This is to keep me from giving in to a terrible temptation,
I speak tongue-in-cheek but really it's a big distraction.

I want to blurt out something in group therapy
on behalf of the entire group of us
to one patient who is impossible to communicate with.
It goes like this,
and if it sounds familiar, it ought to:


Whatsa matta you?!
Gotta no respect!
What you t'inka you do?
Why you looka so sad?
It'sa not so bad,
It'sa nice-a place
AH,
shut uppa you face.

This patient attends group now and then.
Every time they show up, we never know what to say,
because mentally they are just ... somewhere else.

Tonight several of us talked in the person's absence about
how frustrating it is to try to talk with the individual.

One fellow patient used the a-word: Autism.
And I had to respond, "I really don't know what 'Autism' means.
Does it mean that a direct conversation is too much to ask for?"

It's just that I dread telling this fellow resident
how I REALLY feel about the invisible gap between us which seems
impossible to bridge with words.
I don't want to get too specific here, it would invade privacy if I did.
But the more any of us try to talk with the person ,
the more bewildering and hopeless it is --
tonight we were all comparing notes on conversations with the person
and how remote and unreachable the person seems to be.

So now,
maybe having said what I feel like singing/saying online here,
there will be no need for me to
make a fool of myself by blurting out Whatsa Matta You
in group therapy sessions . . .