Mental Health

One of the most frustrating things for me is when someone (a friend or patient) tells me they want to kill themselves. Coz there is so little we can do, aside from detain them against their will at a psychiatric institute, which is not something you'd do lightly or unless absolutely necessary. It's really frustrating when you're put in that position when you think a life *may* hang in the balance, and even if you spend a significant amount of time counselling them (and I certainly can't do this with every single person who tells me they have suicidal ideation) they tend to just go away and come back and say the same thing next time. And it's not always their fault - some people just want attention but most people have very really psychiatric issues, and psychiatric issues are really hard to get a handle on because it isn't like surgery where you can just cut something or cast something or cover something up. Today someone came in with this problem and it just got me so anxious when I couldn't find the patient later though it eventually turned out that she'd just gone for a smoke. :-(