Mental Disorder

We may be one little step from going off the deep end. When I was working in disability I had a patient that was unable to hold down a job because he spent hours in the bathroom washing his body. On his way to work he would stop his car believing that he’d hit somebody. He spent hours searching under and around his car for the body before continuing to work ultimately arriving late on a daily basis. I have an alarm clock that I check two or three times in the morning before I leave for work. There are days I’m certain that I left the door unlocked when I didn’t.

I could easily live like Howard Hughes. It would be easy to become a recluse; to try and shut down to avoid the anxiety producing pressures that bear down on me day to day. Certainly having Hughes’ paycheck would help too or else I’d have to leave the house once in a while to purchase milk and peanut butter. There is a gene for depression that runs amok in my family. Truly though God has allowed me to enjoy the positives in life and laugh on even my worst days.

Mental normalcy is something I take for granted. I have my share of maladies but stable emotions and mental acuity are things I don’t think about much. Today I’m giving thanks for a brain that functions normally with chemicals and emotions that line up accordingly--- something to think about when I check the alarm clock tomorrow morning.