Everything They Say About Full Moons is True

This has been one effin crazy week to be a psychologist. It is absolutely true that the full moon brings out the crazies in many folks, shrinks included. Although the official full moon was last weekend, there was also an eclipse (which I think also wigs people out) of the full moon and I think that combination was potent enough to carry over into the start of the week. In fact, when I left work on Monday night, there was a huge dark orange moon looming in the sky, the kind I've heard called a "blood moon" - an appropriate end to the day in our clinic. It started first thing that morning - one of the therapists was doing a family session with twin adolescent boys and their parents. The boys were intoxicated and pissed. Bad combination. The session exploded into a verbally violent fight, with the overgrown oafs bursting out of her office and storming through the halls, yelling, cursing, slamming doors and generally behaving worse than elephants in heat (I watch too much Animal Planet). This was way beyond the kind of behavior we experience in our clinic, which is a private practice in a suburban area where our clients are more typically anxious, depressed or seeking help for normal life circumstances. Not raging idiots.

So after that dust had settled and the therapist reassured everyone that the twins wouldn't be back (at least as a pair), we all went about our normal routines until after lunch when ANOTHER full-moon victim came in for an initial visit. This guy was seeking a disability determination and arrived dressed in a military-looking outfit (not an actual uniform), and sat in the waiting room talking loudly to himself about killing his wife and children, while stomping his feet and beating on his legs with his fists. Now fortunately I was blissfully unaware that a potential mass murderer was about to go postal on us until I finished my session and escorted my clients back to the waiting room and found several police officers taking the poor guy away. Turns out our building super found him wandering the halls yelling about weapons and murder and dismemberment and stuff and wisely called the cops, who discovered this guy was just out of jail on assault charges and weapons possession and that he had weapons in his car that day. Full moon fever.

And of course, I had my usual rash of weird full moon phone calls, although (strangely) all my kids that day were doing really well. I myself have been kind of squirrely this week (more than usual) and everyone in the office has been sort of weird too. Even the resident pet posse and the pups were off their usual behavior. So if you or someone you know should ever wonder if the full moon really affects people's behavior, just ask your friendly local mental health provider - they can probably give you an earful!

Speaking of puppies, I will post about them tomorrow, Sonya. Marley, Cody and Griff will be on TV in the morning and making their debut at the shelter tomorrow where their beauty and charm will surely win them forever homes. And their squirrely foster mom is going to spend the day down there with them, knitting and making sure the people who adopt them are Worthy and Sane. If I run into anyone I know, I'll just blame it on the full moon.

Obligatory knitting content combined with gratuitous cuteness