lifestyle

21 Mentally Ill Patients Made These Profound Insights

13.

My mom works with disturbed individuals – her best story was ‘one of my patients once asked me how I knew whether this wasn’t “just one of the things I see sometimes”‘. Apparently she couldn’t answer.

14.

My great uncle Gordie suffered from schizophrenia, I was quite young the only time I met him, so I don’t remember much about him. But he loved to draw and write, ultimately his paranoia and the voices perceived in his head told him to burn most of his art and writings. But one picture of his survived, I don’t have a photo of it at my current apartment – but the caption underneath it really stuck with me my whole life growing up: “I am seeing through the emerald eye of hope again. What a thing is hope, that dies and will not stay dead.”

15.

I work with a variety of mental kids, from high-functioning autistic children, to fifteen year olds that wear diapers and are working on feeding themselves independently. One of the autistic kids apparently didn’t say thank you for something, and one of the ladies I work with scolded him saying, “People aren’t going to put up with that in the real world!” and he said, “Yes they will. Most people think being autistic is the same as being retarded. I can get away with a lot of stuff.” Kind of shut us all up, because it’s true, sadly..

16.

Kid came in for a group session with his parents who thought he was a devil-worshipper because he dyed his hair and pierced his face and got a tattoo when he was 15. Typical rambunctious teenager stuff. At one point he asks his dad, “Why do you wear a wedding ring?” Dad answers, “Because I’m married.” Kid: “Well you’re just as married without it, so why do you wear it?” Dad tells him, “Because it’s a symbol of something I feel that can’t be seen from the outside.” The kid looks his dad straight in the face, “Then why is it wrong for me to change the way I look to match how I feel?”

Written by Irvi Torremoro

Irvi Torremoro is an Austinite by way of Las Vegas. She's worked in various outlets in food & beverage and is now focused on writing, eating all the things, talking about Beyonce, and petting all the puppies. She runs flavorandbounty.com, a lifestyle blog about people in the service industry.