Psychiatry

The intriguing word psychiatry is more and more often being with replaced with the insipid term behavioral health. Why I ask! Does it have a more warm and fuzzy ring to it and conjure up fewer pictures of crazed maniacs being chained to walls? I am guessing it is not a way of presenting a kinder, gentler image to the public, but has something to do with money. It is, after all, part of the medical business. It is only a guess. I am not a decision maker and wasn't consulted on the matter. I just know I don't like it. Behavior is only a piece, a result of thoughts, experiences, feelings. I have loved psychiatry. Psychiatry was the first big word I learned to spell. As I got a little older, I used to look it up and read and reread about it in the old Collier's Encyclopedias we had at home. The brain was also a fascination. It was mysterious, not like the heart that you could see at work, but a convoluted mass of gray grooves that just sat there underneath the skull, directing all of man's thoughts and movements. Psychology was much less compelling, I thought. From my parents I learned to find all people interesting. Thanks to a series of misadventures in my life, and perhaps destiny, I ended up working in psychiatry - as a nurse. It is enough for me. I aspire to no greater employment except perhaps to share my experiences on what I have learned about life. Although there have been more frustrations than hairs on my head - and not with the patients - I have persevered. There have been enough personally incredible moments to keep me in psychiatry.