So, when you spend time inpatient, you can get really close to the people you're in there with. The area I was in specifically encouraged us to be there for each other while on the unit. We were each other's most valuable support system while inpatient. I made some awesome sauce amazing friends this last time I was inpatient, and even though it's only been a few weeks since I last saw them, I miss them a lot tonight. We all made promises that we'd keep in touch, and that we'd be there for each other, but I wonder if we all secretly knew that it wouldn't happen.
Of course we all facebook friended each other the minute we got out, but that's about as much as has happened. I miss these girls a lot, but there are others that I miss too, and they are the ones I'm really thinking about tonight. They were people that I specifically knew I would never be seeing again. How do people handle that? How can you knowingly get close to someone you will only know for a short while, and start to care for them, only to never see them again?
I don't understand how I was able to make friends so easily in the hospital, because I certainly can't do that out here in the real world. Maybe when you're in the hospital, you are the 'real' you, and others are the 'real' them because there, well, there's no one to impress, no social appearances needing to be kept up, no facades to hide behind. Your dirtiest secrets are laid out in therapy (if you're open enough to share them) and for some reason, it bonds you all closer.
But there were other things that bonded us too, the dumb jokes we had, our escape route plans, our teasing of the other units; all these were times that were actually pretty fun between all the intensive therapy we were doing. I mean, not to get all super teary eyed nostalgic, but we had some enjoyable times. Times I never want to forget, for sure.
I mean, there was the time we went to gym and practiced our dance moves, and I swore I wouldn't dance because we had a black tech and I was entirely too white to be embarrassing myself in front of her. Which we all ultimately ended up doing of course, and had a blast doing it. Then there were the techs who would joke around with us, and the time one did my hair because 'I obviously had never done hair before'...which is true, I'm definitely not girly!
And then there was the night that one of the boys from another unit started mentioning how he would love some chocolate chip cookies. And he got louder and louder until the whole cafeteria could hear. So, me being me, I spoke up and said, "Man, some chocolate chip cookies would be delicious." And he took off with it, and we bantered back and forth for a few minutes about how delicious chocolate chip cookies would be. It culminated in him going and standing by the cooks while we were talking and discussing how delicious those cookies sounded. He actually won out, because the next day he talked to the cafeteria staff and asked if they'd make some for dessert one day. And they did! Our unit lost out because by the time we got down to lunch, those boys had nearly eaten them all gone! He got the nickname Chocolate Chip from that first night on, and we were friends from the next day on when he came over to our table to introduce himself.
I made friends with a few of the boys on his unit, and they made my day so much brighter because of their presence. I knew once I left I'd never be seeing them again, but we made memorable moments. There was one boy who was listening to me talk about how rough therapy was going that day who gave me some invaluable advice...when shit gets rough and you can't handle it anymore...think of a T-rex, trying to make his bed. And it helped turn my day around. One of the other boys, he would do ballerina moves to make us laugh and one of the girls on my unit got a huge crush on him. I told him after she discharged, and he always inquired after his stalker when I would see him.
And those were just casual friendships made. I made especially good friends with a girl in there, who I'll call Sandra, and we were like peas and carrots. We're both bipolar, and we just fit together. We both were admitted the same day, which was a Thursday, so we called ourselves Thursday's child, and always joked that we 'had far to go'. There's an old poem that talks about children born on days of the week, and that's where it came from. We would go out in the prison yard (as I called it), which was a tiny cinder blocked area for you to get some fresh air, and we'd joke about how we could make it over the fence and be on our way to freedom. We also had some good talks, and we learned to call each other out if we felt we weren't being honest. I probably miss her the most, and talk to her the least :(
Then there was a girl who had a bright pink jacket, and an episode where the tech with us opened the door to let us to our unit, and someone else opened the door to freedom at the same time, and I joked we should make a run for it...but if we did, I was tripping her for her shoes because she'd be the first one down anyway due to her noticeable jacket. She was so much fun, the stories she'd tell, and the expressions she'd make were priceless. I also befriended another girl in there, who I'll call Sue...she was so super extreme that it just kept us in constant laughter. We were given journals to use while inpatient, and were encouraged to decorate them as expressions of ourselves. Well, Sue turned hers into a porn star advertisement and claimed it was going to be her newest 'little black book'...which she did purely for the shock value that it would put on our therapist. We got a lot of laughs out of her book, and we got a lot of sweetness from her too. She was the one who would lend out her make-up to help us feel prettier while in there. She's also the only one who successfully lied through her teeth to get discharged a mere 2 days after arriving. I know she had a little remorse for not dealing with her shit when she had the chance, but she's doing what she needs to make it on the outside now. I wish I knew how well my other friends were doing too.
