Funny Story from the Psych Unit

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My last stay was on a psych unit attached to a general hospital and it was pretty decent. The night 3 other patients and myself were basically punished for NOT having alcohol or drug problems. On Friday nights, an AA meeting was held on the unit. When groups were happening, TVs were turned off to encourage people to be in group. So, the 4 of us decided to sit there in the semi-dark lounge area and talk. One of the nurses working that night was known for liking to go on powertrips – unknown to me. It wasn't long before the evening snack cart was sat right in front of us, but we were told we couldn't touch it. Now this wasn't any dinky little snack cart. This was the best hospital snack cart you could wish for – fresh fruit cups, pieces of cake, stuff like that. Needless to say, we took a little offense at being told we couldn't have any! When I asked why, I was told we could wait like everyone else because we weren't going to be rewarded for not attending groups. When I pointed out that none of us had drug or alcohol problems, I was snapped at and told we “could have gone to listen”. Given that AA meetings greatly upset me because I feel they push Christian religion on people (they say the Lord's Prayer during the meeting), I was annoyed now. So I'm annoyed and I'm on a psych unit, which meant I had nothing but time on my hands. The other 3 patients laughed as I started verbally sparring around with the nurse. She couldn't seem to come up with a reason why 4 people with no addiction issues should attend AA...what a pity. So she fell back on “Well those are the rules”. My response of “Well excuse my language but those rules are --------”. That got her, suddenly she's asking me if I want to see the head nurse. She thought that would scare me, but I smiled and said I would love to! It wasn't long before the head nurse showed up, who happened to be a guy, and took me into a glassed in room to chat. The one nurse was grinning, thinking I was going to get in trouble. Wouldn't you know it --- the head nurse agreed with me that there should be something else for people who didn't have addiction problems to do instead of the AA group and was going to look into getting a new group formed for Friday nights! By then the AA group was ending and people were getting snacks so we shook hands and parted ways. I shot the nurse a big smile when she saw the head nurse and I shake hands.