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A body with wrinkly clothes, messy hair, and an exhausted face walks down an empty hallway. Taking slow steps, this body heads through some open double doors and down another hallway. The owner of this body is Zoee, tired and sleep deprived Zoee. She is heading to another set of doors to where her mother, Laura, is waiting to see her.
Zoee is in a psychiatric hospital, getting the help her mother knows she needs. Even Zoee knows that she needs the help, even though she won't admit it.
Zoee was admitted to the hospital a week ago. When she went to the ER, a psychiatrist evaluated her depressive state. He concluded that Zoee needed to be admitted to a mental hospital for more help. Going to the hospital took a while though, a day and a half to be exact. There were no open spots for Zoee in any nearby hospital until one opened a day and a half later. That got Zoee wondering, how many more people were like her, their own thoughts tormenting them?
The young teen was taken to this psychiatric hospital in an ambulance, strapped to a gurney. Once at the hospital, Zoee was let off of the gurney while her mother filled out some paperwork. When that was done, Zoee and her mother said their goodbyes with tears and tight hugs. Zoee was then taken down to where she was going to stay.
The room she was led into had a desk where nurses were sat behind. By the desk, there was an open space with couches, soft looking chairs, and a tv. No other patients were in the recreation space since it was late at night. Everyone was asleep. Zoee got shown her room and when the lights flickered on, there were two empty beds. Zoee felt relief wash over her since she was told that she might have a roommate. She really didn't want to share a room with a stranger.
That night, Zoee didn't sleep at all. She tossed and turned all night even though she was laying on a real mattress for the first time in years. She couldn't sleep because she missed her mother terribly and was anxious about the next day, having to be with strangers who might judge her for not talking like everyone else does. She didn't really want to anyways even though her eyes and body and mind were begging for sleep. But Zoee fought it.
The next day, Zoee met with another psychiatrist to get evaluated again. Zoee communicated with her through pencil and paper that she was offered. Zoee was told by her mother that she had to tell everything that was going on inside her head, and that's what she did. She told the psychiatrist her thoughts, her emotions, her insecurities. After they were done, the doctor diagnosed Zoee with major depression disorder. She also diagnosed Zoee as a selective mute.
Selective mutism is a disorder that makes temporary and situational inability to speak. It is usually caused by anxiety or extreme shyness and can cause depression.
Zoee was surprised that she also wasn't diagnosed with anxiety but the doctor told her that her mutism started after a traumatic event; her father abandoning her. So that was what might have triggered it. Zoee knew that she was right as so did her mother when she was told.
Brandon Nixon was the name of Zoee's biological father, so she was previously named Zoee Nixon before she took her mother's maiden name. Brandon was the best husband and father you could ever ask for. He was super hard working and did anything to provide his family everything. He was very loving, showing his girls all the love he could give them with lots of hugs, kisses, and presents. He was also very charming, he could get you to do anything with a simple look since he was very handsome. But he can also make you do anything with his persuasive ways.
Even though he had all these good qualities, he was also very secretive. That caused many fights between him and Laura since he started coming home late, was constantly on his phone and barely communicated with his wife and daughter. He started getting worse and worse until one night he just took off. He never came back, not even to pick up the rest of his stuff. He hired some people to do it for him.
So because of this is why Zoee got diagnosed the way she did, because the event of her father getting out of the picture was very traumatic for her and made her this way. It was so traumatic for her because Zoee was such a daddy's girl. She adored her father and loved him with all of her heart. So when he left, Zoee was confused. She was only ten at the time. As each day without him passed, Zoee would ask for her father and Laura would tell her that he was off on a long business trip, that he would be away for a long time but he would come home eventually.
But as time moved on and as Zoee grew, she started understanding more and learning more. As that happened, Zoee grew quieter and quieter without the presence of a father figure until she decided to go mute at the age of thirteen when she realized that her father was never going to come back. She promised herself that she wasn't going to let herself get attached to anyone again so that she wouldn't go through all that pain over again.
So it's been almost three years since sixteen-year-old Zoee hasn't talked to anybody and since she's been stuck in her own dark thoughts.
Now as Zoee reaches the double doors she was heading towards to meet her mother, she pushes one door open. When the door does open she is met with the person she least expected would be there to visit her.
this was more of a filler chapter, informing you on how zoee has been but next chapter is going to be less boring...at least i hope
