I am always asking, “What is normal?” – What does it look like so I can recognize it when I see it? In nursing I see so many“normal” days I have a hard time understanding what someone else sees as “abnormal”.
It happens to all of us as what we surround ourselves with own a daily bases. It becomes normal to us even if maybe it is not.
As I ate lunch in the cafeteria, I hear a women scream at the top of her lungs, followed by a list of curse words “Bitch get the fuck away from me, leave me alone NOWWWWWWWWW!” As I tore the wrapper to my crackers to crumble into my chili – I turned my head in the direction of the scream. Then turned back to make sure I hit the bowl of chili without making a total mess on my tray. Stirring the crackers into the chili – I glance up again as I take a bite. Listening to the woman who is hearing her own voices demands some bitch to leave her alone. I decided I needed more crackers….
Another staff came to join me for lunch as a casual mention of the event stated “Oh she is loud today – how is your day going?”
The blood curling scream – the curse words – the change in the volume of the lunch room has become so normal to me all the attention it received was a glance.
What does your normal look like?
It is hard to describe to a new employee who has not yet experienced a mental illness episode, what to expect or what is an episode. They have to experience it on their own to see what their reaction will be.
For example: a new person to mental health observed a man throwing a chair down the hall – threaten the staff – and attempted to attack someone before staff could step in – later in her day a women slams her head into a concrete wall causing injury to herself. She was describing it as an out of control day and my first question was “What happens that made it so bad?”
For a season mental health nurse of 23 years – that behavior has become so normal in a work day – that it did not seem traumatic for me. For me a traumatic day is when someone gets hurt staff or client and has to be transported out of the facility to a medical hospital.
Tossing chairs are just frustration coming out as an energy burst. The lady banging her head has been going on for months, with staff having to constantly intervene for her safety daily. It had become a normal day.
We all need to step back more often and check what we are seeing as normal. Is it a healthy normal? Are we safe? Could life look different if we made a small change?
Working in mental health I have become immune to outburst, cursing, angry people, random conversations that really make no sensel. Nursing gives you a view of the human nature like no other profession – well maybe not quite like police officers experience.
What do you want your “normal” to look like?
I am changing my environment to the comfort of my home. I no longer want to commute to a job 32 miles from my front door. I want to hang my nurse hat on a hook and help other people change how their normal looks. No more tossing chairs and cursing angry people being tortured by the voices in their head telling them they are not good enough. I am spilling the beans and showing people how I am making it happen. Click here to start changing what your normal looks like.
Angela was voted 110th Leading Moms in Business she is also Silver Director for her achievement of being the first in her business to build a solid Silver 2nd level Team Performance and over 30,000 in volume without using the phone. She is setting a model of how to build relationships online, through social media, blogging and email. She was also named #22 in the 2012 Top 50 Blogs Check out her website at www.angelabrook.com