Yes, good idea, let's try role reversal. I could use some time off, and I'm sure most of my other patients would feel much better after talking to you.
Wrong! It doesn’t work that way! Everybody I know who’s a chronic complainer does so to make themselves feel better. It’s at the expense of the person listening, as if a direct transfer of well-being occurs. If you’ve seen the movie “Life Force,” you get the idea..I worked across from a person for many years who did this. He would appear down as a bloodhound and would snag people as they went by. Your biggest mistake was to say, “How you feelin’, Marty.” He would tell you in detail, endless depressing detail..I would see chipper, virile men reduced to whimpering shells of their former selves within 10 minutes, while Marty would visibly inflate. They would slink away, he would resume work, whistling..It was bizarre. He’s had one foot in the grave for 30 years, and while most people around him have passed, he remains.
el8 almost 12 years ago
But how does that make you feel?
el8 almost 12 years ago
Here, take two of these tablets and some deep breaths…you need to calm down.
pksampso almost 12 years ago
So the definition of sanity is “less crazy than you.” Works for me!
emptc12 almost 12 years ago
Wrong! It doesn’t work that way! Everybody I know who’s a chronic complainer does so to make themselves feel better. It’s at the expense of the person listening, as if a direct transfer of well-being occurs. If you’ve seen the movie “Life Force,” you get the idea..I worked across from a person for many years who did this. He would appear down as a bloodhound and would snag people as they went by. Your biggest mistake was to say, “How you feelin’, Marty.” He would tell you in detail, endless depressing detail..I would see chipper, virile men reduced to whimpering shells of their former selves within 10 minutes, while Marty would visibly inflate. They would slink away, he would resume work, whistling..It was bizarre. He’s had one foot in the grave for 30 years, and while most people around him have passed, he remains.
alan.gurka almost 12 years ago
And I’m sure the patient could use the money she’d earn posing as a shrink, too.