Getting Evaluated

During the end of your trip to the Emergency Room, you'll receive a visit. Not Santa Claus, not the Easter Bunny, but someone who holds the key to where you will spend your next two weeks to two months — a psychiatrist.

In most major cities across the United States, for every hospital, there is a team of psychiatrists that is on call for cases such as yours. It may take them two or three hours to get to you, but be thankful they are there. Do not think they are taking their own sweet time in getting to you. They are usually in another part of the city seeing someone in another emergency room. Remember that on any given night, there can be quite a few people who come to emergency rooms with mental health issues. Your case does matter to them, though, and they will get to you. When your visitor does come it may be just one person, or it may be more than one.

When he or she shows up, tell the truth. Don't hold anything back. The professional needs to know everything that is circulating inside your brain. A lot of folks are tempted to lie, but it doesn't do any good because it is not just what you say that lets them know you are sick. You may not realize it, but when you're really screwed up there are a million outward signs, and the psychiatrist can pick up on all of them. It really helps the situation if you just come out with everything. It means that your medication and therapy needs will be more quickly and more accurately determined.

The psychiatry team members are usually really nice. A lot of folks see them as "members of the establishment", or as "people who judge you", but that's not true at all. They are important members of an important team, the team that is going to try and get you healthy again. So take them seriously, answer their questions truthfully, and do your best to stay in their good graces. After all, your goal is a speedy hospital stay, or better yet, no hospital stay at all, right? I'm fully convinced that the first time I went to the hospital fifteen years ago I literally bought myself an extra few days by being kind of a jerk in the beginning. This was the first and last time I took that route. So be nice, cooperate, and you'll get through this thing. It's a piece of cake, as I'll show you throughout this book.