If you're gonna go big, go Burnside

     As a psychiatric nurse case manager, I would have to go to court from time to time, if one of my clients ended up in the judicial system.  Which unfortunately, is not uncommon for folks with major mental health issues.  I'm not going to touch that particular subject just now - it's an issue that's critically important to me and to society, but way too complicated for this little post.

     Rather, I was thinking of a particular experience I had with one of my clients.  She had been arrested for walking down Burnside naked.  Now, if any of you have been to Portland, you know that Burnside is a hoppin' place pretty much 24/7.  I'm sure she had quite a bit of exposure before the police showed up.  

     She and I had a fairly good relationship as I had been meeting with her at least twice weekly for nearly a year.  I hadn't really grilled her about the incident because I knew she had been very psychotic at the time, so there really wasn't a "right and wrong" discussion to be had.  More of a, "let me help you remember the importance of taking your medications" conversation, which we had all the time.  As we were sitting on the bench in the hall waiting to be called into court, I asked her, "Why did you do it?"  She was very clear that day and said, "I know now that it wasn't a good idea, but at the time it felt like it would be very freeing".  And I thought, "She's right.  She's absolutely right".  Our crazy society and it's uptight rules.  Being the good mental health nurse that I am, I didn't say it out loud, but in my head I was thinking, "You go girl!"