People like us

Hello. Today we went to the health museum. Once we got in the first thing I noticed was a row of black and white pictures with headphones attached to them. Each picture was a portrait of a person, with a few exeptions of people in the distance. I read the sign and it said that it was an exhibit on mental illness. I picked a picture of a particular sad man who looked to be in his late 50s and put on the headphones and pressed the button. What I heard nearly brought me to tears. He said he grow up alone and reserved with an abusive father. Eventually he got out, but messed up and ended up in a mental hospital for 35 years. He said it was hell. He remembers all the other patients’ screams. Eventually he got out and got a job at a donut shop, which paid a dollar an hour. He couldn’t read and asked his boss if he could teach him how to make donuts. He did and eventually at donuts he made himself for every meal. He got fired and described how scared he was. He didn’t know what to do for food and shelter. He would go weeks without food. He ended on a positive note saying he’s getting by now. Another picture had a man in his 30s. Same story. He had a tramatizing event in his childhood that caused him to start hearing voices and imagine horrible things happening to his mother. He was scared most of his childhood. He remembers taking medicine for it, but it caused him to be severly depressed. He wouldn’t leave his bed for days. His mother would have to beg him to get up. He remebers feeling so empty. I couldn’t listen to anymore portraits, but there must have been 40 of them. I didn’t want to have a panic attack on a field trip. They all kind of reminded me of all of us. All of their problems and fears and sadness. Except they used thier real names and portriats which made listening to all of it ten times worse. When you put a name and face to it, it is always worse. I just felt like sharing this. Thank you for listening.