Mental health. It's something you're aware of but never something you really understand the importance of until something significant happens to someone near you. It doesn't even need to be someone emotionally close, just near enough to observe.
I feel I'm still reeling from what I saw last night. It was unavoidable, I didn't want to hear it, but I know i'll be haunted by the sounds for many years to come.
Our next door neighbours are a quiet couple, we've only met them a couple of times and it's only been in passing. But from those brief encounters they seem friendly, comfortable, established. Late middle aged, have the entire building it seems, go to work, come and go as they please.
Last night however, we were awoken by loud banging on doors somewhere along the street - close though. The sounds of male voices asking to be let in were heard, getting more urgent with more bashing on wood. It wasn't conversations, but there were certainly disagreements and one individual sounded more and more alarmed as the talks went on. Soon it was audible and after peering sleepily out of my window, I could see it was our neighbour and there were two police officers standing by him. He was telling them to mind their own business, that he and his partner care about each other but exclaimed 'he doesn't know me,' 'this is all about facebook' 'people are scared of us' all these erratic statements while they just nodded at him. The female police officer who I thought at first was a friend or who lived above them, said he needed to be careful or otherwise he'd be sectioned. It was like a weird sort of dream. I tried to get back to sleep but it wasn't dying down, they weren't going back into the house. He slammed doors, paced about, shouted a bit, swore. An officer walked away and radioed for help on her phone. I tried to hide away from it all, to give him a bit of privacy but soon I was awoken by blue flashing lights. I was then woken up by screams and crying, the next thing I see when I look out of the window is 4 paramedics carting him into the back of the van, restrained. They were followed by his partner looking on, worried, on the phone to someone. It was horrifying. I knew he was in the right place but it was clear that this man was having a manic episode that was completely taking him over. I went back to bed but as I sank into the covers I cried, I couldn't help but feel so sad for what I had seen. I couldn't rest, adrenalin was going through me with too much vigour and this morning I awoke more tired than the previous evening. I was so glad Chris was there.
I do hope he'll be okay.
It's a wake up call, it suddenly reminded me of how serious this sort of thing is. How complex it all is. How life altering it is. Just, these every day battles these people must face every day.
To be removed from his own property like that was really shocking to see, it's an image I won't forget for a long time. But I realise that for them to do that he obviously wasn't cooperating, or he was putting himself or someone else in danger. It was scary. Earlier in the year my housemate's brother suffered a similar sort of episode where I awoke with him swearing loudly at his mother. In the morning he was taken away by paramedics but it was a very calm affair, although still disturbing.
It made me feel lucky that I fortunately don't have those battles to face, but it made me realise that so many members of my family are effected and it made me miss home.
It's been such a busy week and I feel so tired. Thankfully it's the weekend...
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