything, he takes me to my room. I am pleased to see that I actually have my own room because I was afraid that I'd have a roommate to deal with. He tells me to get some rest because breakfast will be served at 7:00 in the morning. He then leaves me alone in my room and lay down on the bed. The bed is not very comfortable, but I fall fast asleep anyway. 

***Stay Tuned For Part 2***

-David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate 

Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website




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