Posted by bluedog on January 8, 2003, at 12:22:53
In reply to I just finished a very bad day....., posted by syringachalet on January 7, 2003, at 19:58:19
Dear Syringachalet
I can totally relate to what you are going through. I have lost count of the number of death threats I have received in job. I have been lucky enough to have avoided actual physical assault in my job so far but I've had many close calls where the security guards were able to intervene just in time.
However other colleagues have not been so lucky. I remember very clearly the day that one of our clients was having a fit of rage and an unlucky colleague came out of the lift at that very moment and this person hit my poor colleague with full force in her face and she is a very petite girl. The full time security guards we have were simply not fast enough to prevent the assault. This girl left our office not long after that incident. Other colleagues have been physically held against the wall by the throat before the guards were able to restrain these persons and another colleageue had a gun pointed at him. (fortunately it was only a replica pistol but the colleague was still extremely shaken by the whole incident).
It is not easy to deal on a daily basis with violent and aggressive paranoid schizophrenics and other such mental patients who are high on speed and in the middle of a psychotic episode (it completeley amazes me that we have laws that actually allow these people the freedom to roam the streets at will).
It is difficult for my female colleagues when a male patient becomes infatuated with them and starts stalking them necessitating police escorts into and out of the building. One patient actually attempted suicide after it was made clear to him that the relationship was professional only (ie the professional distance that is so necessary that you mentioned in an earlier thread). Other male patients have whipped out their penises and started masturbating in front of some of my female colleagues. When I go out at night I have to be on constant alert in case I come across a client who may recognize me and has threatened me in the past.
They are finally starting to take security a bit more seriously at my work and we now see the "craziest" patients from behind bullet proof security glass. It always leaves me numb after I have had to visit patients in the high security facility at the local psychiatric hospital. Some of these patients are literally the criminally insane (ie the Hannibal Lectors of this world) and are being held "At the Governors pleasure" after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for some of the most atrocious crimes and deeds you can imagine.
I usually come home completely exhausted from dealing with these people on a daily basis. I think my job has played a large part in my own illness. I want to get out but unfortunately I have financial comittments so feel trapped!
I hope you can put this incident behind you and realise that you just happened to be the target of convenience at that moment and it is doubtful that it was in any way personal. At the very least I hope it makes you feel a LITTLE better that your not the only one that this has happened to.
My thoughts are with you
warm regards
bluedog
poster:bluedog
thread:34791
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030104/msgs/34833.html