The patient I chose is a 25-year-old Caucasian male called "RM." "RM" came to the unit after hurricane Harvey with severe PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Before hurricane Harvey hit, "RM" got into an argument with his father and stepmom after opening up to his parents about being transgender/Bi-sexual. His Father and Stepmother did not support him and forced him to move. "RM" became homeless and was homeless during the time Hurricane Harvey hit ON Galveston Island. 

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One day when I was at clinical a thunderstorm hit. As soon as the lightning and thunder hit "RM" ran to a table and sat rocking back and forth. When my preceptor and I went to assess "RM" he was nearly in tears. He was a having a panic attack from the thunderstorm as well as flashbacks from hurricane Harvey. When asked how he was feeling the patient said, "I feel like I am drowning." "All the emotions and traumatizing experiences from Harvey are pouring over me like a wave." "Although I know I am not alone, I feel as though I am." The patient had tremors in his hands from his anxiety. Every time the thunder would hit he would put his head in his lap. The patient isolated himself from others during the storm. The nurse sat with the patient during the storm to help him feel a sense of security. The nurse and I used therapeutic communication to talk to "RM" during the thunderstorm to detour his mind from the event of the storm and the flashbacks he was having. We made him focus on what was going on in the milieu to distract him. 

For my creative piece, I painted a man sitting on an island all alone to depict isolation. 

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The man is wearing a hoodie and pants because this is what I saw "RM" wearing majority of the time. I painted a thunderstorm in the background and a wave that looks like it is about to crash on top of the guy painted in the picture. The wave is to represent the wave of emotions that poured on "RM" during the thunderstorm. The wave also depicts the sense of drowning once the wave crashes over top of him. I used oil pastels as my main medium to create the background and blend the color to depict a rainstorm. I used real sand as a second medium to depict how he was isolated and alone on an island. I used blue enamel sand to give the wave texture and show how rough the emotions were that fell on top of him during the thunderstorm that day. The Beads represent the past emotions that arose in result of his PTSD from Hurricane Harvey.