Teenage Wasteland
“Out here in the fields
I fought for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right
I don’t need to be forgivenDon’t cry
Don’t raise your eye
It’s only teenage wasteland”- Lyrics from The Who, “Teenage Wasteland”
I just got home from my second day of adolescent boys inpatient psychiatry rotation. I have actually been surprised by how much I’m enjoying this rotation. My only prior experience in child psychiatry was seeing children and adolescents in the psychiatric emergency room. I thought that I hated child psych. However, I’m now realizing that I was a bit mistaken. In the ED, you’re pressed for time, and child psych evaluations take a ton of time. In addition, the majority of the patients I saw were not in need of acute psychiatric treatment. Many of the children and teens I evaluated had behavioral or non-psych issues. However, the teenage boys whom I’ve evaluated on the inpatient unit are validly mentally ill. They are tough cases, but perhaps I feel a little less frustrated because most of them need medications, and medication is what I have experience with.
Either way, I think I’m going to enjoy this month of treating teenage boys. Perhaps it’s because I still remember what it was like to be a confused, frustrated teen. But I feel this strange connection with my patients and am enjoying working with them. I’m learning. I’m doing. I’m back in my groove.
Tomorrow, I’m on call at another hospital doing psychiatric consultation and liaison cases. And then I have a well-deserved two days off for the Labor Day weekend. Yaaaaaaay!
Photo: My doggy Molly post-run in her “dogatonic” pose.