There’s a Crack in Everything: Sex, Covid & the Psych Ward

Cooper Thornton
6 min readMay 13, 2021
The silhouette of a man entering a dimly lit room from a darkened hallway.

Where was the fucking driftwood?

Shaking and sobbing, I told her that I couldn’t function. That my sleep was for shit, I wasn’t eating much if anything, the tiniest tasks were overwhelming for me. Could I please, PLEASE get some help?

“Are you thinking of ending your life?”

“Have you made any plans to take your life?”

CHRIST, why was I being made to jump through this suicide hoop before anyone would take me seriously?! I have two boys who count on me that I can’t leave and who I love with all my heart, even with this empty heart. I can’t do that to them. Though I understand fully why someone would want to end this misery. I’m no better a person, I just couldn’t. And yet, it seemed I was almost being baited.

If I would just say that I had some semblance of a plan, even a random thought of ending my life, say a large delivery truck is driving by while I’m on a walk and I think, “Well, that would do it.” If I would just tell this nurse that I thought stepping in front of that delivery truck would take my life, that I had thought that thought, THEN I would get some help. Well then FUCK, okay, “I saw a truck when I was on a walk, and I imagined stepping in front of it.”

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Cooper Thornton

Parent, Actor, People Lover, Observer, Writer and Most Often Happy Depressive in NC by way of LA by way of UK by way of BC by way of TN, where it all started.