I also wonder about the other girls I wasn't as close to. There were a couple of older women in there who I cared about, and I wonder how reality is treating them. There was a girl my age who had been there nearly a month by the time I left, and I wonder about her too.
I reread The 5 People You Meet in Heaven while in there, and part of it really stayed with me, and relates to this whole post. Everyone's stories are connected...some stories interchange with another's, some lay on top of another's, and some stories are side by side to each others. Every person that I met there was part of my story in someway, somehow, and they all changed and shaped me, from the dear friends I made, to the staff, and to the patients on other units. I have a whole lot to say about the staff there and how they affected me, but that's a post for another time and another day.
So the thing I guess I learned the most about all these friends and acquaintances is to just accept them into your life for the time they are there. Practice mindfulness. Enjoy the moments you have with people, and don't rehash the past out when you're with them, nor stress about the future worrying about not being with them. Just enjoy that time you have because you'll never get it back. I'm new to this whole mindfulness thing, having never heard of it before my stay there (it's a big part of DBT, among other things) and I tried to practice it and just simply be in the moment with the people there. Of course, that doesn't stop me from missing them now, but I'm not dwelling in self pity over them no longer being in my life. I'm simply acknowledging that I feel nostalgic, and am doing something about it. Several somethings in fact, lol. I messaged several of them tonight to see how they were doing, and of course, here I am blogging about it too.
This mindfulness thing is something I'm striving to do with all my relationships now. I am trying to live in the moment with each one, because each moment is really all we have. We don't know if we'll have another moment to follow, so we need to appreciate the here and now, and be grateful for it...it is called the present after all.
Of course we all facebook friended each other the minute we got out, but that's about as much as has happened. I miss these girls a lot, but there are others that I miss too, and they are the ones I'm really thinking about tonight. They were people that I specifically knew I would never be seeing again. How do people handle that? How can you knowingly get close to someone you will only know for a short while, and start to care for them, only to never see them again?
I don't understand how I was able to make friends so easily in the hospital, because I certainly can't do that out here in the real world. Maybe when you're in the hospital, you are the 'real' you, and others are the 'real' them because there, well, there's no one to impress, no social appearances needing to be kept up, no facades to hide behind. Your dirtiest secrets are laid out in therapy (if you're open enough to share them) and for some reason, it bonds you all closer.
But there were other things that bonded us too, the dumb jokes we had, our escape route plans, our teasing of the other units; all these were times that were actually pretty fun between all the intensive therapy we were doing. I mean, not to get all super teary eyed nostalgic, but we had some enjoyable times. Times I never want to forget, for sure.
I mean, there was the time we went to gym and practiced our dance moves, and I swore I wouldn't dance because we had a black tech and I was entirely too white to be embarrassing myself in front of her. Which we all ultimately ended up doing of course, and had a blast doing it. Then there were the techs who would joke around with us, and the time one did my hair because 'I obviously had never done hair before'...which is true, I'm definitely not girly!
And then there was the night that one of the boys from another unit started mentioning how he would love some chocolate chip cookies. And he got louder and louder until the whole cafeteria could hear. So, me being me, I spoke up and said, "Man, some chocolate chip cookies would be delicious." And he took off with it, and we bantered back and forth for a few minutes about how delicious chocolate chip cookies would be. It culminated in him going and standing by the cooks while we were talking and discussing how delicious those cookies sounded. He actually won out, because the next day he talked to the cafeteria staff and asked if they'd make some for dessert one day. And they did! Our unit lost out because by the time we got down to lunch, those boys had nearly eaten them all gone! He got the nickname Chocolate Chip from that first night on, and we were friends from the next day on when he came over to our table to introduce himself.
