Have you ever thought about killing yourself? Have you ever tried? Do you feel undeniable urges to do certain things? Has all of this destroyed your life?
Today in class, a patient from the psychiatric hospital visited us. A psychiatrist interviewed him for about an hour in front of all 100 of us. I couldn't believe it. He told his story in exquisite detail. How he bought $18,000 of gold for his friends in Cancun. How he lay in bed for weeks at a time thinking only about how miserable he was. How he needed to pound his chest with his hand, and if he didn't, how he felt that his head would explode. How he jumped off a roof to try to kill himself. The horrible car accident of his youth. How his father died a slow, drawn-out death from cancer. How his mental illness had caused his till-then perfectly normal and successful life to disintegrate. And most recently, how he slit his wrists, only to awaken in the hospital.
And yet, with all our medical advances, there is only a limited amount we can do. Drugs have helped him greatly, but not enough. There is still much to do.
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