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Showing posts from October, 2015

Have You Met Joe?

Joe sat in the waiting room with a newspaper, but he couldn't have told you what he was reading. Working hard at the appearance of being relaxed, he wondered for the 10 th time in the hour whether he really needed to be here.  Fatigue, heart palpitations, muscle soreness, headaches, difficulty concentrating, low grade nausea and sleep disturbance had led to this appointment.  But Joe wasn’t in a GP’s practice.  That would have been easy.  He was in a Psychologist’s office for a plan to manage an anxiety disorder. Joe was tired of feeling tired, and frustrated with feeling frustrated. Work stress merged into irritability with the kids.  He checked his phone relentlessly in meetings, elevators and watching TV.  He worked later and went in earlier because being at his desk was the only way to pacify the anxiety.  In his heart he knew he was far from productive. Whatever crossed his mind became a focal point, somewhat like a tail wagging a dog. As a practicing Psycholog