I made friends with a few of the boys on his unit, and they made my day so much brighter because of their presence. I knew once I left I'd never be seeing them again, but we made memorable moments. There was one boy who was listening to me talk about how rough therapy was going that day who gave me some invaluable advice...when shit gets rough and you can't handle it anymore...think of a T-rex, trying to make his bed. And it helped turn my day around. One of the other boys, he would do ballerina moves to make us laugh and one of the girls on my unit got a huge crush on him. I told him after she discharged, and he always inquired after his stalker when I would see him.
And those were just casual friendships made. I made especially good friends with a girl in there, who I'll call Sandra, and we were like peas and carrots. We're both bipolar, and we just fit together. We both were admitted the same day, which was a Thursday, so we called ourselves Thursday's child, and always joked that we 'had far to go'. There's an old poem that talks about children born on days of the week, and that's where it came from. We would go out in the prison yard (as I called it), which was a tiny cinder blocked area for you to get some fresh air, and we'd joke about how we could make it over the fence and be on our way to freedom. We also had some good talks, and we learned to call each other out if we felt we weren't being honest. I probably miss her the most, and talk to her the least :(
Then there was a girl who had a bright pink jacket, and an episode where the tech with us opened the door to let us to our unit, and someone else opened the door to freedom at the same time, and I joked we should make a run for it...but if we did, I was tripping her for her shoes because she'd be the first one down anyway due to her noticeable jacket. She was so much fun, the stories she'd tell, and the expressions she'd make were priceless. I also befriended another girl in there, who I'll call Sue...she was so super extreme that it just kept us in constant laughter. We were given journals to use while inpatient, and were encouraged to decorate them as expressions of ourselves. Well, Sue turned hers into a porn star advertisement and claimed it was going to be her newest 'little black book'...which she did purely for the shock value that it would put on our therapist. We got a lot of laughs out of her book, and we got a lot of sweetness from her too. She was the one who would lend out her make-up to help us feel prettier while in there. She's also the only one who successfully lied through her teeth to get discharged a mere 2 days after arriving. I know she had a little remorse for not dealing with her shit when she had the chance, but she's doing what she needs to make it on the outside now. I wish I knew how well my other friends were doing too.
I also wonder about the other girls I wasn't as close to. There were a couple of older women in there who I cared about, and I wonder how reality is treating them. There was a girl my age who had been there nearly a month by the time I left, and I wonder about her too.
I reread The 5 People You Meet in Heaven while in there, and part of it really stayed with me, and relates to this whole post. Everyone's stories are connected...some stories interchange with another's, some lay on top of another's, and some stories are side by side to each others. Every person that I met there was part of my story in someway, somehow, and they all changed and shaped me, from the dear friends I made, to the staff, and to the patients on other units. I have a whole lot to say about the staff there and how they affected me, but that's a post for another time and another day.
So the thing I guess I learned the most about all these friends and acquaintances is to just accept them into your life for the time they are there. Practice mindfulness. Enjoy the moments you have with people, and don't rehash the past out when you're with them, nor stress about the future worrying about not being with them. Just enjoy that time you have because you'll never get it back. I'm new to this whole mindfulness thing, having never heard of it before my stay there (it's a big part of DBT, among other things) and I tried to practice it and just simply be in the moment with the people there. Of course, that doesn't stop me from missing them now, but I'm not dwelling in self pity over them no longer being in my life. I'm simply acknowledging that I feel nostalgic, and am doing something about it. Several somethings in fact, lol. I messaged several of them tonight to see how they were doing, and of course, here I am blogging about it too.
This mindfulness thing is something I'm striving to do with all my relationships now. I am trying to live in the moment with each one, because each moment is really all we have. We don't know if we'll have another moment to follow, so we need to appreciate the here and now, and be grateful for it...it is called the present after all.
Great glad to hear you are into mindfulness. There's a major way to help with meditation/mindfulness in every day life. And it can really help with bipolar.
ReplyDeleteDo watch the video and then click around the rest of the site to start exploring.
"Three Principles" once helped a woman get out of manic psychosis in less than 24 hours.
http://www.3pgc.org/photos-videos/details/?m=1021
Thanks for the link! I am so new to this mindfulness thing that any extra help I can get I'll take! Thank you for taking the time to comment as well, I appreciate it.
Delete