Makes you think

Sometimes there's things that go on in the world that do just that, make me think. The why, the what for, the how. What drives someone to open fire in a school. Why our current President has been seemingly firing those left and right on the sole basis of basic disagreement. What causes a schizophrenic brain. Why my cat Ben follows me into the bathroom, jumps on the sink and just purrs away like mad. Some things I'll never know. 

I just finished watching a movie titled Mad to Be Normal. It came out last year and it takes place in the 60's, following the practices of R.D Laing. Laing was a Scottish psychiatrist who was well known (this is my loose and very fast research) for his rather controversial practices to psychiatric medicine. Some of the controversy included giving his patients LSD (this was portrayed in the movie) to aid in memory recollection, but one of his most well known practices was the absence of him prescribing any sedatives or as it was worded in the movie, "anything that puts the brain to sleep," or something like that. In other words, the patients under his care were not given any medications, such as anti-psychotics, which are well known for their sedating effects. "How can you have a dialogue with a mad man who's brain is asleep?" Laing argued in the movie, who was portrayed by David Tennant, who so happens to be one of my favorite actors. :) Laing's patients also resided in what was called the Kingsley House in which it wasn't a hospital, rather more like a group home type of setting. Laing resided among the patients and more often than not interacted with them as if they were normal people. There was a more traditional psychiatrist for the time period in the movie, too; the antagonist so to speak, who used conventional methods for treating his patients, such as ECT and anti-psychotics (Thorazine was very prevalent during that time). His argument was that there are some patients that absolutely need medications. Laing's belief, as spoken in the movie, was that he took the Hippocratic Oath very seriously, especially the "do no harm" component.

In my line of work, I've lost count as to how many times we as nurses are on the receiving end of walking that fine line between patients who are out of control for whatever reason versus snowing them with high doses of medications until they're practically unconscious and/or sedated for long periods of time. In those circumstances, yes, I believe we are doing the patients more harm than good and we're not taking any steps to get them back on track to achieving wellness. It's very frustrating at times. I think that a lot of this happens because "it's just the way it is." Sure, safety of themselves, other patients and the staff is taken into consideration as well. It's either giving them lots of medications or secluding and/or restraining them at the first sight of trouble. I've seen that done a lot too. Again, safety is taken into consideration but sometimes I feel like a lot of such interventions can be avoided. Sometimes though I think it can't. Again, that's where we walk that very fine line. Anywho, it was just a very thought-provoking movie, but it also amazed me in how much the field of psychiatric medicine has changed over the years and how it keeps changing. I think what the take away thought is for me especially to simply just think a little more before I act. Have all other options really been exhausted or are we operating under a "it is the way it is" system? Could apply to other aspects of real life too.