working in psychiatry for as long as I’ve had, the people I admire most are actually the ones who are just decent every single day. the ones who know everybody’s kids names and remember everybody’s birthday. I don’t know how they do it. I became the person who helps pull apart people trying to bite each other’s faces off because idk how to remember birthdays and I was hoping it would be something people appreciate but day to day it actually really isn’t and the reason why becomes obvious pretty quickly. the people who make the biggest difference in people’s mental health are people who know how to plan a good Friday night get-together and how to follow up when they haven’t heard from one of the invitees for two weeks in a row.

the only mental health thing I’m aware of being publicly available is commitments, and in most localities that requires an initial involuntary hold followed by evaluation and a hearing. and even that I think only counts for clearances, gun rights, and possibly licenses concerning public safety such as doctors, social workers, etc. rando employers should not be able to access that info afaik (this is a summary of the relevant part of the speech I give to patients when they ask if they want to change their status to involuntary and what the process looks like if the doctor disagrees that they need care, what their rights are in that situation, etc.). even with that idk that they can see what you were committed for just that you were. I’m not sure how hard they’d have to dig to get access to the mental health board evaluation that led to the commitment. I talked my way out of a commitment after an involuntary hold and have had a few incidents since where I even talked myself out of the hold to begin with and it never even affected me getting licensed (fellow cluster b PD here, hiiiii).

I have borderline personality and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. I was so unmanageable as a teenager (and twice a month since my cycle was coming every two weeks) that my fundie parents put me on birth control at 14 years old.

also helps to plan difficult conversations if it’s something that can wait a few days or that could wait a week but you know you need to do it sooner rather than at the end of the week when she won’t be able to respond as charitably. me and my husband keep track of each other’s hypomanias and depressions for similar reasons.

I think we should make all work legal for the worker. They can be here, they can receive wages, their kids go to school. as As long as they don’t commit any crimes just let them exist, whatever.

…but hiring someone without a visa should be extremely illegal. Like decades in prison illegal. Should fix the rampant human trafficking pretty quickly. A lot of these employers do it because they don’t have to worry about treating the workers fairly. They should be terrified of illegal workers telling on them. And after they’re done telling on one human trafficker let them go find another job and tell on him too. If we were tossing people in prison for hiring illegal immigrants their job market would dry up immediately and the problem would resolve very quickly.

people need to think more about who is actually benefiting from illegal immigration and go after those people. because it’s not some lower than minimum wage laborer, it’s his employer who found someone who’s too scared to tell OSHA that the sharps bin is overflowing and APS that meemaw has been sitting in her own shit for three days. Immigrants aren’t taking my job, sketchy employers are trafficking human beings in who are willing to be paid less while being abused and who will be too scared to say anything about the really scary shit they’re being made to do and watch.

a more useful question would be,“out of all the ways you could make money why are you thinking about this one?”

I mean it was genuinely good sex advice the best saliva to use as blowjob lube is 100% the thicker mucus from the back of the nasopharynx vs the thinner saliva generally produced by the mouth. And unlike most popular sex advice it’s not advising anything even remotely dangerous it’s genuinely just a solid point of expert blowjob technique.

Also, psych nurse protip - this is how you use this to talk someone out of a panic attack. Use the above conversation template plus the following nonverbals / paraverbals:

• start by reducing stimuli (think five senses!). Reduce the noise and lights, and try to get away from any particularly offensive smells or sensations.

• you can try to get the crowds and stimuli out of the area, but it will probably be easier to move the person panicking. Getting crowds of people to do things is very tricky. It’s usually just easier to move the one person.

• talk at about half to a quarter of your usual speed and volume

• use common English words (no SAT vocab). Enunciate clearly, and don’t use more than one conjunction / more than two ideas per sentence. Their brain can’t chew / digest as much as all at once.

• Do not stand directly in front of them and especially do not corner them. If you feel unsafe you can still stay closer to the door than they are but try to stand slightly to the side to give them line of sight to it.

• if you want to practice / really up your game, learn to deepen your pitch slightly / resonate / speak from your chest while still keeping your volume down. Imagine James Earl Jones reading a meditation script on YouTube. This has an added benefit if you work with seniors, most age-related hearing loss is in the upper pitch ranges.

the other downside is that I don’t feel like it’s my place to be the one rioting out in the streets because I specifically picked a patient population that will be THE FIRST to be abandoned. Many of my patients have physical as well as mental disabilities. We have at least three ID patients right now who would just get prostituted at best, and a good portion of the homeless people willing to fake or exaggerate psychosis or suicidal ideation for a bed are often doing it because they also have a bum leg or a broken back and won’t make it on the street for an extended period. If I quit my job it’s not some spoiled rich bastard who’s going to suffer, in fact they’ll probably do slightly better for not having to pay my wages. I’d probably adapt ok to health outside the system (I’m already making do with it’s scraps on the daily) but I just… I’m also trying really hard not to think about the “wellness camps.” Me being forced to abandon these people is just going to be the beginning.

i didn’t think things through when I chose a job that would be needed through the end of the world.

my usual answer when I’m suspecting some kind of boundary-pushing behavior is “well you can ask…” …but I have to hear out my psych patients, you don’t owe strangers the same obligation.

the counting of birthdays specifically was what was interesting to me but I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.

this fascinates me please provide search terms for me to do additional research.

months. hang on Mom is trying to make me eat peas.

Also called “jetpacking” (especially if the smaller person is gassy).

The person who empties the urine bag has entered the chat!