My Stolen Identity (Complete)

Chapter 42 - Peggy and the Doctor

***** Peggy's Point of View *****

I sat on the couch in the Psychiatry Ward looking around the dusty doctor's office, waiting for him to come in. He was really testing my patience by being so late. It was very unprofessional.

"Hey Peggy! How are you feeling today?" he asked when he finally walked through the door.

He sat down behind his desk, opening my file and reading it over.

"Truthfully, I feel a lot better. I don't feel angry like I did before," I told him, lying through my teeth and putting on a fake grin.

"Good. That means the new medication is starting to work," he smiled, looking very pleased with himself.

I nodded. "Seems like it." Little did he know, I had only been pretending to take my medication, holding it under my tongue and spitting it out when the nurses weren't watching.

I wasn't going to take some stupid pills that would mess with my head. Who knows what the side effects could be.

"So your ex-boyfriend Austin mentioned that you would have these episodes where you would just rage and lose control of yourself. He said you never had these episodes until after your injury. Is that right?"

Hearing Austin's name made me clench my teeth and I fought the urge to narrow my eyes, swallowing hard. I smiled and nodded. "Yes that's right."

"Hmmm. I think these outbursts could be linked to your head injury. People with a traumatic brain injury like the one you had are more likely to commit violent crimes. Do you know a third of people who have had a TBI suffer from anger issues, ranging from irritability all the way to major aggressive outbursts?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I had no idea."

"Yeah. Family members often describe the injured person as having a short fuse, flying off the handle easily, being irritable or having a quick temper. Do you think that sounds like you?"

Sometimes the smallest things that don't even matter would make me so mad I wanted to punch somebody or flip over a table, but there was no way I was going to admit that to him. If I did, he'd never let me out of here.

"Not really. I don't think I have anger issues. The only reason I got mad was because Austin called me an ugly monster and cheated on me. I think that would make any reasonable person upset."

"He says none of that happened, that you created it all in your head," the doctor said, closing the file folder and leaning back in his seat, crossing his arms.

I laughed, shaking my head with a smile. "Of course he did. If people knew the truth it would make him look bad and he could lose endorsement deals. I'd lie too if I was him."

The doctor leaned forward and took some notes before looking at me.

"Austin mentioned to us that you would accuse him of having conversations that never happened and that you told him you heard voices in your head talking to you. Is that true?"

"No," I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "He's ridiculous. He would say anything to destroy my credibility so people won't believe me when I tell them about all the messed up shit he's done and said to me."

The doctor looked at me, thinking for a minute before writing some more notes. Hopefully he believed me. I had become a pretty convincing liar over the years, so I had a feeling he did.

"You need to tell me the truth Peggy. Hearing voices and imagining things that didn't happen are signs of schizophrenia and TBI's can actually be a trigger for that. I can't help you unless you're honest with me."