Sex Ed, B.O. and Nutrition

Today I got to teach three different groups of 12-year-old girls about germs and hygiene after my classmates filled them in a little bit about the birds and bees and how to eat right. It was pretty fun until we got to the third group which was slightly on the loud and rowdy side.

These kids would NOT be quiet during our presentation and I pretty much had to yell. I don't know why but the teacher did not do anything to quiet them down. During my classmate's Sex Ed talk with that group we heard all kinds of interesting unsolicited comments... "My friend popped her cherry because she ran into a pole with her legs spread apart!" That's a hard one to come up with a response to. And there were some other, scarier comments that came out of no where like, "This girl I know told me her uncle raped her." Equally difficult to respond to when one is not prepared (their teacher had nothing to say either). Meanwhile, our male classmates were off in another classroom teaching Sex Ed to the 12-year-old boys and got the question, "Does it feel good to get raped?" from a member of their audience.
The school nurse told us there were 40 mental health arrests at that school last year (that's when an ambulance pulls up and takes you to the psych ward of a hospital against your will). One kid broke a paramedic's nose after punching him in the face.
At lunch time I sat down with some second graders to get a break from the older kids and a little girl immediately asked me what my favorite color was and informed me that her favorite animal was a white unicorn. I wanted to tell her, "PLEASE, don't every grow up!" (or if you do, please grow up to be the next Supreme Court Justice and not someone who has been so screwed over by adults that you want to kill yourself and/or other people).

On that happy note: 58 days till graduation!

Teen Queen

On one of my last days on the adolescent psych unit, one of the kids told me about how his mother had sent him to jesus camp twice hoping she might help steer her gay son back to heterosexuality. I didn't let my shock at what he'd told me show, but it was one of the saddest, most ridiculous things I'd ever heard. He was on the unit because he'd attempted suicide. I wonder if his self-loathing might have had something to do with the fact that his own mother wouldn't accept who he was.

And the winner of best excuse goes to....

One of the kids on the psych unit told staff yesterday that he didn't want to participate in activity hour because he was landing spaceships in his room. Given the choice of 1) coloring or 2) landing spaceships in the comfort of my room, I'd probably also go with the latter.

cry me a river

I'm watching the patients on the adolescent psych ward and I'm thinking: these kids are amazing. I don't know what it is, but I feel so entranced just sitting there watching them interact. Aren't adolescents the ones who are rebellious, have identity crises, mood swings, all that stuff...? I look at these kids and I see them as being so free. They don't seem self conscious. To me they look care free. I envy them! What's going on here? Why are they all trying to kill themselves? I want to grab them and make them see what I see. Why do all of the girls on the unit cut themselves? Their arms, their NECKS?? I don't get it but they aaaaaall do it and they are always girls.

Aside from the suicide attempts and self-mutilation (you gotta draw the line somewhere...) how much of this stuff is mental illness and how much of it is part of being a teenager? These kids are put on a LOT of medication, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing because why should people suffer if they don't need to, but what the heck is going on here?

The boys are mostly dealing with anger or autism or behavioral issues. There were only 2 boys on the unit today out of probably 15 kids. My favorite quote of the day came from one of them though: (addressing the female patients) "I can read your minds and I know that you all want to have sex with me."

Adolescent Psychiatry

Why do some people have kids only to ruin their lives? I've always wondered this, but now I'm REALLY starting to see what can happen when parenting goes terribly wrong. I shouldn't put all the blaim on the parents though, things can happen to kids that are completely out of parent's hands. Maybe it's just asshole adults in general... or even other kids (both of whom were probably also screwed over by other adults or other kids -this is getting a little convoluted, but you see the vicious cycle being painted here).

Last month in Pediatrics I was witness to how a child's physical health can deteriorate because of neglect, now I'm seeing how their minds can be destroyed. In the words of the co-assigned nurse I worked with this week on the adolescent psychiatric unit, abuse is pretty much a prerequisite for many of the disorders institutionalized kids are dealing with. I wonder how many of them are able to get better or at least become functional and happy. It makes me really sad and angry that kids have to deal with the kinds of stuff I've seen so far on this rotation.