Friday, March 31, 2023

More than we know


At first, you see this story and you think it's about a person who should have had better sense, but then you read on, and it's far deeper.

The surface story is, a woman from New York state got her finger caught in one of those beehive holes in a grocery cart, and it took an hour and a 911 response to separate her and the cart.  

But there is more to Ashley Nolan, 38, of Johnson City, than someone who absent-mindedly fiddled with the cart as she browsed the aisles. She can't help the fidgering, because she suffers from anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

She says she does this sort of thing a lot (think of those fidget-spinners that were so popular a couple of years ago) due to her emotional condition, but this is the first time that she ever needed emergency services to get involved.

“I was shopping, and the next thing I knew, I was stuck,” Nolan, who is a school bus driver, told the news.

She called her friend Sarah, who was elsewhere in the same store, to be with her.

Here is a great reason to leave even the simplest of rescues to trained professionals: when the store employees tried to get her free, they cleverly used a pocketknife and wound up stabbing themselves and Nolan. That led to someone having the best idea, calling 911. 

Police and fire responders took a half an hour to get her freed, and then left with what I think is bad advice.

“We stood and spoke with the authorities, and they suggested my friend spray me with a water bottle to stop me from putting my fingers in holes. I thanked them, and they left,” Nolan said.

That's harsh, and I should think it would not meet with the approval of therapists, who would tell you that  these are common but serious neuropsychiatric disorders, one result of which can be restless feelings and uncontrolled impulsive behaviors.

Nolan says her ADHD and OCD lead her to touching and fidgeting with objects, for example. The goal is to control those urges before they lead to problems such as what happened in the supermarket.

What I take away from this is, nothing is as simple as the surface would lead us to think it is. 


 

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