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Anna is a victim of her own habitat. She spent her life trying to be a good person morally and spiritually by God. What led her to her reprisal was the company she kept. For her first time she would have to face reality of hard core life. She was locked inside a mental home taken from her innocence. The day she had awoken was the day she was locked up. She had to go. Her parents insisted she be treated for depression. It took one summer - three months - inside the mental home that would teach her a lesson of how to cherish freedom. When you are locked inside the mental home they strip away your innocence with a strip search. They have you undress before them. They look at all your processions for weapons or drugs to decide what items you are allowed to have. Breath. From day one there is a calendar of events you must get used to doing. Five a.m. you must exercise, go to breakfast, go to meet your assigned psychiatrist that will drill you will tests, go to class and many therapy sessions, lunch, classes, dinner and more and more testing. Your habits are being monitored throughout the day. You are on surveillance. You not once can stop to take a nap. You must be monitored. For the first week the nurses give you a medical shirt to wear. That is how they know you are new. There is a daily journal you must complete until you can call home. Breath. It is not is like the parents will pick you up. You will be in the hospital until they are ready to release you. It must have taken a week to finish her journal before Anna could call home. Breath. The first day there the doctor gave Anna a pap exam, a eye exam and a physical. Of Anna's twenty years of therapy she had done nothing wrong. She was never in trouble with the law, she did not drink, did not smoke, did not take drugs, did not deal drugs, had no prison record, did not lie, steal or cheat in school. Anna was a loner and did not cause any problem to be labeled mentally ill. Sometimes Anna felt all she had was herself. Breath. One day the nurses was searching rooms for drugs. It was humiliating to Anna. They checked through her belongings. Said her shoes were not washed. Anna luckily made her bed before the nurses came. Matches were hidden in her mattress she discarded. The nurses made Anna undress in front of the girls there to see is she hid anything on her body. The first day there her room mate offered her drugs and sex that she declined to. Breath. The routine carried on daily. Once in class Anna had experienced a seizure. The nurses thought nothing of it. They thought she tried to commit suicide. She did not. The day went on. Her physical education coach offered to have sex with her. She declined. Breath. There were cliques in the mental home. The kids sat in groups according to their gang. Anna survived the mental home with no group. The assistants will pat everyone down to check for knives or forks from the cafeteria. One day it was so fierce a chair was thrown out of a window. It was some boy that got a teenager pregnant and was confined to the mental institution. No one knew if anyone were to get out. The hospital was on lock down. There was parents day. A sad day when a parent said money was stolen out their purse. It is not like they could spend money confined inside, so, everyone was given a lie detector test. Anna passed it; though she was nervous. For three months Anna went through this embarrassing episode of humiliation. Breath. Anna was proud to get out and promised she would never do wrong again. It was a scar that had to heal forever. Some people think of the mentally ill as someone with issues or problems; but it is not. It is someone reaching out of depression trying to find happiness in life.

Learn more about this author, Angela K Brown.
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