Whether they are caused by chemical imbalances or faulty neurological pathways, the actions of those with mental disorders dumbfound the healthy minds around them. Watching a person self-sabotage is both frustrating and heartbreaking- no sound minded individual can fully grasp the mental torture many unwillingly put themselves through each day. These obsessive thoughts play on repeat in the victim's mind, much like the sound of a mockingbird constantly mimicking all it hears.

Hush, little baby, don't say a word.

She’s crying again. The nurses sigh as she holds out her empty glass, its former contents soaking the oak below her. She was in the middle of reaching fifty-six ounces, periodically given to her in eight ounce increments, but due to the spill the nurses will be forced to estimate her remaining amount. Uncertainty is torture.

Momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.

The girl with the pink hair resists her caretaker instincts and channels her empathy into the vibrant pencils, which translate onto the notebook paper she uses as a canvas. She’ll draw a cat for the crying girl. Spills are inevitable, but two-dimensional gifts provide consistency that life’s imperfections cannot tamper with. Plus, the crying girl loves cats.

And if that mockingbird won’t sing.

The quirky ninth grader with the glasses buries herself in her book, untucking her dirty blonde hair so the loose stands cover her profile. Turmoil makes her want to disappear, and since the paramedics carried the new girl away, she’s been wearing her hair down. We all create shields that can’t protect us.

Momma’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.

The nurses bring the crying girl a new glass of water. Six ounces, because the girl drank approximately two. But this estimation rips away the shield of certainty that protects the girl from herself- her own vicious mind plagued by a disorder that quite literally eats her away. So she cries, and the girl with pink hair draws, and the quirky girl sinks deeper into her cocoon.

And I watch my fellow patients create solutions for their problems that for some reason always fail to sing or shine.