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When you think about the word ‘environment’, many things could potentially come to mind. Depending on the context of it’s use and the connotations you associate with environment, anything from the room you’re sitting in to the entire universe could be examined. Some will think of home… some will think of the sum of their personal spaces… and still others will think about the global ecosystem.

No two environments are the same. Even your own personal environment differs from place to place. You may feel one way about your home environment and, yet, have an entirely different take on your social environment. Regardless of what comes to mind, a careful examination of all the environments in which we interact is important to making it through this crazy thing called life.

I was talking to a couple of co-workers today about the environment at the hospital. In particular… the psychiatric unit. There was a “feel” I could describe about my previous work environment and, not surprisingly, my new one also has a certain vibe to it. I hadn’t yet put my finger on just what it was. In fact, I still don’t claim to have it all figured out. But something someone else said today helped me to figure out part of the puzzle:

Some things are more apt to go public around there.

The way it was explained to me was, in a nutshell, that many of things that we tend to shy away from talking about with our co-workers are not only permissible, but almost expected. Using the example I was given, if you told someone at work that you were depressed, for whatever reason, they would most likely avoid delving deeper. Maybe they wouldn’t know what to say. Maybe they don’t care. Or maybe they want to avoid a long, intimate conversation that could potentially bring them down as well. Whatever the motivation, a lot of people in a work environment would choose to either superficially appear to care or avoid looking for elaboration.

Examined from another perspective, you could be exhibiting all of the symptoms of depression. It could be painfully obvious to those around you that something was wrong. But in an attempt to keep your personal feelings shielded from those you work with, you would deny anything was wrong. Or minimize your feelings into something not worth dwelling on.

But as it was pointed out to me today, the same does not hold true in a work environment filled with people educated in dealing with feelings. Regardless of their title or job description, everyone from the nurses to the social workers at the hospital are trained and experienced in working with people who have problems. For one, it means that you’re surrounded by folks who know what to look for. It makes it harder to keep things on the inside when everyone you work with already has an idea based on what your outside is saying.

It also makes minimizing or deflecting your feelings more difficult. One of the aspects of functioning that is examined in every person on the unit is whether they are minimizing their issues. They call it insight. “Such-and-such has minimal insight into their condition”. Whatever you call it, it’s basically a psychological lie detector. One of the benefits of having different people talk with each patient is that you can piece together a much more complete picture of what’s going on with someone based on the collective whole of their dealings with us. But it also means that if a co-worker is doing the same thing, someone will figure it out.

The vast majority of people working in the mental health field, myself included, feel that talking about what bothers us is an excellent way to work through things. Often times, simply getting someone to admit that a problem exists is a major first step. A break-through in some situations. So imagine you’re at work, surrounded by people who feel this way, and you tell them “nothing is wrong”… when obviously something is. Do you think they’re going to drop it? Do you think they’ll believe you? Maybe they won’t push the issue. But they’ll know you’re not being honest. They’ll know what you’re doing because they’ve seen it a million times before.

Now pull it all together. You’re surrounded by people who know what to look for. What “the signs” are. You’re surrounded by people who’ve seen “the signs” many times in the past. You’re surrounded by people who believe in talking about things and sharing feelings. And you’re surrounded by people who know when you’re hiding something. Needless to say, it’s going to be a very open environment. I hadn’t thought of it quite like that until today. But I get it now. I have to admit… it’s a very unique environment to be in, both professionally and personally.

At least it’s reassuring to know that, should I decide to have a nervous break down, I won’t have to go far to get help. I’ll just have to convince a doctor to discharge someone so I can steal their bed.

Let me tell you about my childhood…