Aliens, The Mothership and Low Self Esteem

Today I realized I can handle the patient who has literally just gotten off the mother ship and feels i am an evil alien than the young boy who has no self esteem. It really effected me, he was young, too young to hate himself, not that we should hate our selves at any age but he was much too young. It really drove home the point of self esteem and me wanting my children to not only have healthy self esteem but for them to be kind to others. The effects of bullying are devastating and to see them present in this young man was heart breaking, especially since he truly feels he is not worth even the conversation that I had with him, he kept appologizing for taking up my time, not matter how much I told him he was worth even more time than I had to give him he simply just didnt see it. I feel the importance of having self esteem and treating other kindly and selflessly go hand in hand.
The mother ship sorted itself out and in the end I was still the bad alien and for some strange reason I can digest those moments more than seeing something that could have been preventable. I always see my patietns as my children and it breaks my hearts their family members arnt there to support them(which happens more than not), it hurts to hear what happened to them as children and at the end of the day I couldnt imagine doing anything else as a career even though at times the stories make me want to vomit literally. I am greatful I have the opportunity to help people who need it, to work with people who have taught me more than I could ever teach them and to teach my children the importance of mental health- which by the way is something we all posess, and 1in 4 of us will have or be directly affected by mental illness in our lifetime! I am working with some union representives to start educating in the schools about mental health and mental illness and I am really excited to see where this goes! Education is key and since I am on a soap box these issues and dilemmas need to be taught to our children so they are not ignorant to the realities of mental illness, so they use compassion instead of judgments and so that we can try and stop the hurt.