Emails to People Who Can't Sell

House O' Crazies

The other day I was assigned to the isolation section of our wing. The only patient in isolation at the time was a manic bipolar girl. My co-worker, George and I would be alone with her for the day. The patient and I got along just fine; George on the other hand…

I am one of the calmer, more laid back people at work. My co-workers may not agree with me but that is because most of them are blind to their own rigid, stressful lifestyles. George takes stress to hitherto unforeseen planes of existence. George doesn’t have a stutter. He doesn’t have a tic or tourettes. But he does start sentences over when already halfway through. He does repeat everything he says, sometimes up to four times. And he does shake, squirm and wiggle whenever he speaks. It’s an odd kind of nervousness you don’t see very often. Even when he’s completely sure of himself, he gives off an aura of uncertainty. He is my absolute opposite.

On this day George, who is more experienced and more highly educated than I, thought it best to impart some wisdom on me at the top of the shift to help the day go smoother. “What this patient needs– the best thing we can do– what she needs from us is that we’re calm and relaxed with her,” he shook in my direction. Then he spent 15 minutes pacing around the chair I sat in repeating this message to me over and over.