Before I left to India I went with my dad to work in Germany and one of the people he works with was very surprised that I am going to do an internship at a mental institution in India. But after a few seconds of thinking he told me, "you are going to be fine. Mental illness is the same everywhere." Even though he doesn't know anything about psychology, he was able to totally pinpoint it down. In a broad sense, even though some differences are present, mental illness seems to be the same. Obviously I have never done an internship at an American or German institution but according to the observations I am making, I can imagine that it is pretty similar. The patients that I interact with often show very typical behavior of what my understanding of an illness is. Although, it is much more complicated and not as clear cut as some books might make it seem, most of the patients that I have seen show characteristics that I would expect.
Thus far, all patients are pretty stable. They have been on medication for a while or don't really show their symptoms because they want to get discharged or they feel too embarrassed. But today, I met a patient who came to the hospital for consultation and she was out of control. She was admitted immediately. I have only seen her in the waiting area. She was very disturbed. Her clothes were dirty. She was standing in the middle of the floor with her hair all over her face talking to herself and occasionally screaming. Is it possible or likely that people suffering from mental illness act this way in other parts of the world as well, I would think so.
The picture shows how a consultation room looks like.
No comments:
Post a Comment