Police

What do you do when someone needs help? What if they don’t realise they need help? I mean, what can you do?

I’ve had the police and ambulance called on me more times than I'd care to remember, or care to admit. I used to hate going to hospital, and as such, they would have to tackle me to the ground and take me there against my will. That was how it used to be. Very traumatic.

It feels like an eternity since those days that haunted me. I was the one with a knife in my hand, I was the one running down the street in my pyjamas. The ambulance and police are meant to be trusted, right? They are the peace givers, are they not? And yet when you have a mental illness, they can come across as being the enemy. So I ask again, what do you do when someone needs help?

Understanding and empathy are vital and it’s important to be kind. To be honest, I don’t know anything more than that. I guess it’s all just rhetorical.

Recently, the police came round to my mum’s place to interview her about a car crash she was involved in. I was petrified when I saw the police. My heart felt like it was ready to burst through my chest, and all I could do was remind myself to breathe… just breathe… but this police officer was different. He was compassionate, and not threatening. Granted he wasn't there for me this time, but his heart was in the right place, and he just wanted to help.

Now I am able to handle these situations, I am no longer the one flying over the cuckoo’s nest. These days I know how to ask for help. I just hope that next time someone is in that situation, and the police and ambulance are called to the scene, they handle it with the same finesse that this police officer did.