I did a short twilight shift last night. Whilst there I made a few reviewing calls to patients following up after their night of treatment.
One lady was in a bad way. Sleep deprivation causes all kinds of problems…one of them appearing to be depression…but it’s not.
Can you imagine being so tired you don’t have the energy to even pick up the phone receiver to dial a number? That’s how bad some of them are and she was one of them.
I spent half an hour chatting to her and explaining what was going on. She was crying most of the time through the conversation because each time I explained something she’d exclaim in gratitude for an answer to something that had been bugging her for ages and no-one seemed to have the answer to. She’s probably heard all of this before when she came in for her night of treatment, but sometimes the whole thing can be so overwhelming it doesn’t register until a while later when it is heard again.