One of the things I'm really nervous about is that someone is going to have a seizure in detox when I'm there by myself. This is actually quite likely to happen, and I'm sure I'll learn to deal with it soon enough. I thought it happened today, but thankfully, I wasn't dealing with a seizure, just a panic attack.
I got called into the dorm by a client yelling for "staff". Being me, I of course left my radio in the office. I found the client lying on the ground with a couple people around him. I asked what happened, no one knew, the person just collapsed. Asked a couple questions though and ascertained it was a panic attack. I helped the person calm down and take deep breaths before getting them to come to the office with me to talk things out further.
Panic attacks are freaky, I know, I've had a couple although not for quite a long time. I'm not sure how long in fact, 2 years maybe? Maybe more like a year and a half. Either way though, I've never had them as bad as this poor person. They were quite shaken. Most people who come through detox sleep A LOT and they hadn't slept in two days. Plus, they had restarted all their meds after a binge. I can only begin to imagine what that must do to your body. Binging, quiting meds, and then detoxing and starting them again. Wow.
It's interesting how many things run through your head when a crisis is happening. All sorts of thoughts, ideas, issues, things you should be doing. And yet, at least for me, I manage to keep everything in check and still concentrate on the situation... I don't know. I like crisis, but there's too much documentation involved :P
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