Like it or not, life is full of them: difficult, demanding, hostile, rude, irritable, aggressive, arrogant, and “manipulative” people. Fortunately most do not have all of those traits! But, in our journey called “life,” we all must interact with people who push our buttons, challenge our patience, and even make us have hateful thoughts that we may shamefully hide from others.
Some of these unpleasant people we may choose to avoid. But, there are many others we cannot: patients, coworkers, and close family members. And, if you provide health care in any setting, but especially in a prison or jail, you already know how the more challenging patients can turn a good day bad, cause your hair to turn gray, and make you seriously consider changing your work setting.
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This is a more personal post than most for me, but it seems right during the holiday season. I’ve written before about the field of correctional psychiatry. In that particular post, I mentioned some of the appealing factors of working as a correctional psychiatrist. I realize that some people find it difficult to believe that there are intrinsic rewards to working with inmates. If there weren’t, though, none of us would do what we do. There is no doubt that there are also many challenges. Many inmates, for various reasons, test even the most seasoned clinicians’ patience.
However, one does not need to be a health care professional in corrections to work with difficult people. In fact, one does not have to be working at all. Everyone must deal with rude, aggressive, demanding, or irrational people to varying degrees in different life situations.
I do believe, though, that
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