angrily because she had been trying to sort out whatever was happening in her mind when the orderlies came in and threatened her physically. It was unfortunate but necessary. Dr Weller couldn’t allow Alice to go through a complete breakdown in his office for the sake of letting her try and work out her problems alone. It was better she was sedated now, and the episode allowed to pass, so that later they could begin working on it rationally. They would be able to discern whether this was an isolated incident or something that had been ongoing in Alice’s life.
If it was isolated, and not the result of an emerging psychosis, it could have been brought on by a specific factor. Her overdose was an obvious one. Perhaps she was suffering from a trauma related stress disorder.
Dr Weller sighed, rubbed his face with his hands. It was a habit he’d picked up from his mother, something she did when the world was big and ugly and messy and stressful. The subconscious act of wiping her face off with her handssymbolized her need to separate herself from her stresses. Dr Weller smiled inwardly thinking about his own inherited behavior. Human beings really were amazing machines. The clockwork that made them run was more complex than any computer could ever be.
It was a wonder everyone wasn’t crazy. Of course, there were those in the field of psychology who firmly believed everyone was crazy to some extent; and that the ideal of well being was long due for an overhaul. No matter what the ideal was though, there was something terribly wrong with Alice.
If she had been repeating something she thought she was hearing in her head, it could be an indicator that she was suffering from a schizoid disorder. Longtime drug addicts often suffered from what was known as narcotic induced mental illness , usually schizophrenia, brought on by their heavy dependency and abuse of street drugs. Schizophrenia covered a wide blanket of symptoms, however, and a diagnosis like that might mean long-term care, even institutionalization. Provided there was somebody around to foot the bill. If not she’d be back on the street with a prescription for an anti-psychotic. Anti-insanitories , his mind joked, something funny from his university days. Of course, back then the word mostly pertained to beer and shots of tequila.
It was also possible that Alice had some form of MPD. Multiple Personality Disorder. MPD had once been the “in” diagnosis back in the 80s, before a lot of work had been done in the field to really figure out what it was and what caused it. It was generally accepted now that MPD occurred in individuals suffering from heavy physical and emotional abuse as children, and found a way to disassociate themselves from the terrible things happening to them by separating themselves from the act mentally.
Doctors speculated that, the splitting of these actions could, under the right circumstances, actually cause smaller, mini-personalities to appear. Since they were created to deal with only one aspect of a person’s life, they usually only exhibited traits of one or two emotions, and were often tied to cliché personality types. For example, a scared child or an angry old woman. It was these universal cliché’s that made some scientists wonder if MPD was a real disorder at all, and not some offshoot iatrogenic condition.
And although an MPD diagnosis might be difficult because Alice was a drug user, she could have been using drugs in an effort to self medicate an undiagnosed illness. Then, again , perhaps the whole thing was brought on by stress. Or perhaps it was a heroin-related episode. A leftover opiate particle getting loose in her brain and causing a glitch in the system.
One thing was for certain, and it took him in a circle back to his original thought. Something is definitely wrong with Alice . He just hoped he’d get a chance to dig into her a bit before her insurance ran out or she was moved.
If it was isolated, and not the result of an emerging psychosis, it could have been brought on by a specific factor. Her overdose was an obvious one. Perhaps she was suffering from a trauma related stress disorder.
Dr Weller sighed, rubbed his face with his hands. It was a habit he’d picked up from his mother, something she did when the world was big and ugly and messy and stressful. The subconscious act of wiping her face off with her handssymbolized her need to separate herself from her stresses. Dr Weller smiled inwardly thinking about his own inherited behavior. Human beings really were amazing machines. The clockwork that made them run was more complex than any computer could ever be.
It was a wonder everyone wasn’t crazy. Of course, there were those in the field of psychology who firmly believed everyone was crazy to some extent; and that the ideal of well being was long due for an overhaul. No matter what the ideal was though, there was something terribly wrong with Alice.
If she had been repeating something she thought she was hearing in her head, it could be an indicator that she was suffering from a schizoid disorder. Longtime drug addicts often suffered from what was known as narcotic induced mental illness , usually schizophrenia, brought on by their heavy dependency and abuse of street drugs. Schizophrenia covered a wide blanket of symptoms, however, and a diagnosis like that might mean long-term care, even institutionalization. Provided there was somebody around to foot the bill. If not she’d be back on the street with a prescription for an anti-psychotic. Anti-insanitories , his mind joked, something funny from his university days. Of course, back then the word mostly pertained to beer and shots of tequila.
It was also possible that Alice had some form of MPD. Multiple Personality Disorder. MPD had once been the “in” diagnosis back in the 80s, before a lot of work had been done in the field to really figure out what it was and what caused it. It was generally accepted now that MPD occurred in individuals suffering from heavy physical and emotional abuse as children, and found a way to disassociate themselves from the terrible things happening to them by separating themselves from the act mentally.
Doctors speculated that, the splitting of these actions could, under the right circumstances, actually cause smaller, mini-personalities to appear. Since they were created to deal with only one aspect of a person’s life, they usually only exhibited traits of one or two emotions, and were often tied to cliché personality types. For example, a scared child or an angry old woman. It was these universal cliché’s that made some scientists wonder if MPD was a real disorder at all, and not some offshoot iatrogenic condition.
And although an MPD diagnosis might be difficult because Alice was a drug user, she could have been using drugs in an effort to self medicate an undiagnosed illness. Then, again , perhaps the whole thing was brought on by stress. Or perhaps it was a heroin-related episode. A leftover opiate particle getting loose in her brain and causing a glitch in the system.
One thing was for certain, and it took him in a circle back to his original thought. Something is definitely wrong with Alice . He just hoped he’d get a chance to dig into her a bit before her insurance ran out or she was moved.
Similar Books
