Hi there. It's interesting--I worked in the justice system and before that at a couple of crisis lines on overnights (the highest crisis times). A co-worker who became a good friend and I often observed to each other that after doing crisis work for a number of years we got a pretty skewed view of the world. In our world pretty much everyone had a history of childhood abuse and/or had present day serious mental health or behavioural issues, or were carrying a weapon looking for someone to injure!

I think that seeing so much of that side of life eventually worms its way into your soul, if only due to the fact that you're a caring person. You can never really see the world the same as other people, you know? At least that's how it affected me. The content of those jobs were not really part of my trauma (although the shiftwork certainly was---I am now a terrible insomniac), but there are a few people's stories I heard that I'll never forget.

Sometimes I wonder what it's like to look at the world like other people do.

Rivergirl