We girls often acted like a team, a merry band of sisters if you will, and occasionally actually acted out our plots. One night as I was sleeping, three girls including Cheri and Joleen… (I haven’t mentioned Joleen yet.)…executed a break into the staff area where the files were kept.
It was always a big thing to try to find out what our diagnoses were because we were never told. I think this break in was based on Cheri and Joleen wanting to know what their diagnosis was so they could figure out why they were being kept in Child Study. We were all involuntary because as minors a guardian had placed us there. Joleen was the only patient that was court ordered to be there.
Joleen was in high school at home on the east side of the state around Spokane. For some reason that was never clear to me, she was obsessed with a male teacher and pledged to kill him. From what I saw, there was nothing the counselors could do to shake her of that obsession. She was a horse rider and had ridden up to the teacher’s house making very loud threats. I can’t remember if there was a gun involved. But, the result was her being committed to Child Study.
Carolyn, a counselor I secretly had a crush on, was Joleen’s counselor. I jealously saw Carolyn caring for Joleen including holding her in a nurturing way in an attempt to reach whatever it was that created Joleen’s obsession. I could have done with some safe holding myself. Joleen would constantly wax poetic about different ways to kill that male teacher. Sadly, Joleen actually had two decent looking parents that drove across the state to visit her a few times. But, she was stuck.
Cheri had been in foster care and dumped by her mother. I remember both of them seriously motivated to find out the truth of why they were in there. Hence, the break in. The graveyard staff, Mary Bolton, was notorious about sleeping during her shift in addition to being strict and insensitive. We knew this because it was impossible to get any kind of help from her in the middle of the night. She scared me so I didn’t dare cross her and avoided her as much as possible.
While Mary was sleeping, the band of three stole past her and rifled most of our files looking for a diagnosis for each of us. The next morning we were treated to their memories of what they read about us. I’m pretty sure Cheri and Joleen read their files in depth. As for the report out, they said that most of us had the diagnosis of “Adolescent Adjustment Reaction.”
None of us had a clue as to what the heck that meant. I, for one, felt deeply disappointed that I didn’t have anything more dramatic as a diagnosis. What was the point of being hospitalized and feeling grossly put upon with a mere title of “Adolescent Adjustment Reaction?” That sounded like something pretty much any teenager would go through.
I learned later that it was just a catch all diagnosis. I felt either they didn’t want to label us that early or didn’t want to figure out what was really wrong with us. Consequently, I didn’t actually know of a diagnosis for me until 17 years later. By then, it was just another problem in life to deal with.