That's the bottom line.
When a patient who comes into the GP clinic with bloodshot eyes to cry about the frustrations of his life and how he punched his brother this morning, it's a distressing experience. Expectedly he had a long and complex history of mental health disorders and substance abuse issues. He also did very little in his life. All he did was sit at the window sill and watched people walk pass on the footpath, for the entire day.
This seemed more exciting than my life, where I sit in front of a computer and waste away.
The only difference was that I was under the influence of marijuana, benzodiazepams, and methadone, which to him seemed all like a game anyways. He had massive compliance issues where he could not stick with one drug regimen. In fact, he took himself off methadone recently - which I applauded at first, but then raised suspicions of him taking something else or not coping with his withdrawal effects.
He also had some massive anger issues and social problems dealing with the lives of people in he supposedly screwed up.
We came to a point in our discussion where I told him directly, "I'm not sure what I can do to help you". I called my supervisor who came in to follow up the discussion with "go back to your home town, and don't come back". It felt like all that rapport and empathy I built up was destroyed in these few words. Nevertheless, my supervisor had known this man for years - and his antics to sink hearts and start the prescribing trend for his dependency to benzodiazepams and pain killers. Instead, he was offered anti-depressants which he refused and subsequently left.
When a patient who comes into the GP clinic with bloodshot eyes to cry about the frustrations of his life and how he punched his brother this morning, it's a distressing experience. Expectedly he had a long and complex history of mental health disorders and substance abuse issues. He also did very little in his life. All he did was sit at the window sill and watched people walk pass on the footpath, for the entire day.
This seemed more exciting than my life, where I sit in front of a computer and waste away.
The only difference was that I was under the influence of marijuana, benzodiazepams, and methadone, which to him seemed all like a game anyways. He had massive compliance issues where he could not stick with one drug regimen. In fact, he took himself off methadone recently - which I applauded at first, but then raised suspicions of him taking something else or not coping with his withdrawal effects.
He also had some massive anger issues and social problems dealing with the lives of people in he supposedly screwed up.
We came to a point in our discussion where I told him directly, "I'm not sure what I can do to help you". I called my supervisor who came in to follow up the discussion with "go back to your home town, and don't come back". It felt like all that rapport and empathy I built up was destroyed in these few words. Nevertheless, my supervisor had known this man for years - and his antics to sink hearts and start the prescribing trend for his dependency to benzodiazepams and pain killers. Instead, he was offered anti-depressants which he refused and subsequently left.
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