Yes, you've described it well. It was definitely more pronounced in the psych setting than anywhere else I worked but as you said, it is protective and that is a hard environment day after day. You never have any idea what to expect when you come to work and while that keeps it interesting it is also really hard. Is this the day someone is going to grab me by the neck or is it the day I am going to chase someone through a cornfield, hoping that the visitor I yelled at get me help did so? And sometimes the things that happen simply are funny and if you can't laugh I don't think you can survive. The problem is people who become too protected and start to not consider the patients as people.