SEEING BOTH WORLDS

I work in a place (mental health hospital) where values such as non judgment, confidentiality, compassion and benevolence are promoted. Truth is, it only applies to patients not employees. I have seen a mental unhealthy environment in a mental health setting. People can be self serving, mean and manipulating, power hungry and mobbing whoever threatens their ego. I guess we are all humans but you would think that people who are paid to care should actually know how to do it among themselves if its their speciality. Ok they are a few exceptions but not that many. Being both a patient and a therapist i get to see both worlds. As a patient I spent 4 different stays in 4 different hospitals. Most of the staff showed care, non judment and compassion even though they tended to overmedicate and were not always available when needed. As a therapist, i work with a staff that can show compassion to their patients but show no hesitation in stabbing someone’s back to advance their career. This questions the idea of integrity and ethics for me and it is the reason why my coming out as a bipolar working art therapist is being difficult because I know my colleagues will judge not only from a human point of view but from a medical professional stand. So when I look in my collegues eyes the ones who are aware of my situation I always wonder what they see : a diagnostic? an underdog? Someone to feel sorry for? To save? To protect? To fire? or just another human being equal to them? The truth is we are all equal at base but we identify with status, roles, race, age and so on and then we segregate and discriminate.