I’ve been working in the Behavioral Health department at work this month and I have to say that it is by far my favorite place to be. The providers are almost always great to work with because they take everything in stride. “I have to learn an entirely new computer system? Well, I guess I’ll just work on my breathing and calming exercises.” 🙂

I park myself in a pass-through between hallways so everyone can find me and I basically stand there all day at my laptop. Actually, most of the time I can be found in various offices helping people because they have a lot of questions. Medical Records in mental health are trickier than other places because they need to only be visible to the Mental Health department and not the entire staff of the clinics. Makes it fun and gives me a lot to troubleshoot.

So I find myself wearing a path in the carpet as I wander from office to office answering questions and advising on work flow. Last week I noticed a divot in the carpet at one point in my path. My foot sunk down into it and I thought, “I don’t remember this being here before.” Today my foot fell into it again and I wondered if I had caused it to form. Did I walk too hard and often on this path that I have sunken in part of the floor? Was this here before?

First I found myself trying to avoid stepping into it out of fear I would make it worse or, even better, trip myself. Now I notice I am purposely synchronizing my steps to make it so I walk right into it because I find it comforting. A little blip in my day that makes me feel like I’m someplace familiar.

I think I’m starting to lose it. You don’t think so?

Example #2: While assisting a therapist in her office, I noticed the Game of Sorry. Do you remember that game? At first when I saw this in her bin of therapy games I thought “Why would she have that game? What could that possibly teach them?” But then I suddenly flashbacked to playing it as a kid and realizing it was completely horrifying to knock somebody off their path and send them back home. The game requires that you say, “I’m Sorry” when you do it and we always complied.

Example #3: I also realized that the only reason I liked playing the game was because of the way the pieces felt in my hand…and my mouth. Man I sucked on those little suckers all the time.

So, shall I make an appointment?