We're all just a step away from being committed

After one week at the psych hospital, I find my mind is spinning.As our instructor predicted, us students are diagnosing those around us. After reading my text book, I think I know at least one person in my personal life who exhibits signs of every diagnosis.The truth is, we all exhibit some of the signs of many mental illnesses. It's when you have many of the signs of one mental illness that you begin to have a problem.
We sat in on some group therapy sessions last week and they went as I had assumed they would until.......a young (22 or 23) woman burst into the room and announced that she had just found out that she was pregnant. Then she preceded to explain that she knows she is pregnant because a foot is coming out of her back and causing her pain and that her water had broken. She lifted her shirt and showed us her "bruised" back from this foot and of course there was neither an foot or a bruise. How sad. There is no convincing this young girl that she isn't pregnant. She is delusional and to her, she is certainly pregnant.The therapist just listened to her story and did not try to convince her otherwise but did not actually say she believed her either.The girl was very worried about where she was going to go to give birth and how she was going to get there.
I find this rotation exhausting and all we've done so far is sit and listen.I'm a bit impatient and I think the very slow process of recovery from mental illness is not something I'd like to deal with on a daily basis.The worst part is that the patients are given new medications and are usually discharged in 7 to 10 days( on average) but it takes 2-4 weeks for the effects of the meds to be seen! That's crazy to me. These patients are discharged before anyone knows what effects these meds are going to have on the person. Seems kind of irresponsible. It's all about money and insurance. That's just not right. I know I'm going to be running into this alot in my new career and it is going to be a constant frustration.
I learned 2 things this week that surprised me. 1. You can voluntarily check yourself in to a mental hospital but you can not check yourself out. When you leave is up to them. 2. Suicidal people rarely kill themselves when they are severely depressed. It's when they start to get better that they actually have the energy to end their lives. How ironic