.Saturday, August 25, 2007 ' 6:09 PM Y
TRINITY MEGAN
Remember the movie starring Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly in which Russell Crowe portrays a real life schizophrenic Nobel Prize winner, Sir John Nash? As we were going to have our lectures on Mental Health, our tutor wanted us to watch this movie to gain a better understanding on the disease taught and to pinpoint out the signs and symptoms showed by the character.
In my humble opinion, I feel this movie is really good except for the part when ECT (Electro-Convulsive Therapy) is being done on Nash. It is really nothing like what our tutor taught us. I mean, in the movie, they show Nash being strapped on the bed and given something like insulin before the procedure is started. The next thing I know is he's shaking like mad - like those of a fit or seizure attack. Whereas from what we learned, the patient on REAL ECT will not shake like that and actually the electricity being conducted to the patient is really mild and the patient is NOT GIVEN any insulin pre-procedure. LOL!
That aside, the signs and symptoms shown by Nash are really those of what we learnt - hallucination, delusion and more. I really can't forget the part where he has the hallucination and delusion of being involved in the national project where a "secret code" is being implanted into his arm. In the mental hospital, he wanted to destroy the "secret code" in his arm by digging into his arm until blood is oozing and what's ironic is he doesn't seem to show he's in pain!!! My goodness! He is really ill mentally!
So why am I talking about all these now? It is because I'll be going on a journey of a real-life John Nash counterparts adventure in a Psychiatric Hospital (GH) on Monday. I'll be there for a week there but sadly, Friday is a public holiday so in short, we are only there for 4 days. Sigh!! I was kinda disappointed but really hope the 4 days will broaden my knowledge field and I will benefit from it.
Feedbacks from my friends who went for the posting there this week were mixed. Some were saying it's scary, some said it's really sad to see them like that, some commented they were being "molested", some even received love letters. LOL!! Though it may sound really scary, I am actually quite looking forward to this posting as I wanna learn more and really observe the patients there. So, please pray hard for me that nothing will happen to me there and I will come back in one piece...