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I Am Stressed And Confused

damn what a day at work today. I talk about a lot of things on this site, like my thoughts and opinions and some things that goes on in my life but I haven't talked much about my job and have not done that so often as I work around patients who I don't feel is right to talk about without their consent.

Going to do this once here because I am now so stressed out and confused on what to do and I don't like bottling in my thoughts anymore as my life will be completely over run by my thoughts and that never really goes so well for me.

I am I guess a simple way of describing my job as a social worker in two Psychiatric wards. Basically I hang out with people who are hospitalised and try to make their days in there a bit more tolerable and do activities and so on.

there has been a girl in there who has been in there for almost 2 months and for almost a month, she kept to herself and stayed in her room and would hardly ever socialise or I guess open up.
One night that changed when she couldn't sleep and it was just me and her in the common room, playing wii for a bit. She opened up during that and well I am not going into detail about that but will say she has been through some horrible stuff.

ever since that night she has been very close with me and talks a fair bit with me. So that was awesome as it felt like I might be helping her a bit, just if that means she had someone to talk too who would just listen and not try giving her medication or anything in that nature (I cant do that anyway).

Today she kissed me and told me she had feelings towards me. I have no idea what to do. For certain reasons I feel I have to be very gentle in this area now and I don't know how to handle this at all.
I Have been told I need to do numerous things now and I have explained to her that can not happen again and so on but yeah it is really hard (not the telling her not to do that again) but I feel like now I am just hurting her and things will now only get worse..

God I sound so full of myself as in that I could make anyone feel worse due to telling them I cant be with them or return certain feelings. I hate this whole thing

sorry just typing as I think
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GerOttman · 61-69, M
I don't think you're going to hurt her by taking the time to explain why the situation would not be appropriate. I'm pretty sure she already knows. Use the opening to help her understand her own feelings. If she has been isolated due to things which have happened in her past, her overture to you is just a first step towards her learning how to identify others she can trust and then how to respond. Think of a person who is drowning. They will grab onto someone trying to save them and pull both down. It takes some skill on your part to avoid this without losing her trust. Many people in similar conditions are used to seeing the world in terms of people who use them and people they can use. It can take some time to learn how beneficial relationships actually work, or even to believe such relationships can exist at all. Can you share this confidentially with someone in the institution to help you navigate the situation?
PlumBerries · 31-35, F
@GerOttman thank you for your comment. I guess for me it isn't so much telling her what needs to be said and try doing that in a way where she wont shut herself off from me. Its more me being worried what she could potentially do afterwards. it is a very messy situation I guess.
Yeah I have talked about it with my bosses and will be doing so again in the morning