Week 3 as a Level 3 Nursing Student!

This first part is copied from a mass msg I sent out earlier, but it really just has a huge effect on me and I would personally appreciate it if someone sent it to me, so this is me sharing my love with you.
--------------------------------

i trust you're all doing well. i've had a really moving week this past week and i wanted to share it with ppl i care about. a few events that happened at riverview really struck me and motivated me and inspired me and i wanted to share it with you.

i'm 22. some of you are my age, some younger, some older. one of the patients i talked to was my age and he has schizophrenia. literally, schizophrenia means 'split mind'. schizophrenia is a very devastating condition. it not only affects a person mentally, the drugs have some serious physical side effects, and a person's social skills are affected as well.

so i was talking to him and i really put myself into his shoes and i was just so saddened. i asked him what an 'ideal situation' was for him and his response was "having a job, having a life, a marriage" and for some reason, i was really shocked. why was i shocked? in reflecting, i think it's because these things seem so simple to me (us). a job that would sustain him, not even a job that was highly coveted. just a job. how simple is that for us to do? then i thought about how he was at such a low point in his life, he talked about how he was feeling so depressed, yet despite those feelings, he still wanted those things that are so easily attainable for ppl who don't suffer from mental illnesses. i really admire his courage to face what's the come, i'm really inspired by his strength to dare to dream, and i'm really motivated by his story. i can't imagine my current situation as being the highest point in my life. i would like to think that it can only go up from here and it isn't THAT hard for me, but for him, it's a road full of adversity and uncertainty.

i think to this day (of my one year relationship with nursing haha), this is one of my most valuable nursing experiences. and because of this, i want to share it with ppl i really care about. i send this to you for a number of reasons:
1. i want to show ppl that the stigma of mental illness is unwarranted
2. i want to share this story of courage, perseverance, and inspiration because i believe fully that we are all capable of achieving whatever it is that we want to do with our lives and
3. because i cannot imagine what life would be like without these stories. it makes me want to do more with my life and really chase my dreams. it really puts things into perspective for me and it's incredibly humbling.

i guess in a roundabout way, i wanted to share this with you guys because i think we're all capable of chasing our dreams, because we can do it so easily. we don't have restrictions on when we can go out, we don't have to earn the reward of leaving our houses for only 2 hours, 3 times a day.

it really moves me and inspires me to do more with my life and i hope that you can appreciate the story and hold it dear to you as I have.

The second story comes from my actual assigned patient. Schizoaffective disorder is a condition similar to schizophrenia but coupled with a mood disorder. My patient had the flat affect which was interesting to note, though it did throw me off quite a bit when the patient would say "I'm very happy" but maintain an expressionless face. The biggest milestone with this patient is that I was actually able to try out some other methods of controlling anxiety. I have no training whatsoever in this type of therapy but I decided to give it a try and it worked. It honestly worked for them! It was amazing to me because I didn't think I could do it and I felt like I was making everything up as I went and I wasn't even 100% sure it would do anything, but they said that it did and that they may try it in the future and that it was really helpful. I really developed a great rapport with this patient and it was so heart warming to have them actually form an expression similar to that of a smile!! When I asked whether or not they were able to express emotion and smile, they said they were ok at smiling then added that I was really good at smiling!!! I was so touched that I managed to illicit any type of expression. Mental health's really starting to impact me in a way I never imagined possible.