Submitted by mentaltechdeck t3_11lzf0y in tifu
I got hired for a new job recently, it’s a bit of a dream job, working as a behavioral health tech at a psychiatrist hospital. I’m going to college for a major in social work and a minor psychology later this year, so this job is kinda perfect, especially since they have a program that will help pay for my college. The benefits are fantastic, pay is good, hours are great, and the best part of all, it’s a hospital that has a reputation for legitimately trying to help their patients, often discounting costs of stays and helping people have stable support when they are discharged so they can help more of the community.
I spent a lot of my childhood and teen years in the “troubled teen” industry (I have severe ADHD and depression), so seeing a facility that treats their patients like people and legitimately care was so nice. Yesterday was my first day, and I went in super early for a very long day of training. I was in a class with two other people, a behavioral health tech like me, and a registered nurse. Throughout the day, we met all the department heads as well as the CEO and CFO, who were all very nice and very passionate about their work.
During our training, our trainer brought out a box of contraband items that were collected at this hospital over the years, to show us examples of the creativity people will go to to harm themselves or others, and why searches are so important. It seemed like a lot of fairly standard contraband (a vape, broken tiles, a razor, etc), then she pulled out three different shivs and showed us while saying she had no clue how two of them were even made, as two were these makeshift shivs, made from multiple items. Without thinking, I tell the trainer how one of the shivs was made (not gonna detail how cause I don’t wanna give someone a blueprint here), and tell her how to confirm what I said was true, which she does. At this point I’m mortified, cause I just kinda word vomited that out to her, and now EVERYONE is staring at me. I’m thinking I’m about to be fired on my first day, and I continue to word vomit, and say “I’m not a murder, I just spent some time in psychiatric hospital growing up” and then doubled down by explaining how the other shiv was made in my panic. At this point, I’m mortified but STILL babbling about how to sneak in contraband, my two new coworkers are staring at me in surprise, and the training is gaping at me in shock.
It took a few minutes, but she didn’t fire me on the spot, she actually says me having this history in the system and knowing this stuff is very useful, but I’m still mortified cause I’ve basically dropped my mental health history and made myself seem like I make improvised weapons all the time, which is super embarrassing.
TLDR: I explained to my new coworkers how a shiv was made then continued to word vomit.