@Melinda Monroe #ThePsychiatrist
It was my first appointment with Yelda. She was late. As she entered my office, she asked, “Why am I here?”
“Sit down Yelda, we have much to talk about.” I said pointing towards the couch in front of my desk.
She sat down. She looked miffed. I asked, “How was your first day at the job? Anything out of the ordinary?”
“It was horrible. They treated me like a goddess and I kept thinking all this is because they still think I am their daughter. They are feeding me with good food, they are giving me much less work. I don’t feel like a maid there. It feels like some kind of scam is being run on me and I don’t know why they sent me to you. This also feels a little suspicious. I feel like you guys are ganging up on me and forcing me to believe something that is not true. I mean they took an aarti of me when I got in the house. Who does that?”
You are now reading the fourth chapter. Refer to Inflicted for a chapter-wise listing…
“Okay, I understand it is a change from your normal lifestyle but you should know that not all human beings treat other human beings like crap. Some of these beings are nice. The place where you are working is owned by one of the nicest people and they have reached to a very high status in the society because of their kindness and compassion and they might just need you to do the chores they gave you. They are rich also so they are under the habit of paying their employees with higher sum of money than the work they do for them.
It does not mean that they are thinking you as your daughter…… And you are here talking to me because the police are under the impression that your parents did not die. They want some information from you about them so that they can find them. Don’t you want to get back to your real parents? As soon as we are able to find them, we would be able to get that daughter confusion your employers have cleared as well.”
You might be wondering why I said so. Whenever we need to treat a patient with this kind of disorder we generally follow three phases which are not necessarily in a linear succession and allow back and forth navigation as required. The first phase is creating stabilization and security in the patient’s life. I did this by letting her stay at her chacha’s place and work as a maid at her parent’s house.
This particular story I put up in front of her would allow her to remember the traumatic memories she buried forming a new identity which is the second phase but as this phase has to progress at a dilatory pace I have to move ahead with the treatment with extreme care or I could end up destroying her psych completely. I would discuss the final phase when we would come to it.
She took a few minutes to grasp what I told her. Then she said, “I don’t remember anything about my parents. I can’t help you.”
She started to get up and march away. I said, “Wait! Where are you going? We haven’t done talking!”
“I have nothing to help you with. I gotta go. Chacha would be mad if I don’t get back in time.”
“This won’t take much time. I know you don’t remember and I am going to help you remember. Would you like to remember?”
“Okay…” she said hesitantly and walked back to the couch.
“I am going to hypnotize you”, I said and I saw her eyes widen with fear. I continued, “You don’t have to be afraid. You are just going to relax and forget about all your worries and problems.”
She calmed down a little.
I closed all windows and dimmed the lights to make it as quiet and peaceful as I could. I walked to her and started the hypnosis. You all know how it goes. I calmed her down and slowly using my voice as her connection to the real world she fell into the trance state. I asked her, “What is your name?”
A sweet childlike voice answered. “My name is Anishi.”
‘Well that was unexpected’, I thought,
