$#!&*@$ You!

Someone said something rather nice to me the other day. He said, "You don't deserve to be cursed at." I thought that was rather sweet.

I have to say that after a couple decades in the profession I rather took it for granted that getting sworn at occasionally was part of the job. I could be blessed in my morning clinic and cursed in my afternoon clinic and it just goes with the territory. I don't really take it personally and it rather amuses me that people could see me so differently in a single day when I am really the same person all day. (I mean, not having a twin like the psychiatrist in Double Billing. Oh by the way, the next installment of Double Celling is up too.)

I'm not a therapist but I know in therapy the clinician expects that at various times in treatment people may become annoyed or upset or angry for reasons that may or may not be reality-based. Being a good psychiatrist means being able to handle a patient's strong emotions with them while remaining a stable figure in the patient's life. You just can't have thin skin about it.

So anyway, it was interesting hearing this from a non-mental health professional lay person. From the outside it does seem odd. On the inside it's just a way of life.