What the mind have to say...

Today is going to be a long day...

I'll be posted for 12 hours, in a public psychiatric ward which is located just a few blocks away from where i'm staying right now.

The ward is filled with patients who have problem of impaired mental state.


In other words, their minds can't function properly and they have to be admitted to the ward so that they can be taken care off and protected from the possibility of harming themselves or others.

So, my task today will be to learn as much as i can from observing their behavior, interaction and also other technical stuff in the ward.

I may also required to interview some patients with a specific disease to study the symptoms of that particular disorder and gain some experience.

But, mind you, interviewing a psychiatric patient is an uphill task.

It's not as easy as my previous encounter with other patients who don't have problem in their mind.

You have to be patience when talking to a psychiatric patient. It's not easy to extract information out of them

Some like to talk a lot. The volume of their speech is so enormous that you find it so hard to draw a line between the facts and mere gibberish.

On the other hand, some of them spoke very few words and sometimes they don't really feel comfortable talking to you. Every time you ask a question, they will reply with a short answer. Usually only a word.

This patient will test your perseverance, especially when there is 10 minutes left before your presentation and your history taking sheet is still blank!

However, so far, i think the psychiatric rotation is quite enjoyable.

They present me with a challenge as well as an opportunity to explore the mystery of our mind.

Some patient even offer you an insight where i might consider it as inspiring. A patient told me how lucky he was to be in the ward because he could get the chance to detached himself from the real world and contemplating on himself.

Some are admitted with a spectacular story that i'm sure will make a good publishing.

All in all, psychiatric posting is not bad at all.

To be honest, you don't really learn about disease in the ward because if you're aiming for that then, in my experience, you may get disappointed.

In psychiatric ward there are only PEOPLE who sick. You learn about PEOPLE...