Here’s What I’ve Hidden Under My Tongue
#4, perzine, D.J.T., 3701 Richmond Ave., #20 Anchorage, AK 99508
Am I crazy? Maybe that’s a question you’ve never had to ask yourself, but it’s a question that D.J.T. — and anyone who has had an experience of being in children’s psychiatric care — has.
In the fourth edition of Here’s What I’ve Hidden Under My Tongue, an adult D.J.T. has chosen to work in a children’s hospital. They have to take a trip back to D.C. for professional development, and it just so happens that the conference will take place in the very same hospital where, they were locked up as a child.
You can say a lot about what child psychiatric care is or isn’t. D.J.T. points out that above all, it is defining. It has the power to say something about who you are. Adding the fact that children are still in the process of discovering who they are, and still putting together what their personality is, you’ve got a potentially dangerous mix.
D.J.T. on some level knows that they are mentally healthy. They have gone to Harvard, hold a steady job, and I’m pretty sure their psychiatrist, Sarah, is in love with them. But on the other hand, D.J.T. sees the kids on the other side of the glass of their former prison and says “Those are my people.” D.J.T. isn’t wrong. No matter what side of the glass you’re on, if you’ve got a brain, conversations about mental health are for you. The more we destigmatize it, the closer we can get to reinventing these systems that would make anyone feel crazy. (dustan j. hlady)