Congraduations, Miss Throckmorton and Welcome

Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001 - 1:16 a.m.

It's October 5th, 1964. I have endured a night in the mental hospital.

The next morning they give me a shot of thorazine. Unlike GIRL INTERRUPTED they don't give you the medications in handy pill format, which you can cunningly conceal in your cheek. They mix it into a foul tasting shot. Then you drink it and you have to stick out your tongue and prove that you have swallowed it (a la Survivor, in the yucky food contests).

I am told that I need to go to "orientation" in a special meeting room.

At "Orientation" there is a big colourful sign on the wall that says:

"CONGRADULATIONS, MISS THROCKMORTON AND WELCOME."

There's a nurse, social worker,occupational therapist, and a few other functionaries. I remark "It's spelt with a "T"."

They say, "We did spell your name with a "T"" and look as if I am retarded.

I retort: "Congratulations. You didn't spell it right."

They start to murmur amongst themselves...I hear little phrases..."bad attitude" "uncooperative" "not focused on orientation" "too detail oriented".

Not an auspicious beginning. Not at all. Nobody owns up to the fact that Congradulations is mispelled, nor does anyone seem to think it's at all strange and bizarre that a new mental patient should be greeted with a "Congraduations and welcome" sign.

Congraduations for what? I think in retrospect that the sign was a sort of commercial for themselves....sort of like "Thank you for choosing the Holiday Inn" or "Congratulations for selecting Ramada Inns," or "Welcome to the Red Roof Inn."

As the thorazine serpents its gall and wormwood way through my system, I get grotesquely ill.

Congraduations, dear reader, if you have stuck with me so far.

Going back to that time, to that place. Deserves a visit. I've spent my life denying it happened; pretending that it did not happen, making up vague stories about being in a private boarding school during my high school years.

Next entry: Throcky develops Tardive Dyskinesia with lightning-swift speed and the doctors are summoned.

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