I was Baker acted in 2005. I’m not embarrassed about it. I’m not angry about it. I’ve also been through hurricanes, shipwrecks, and even was shot at. This is just another thrilling misery I survived and now enjoy looking back at. I think I did just fine so if you have the time to read, I’m in a writing mood.

It was a pleasant day as I recall. I mean it wasn’t cold or raining. I know because I was curled up in a ball on the sidewalk. There were two Seattle police officers talking to me. I found it annoying because I knew I just needed a few minutes here on the ground to find my personality again. They didn’t have time, they had jobs and supervisors and so I felt enough compassion for then to answer their questions. For me, I was in the right place at the right time. For them, not so much.

” Mr Hedges, are you suicidal?”

“No, I’m in enough pain already”

I wasn’t bleeding, no broken limbs, no organ failures. I had just been fantastically humiliated and simply shut down for a moment. I was standing just a couple minutes ago. I was walking just a few minutes ago. I was being yelled at before that and by two people who I had placed a lot of trust. My girlfriend and my employer. They were now living together and I had come to work just to submit my final invoice, and to collect my tools.  They had called the police, she had called the police I later found out. But that’s another post I suppose. The Baker act is when the State decides you must be evaluated immediately for mental or emotional health. So I was directed to an ambulance and off to the hospital of their choice. I got my temperature taken, and a blood draw, and some kind questions about the day. I was cool calm and collected, only a small worry about my car, left in the parking lot. I was held for a couple hours and when the drug testing showed negative, and the questions satisfied, I got to walk all the way home.  I had been given a diagnosis of an Adjustment Disorder.

I think that’s a reasonable result after discovering some devastating news of betrayal. I lost my home, girlfriend and job in the course of the day before. I wasn’t drunk, or violently angry, or interested in self harm, so having a mini fetal vacation didn’t seem like a disorder to me. What did seem a bit disorderly was getting a bill in the mail for $700 for the 15 minute ambulance ride. I didn’t call for an ambulance, and I wasn’t given a choice by the nice men in blue. They were nice, and with all the anti police adgeda floating around the community, this needs to be in bold. I picked up my car the next morning after a deep and restorative sleep. It’s a funny thing about life, we are the strongest when we appear weak. What my girlfriend did wasn’t very nice to me, but I hold no ill will.  What my ex employer did to me wasn’t very nice either. I heard they got married, so that kinda makes it adorable. My girlfriend and I didn’t get back together, she moved on, and so have I. I won’t regret the things I did for love, even if it meant being Baker acted.