The Forums › Forums › Medication › WOW! What a revelation › Re: WOW! What a revelation
Makes perfect sense to me, Dr. J., as this example will illustrate:
My mind is usually all over the place, and it especially was when I was a teenager. Back then, when my family and I were vacationing in the Bahamas, my mom and I were in a shop, and Mom gave her MasterCard to the shopkeeper, who took it, but then went to serve another customer, who didn’t buy anything. When the shopkeeper returned to us, she asked for Mom’s credit card. Mom said she’d already given it to her. The shopkeeper insisted she hadn’t, as did the shopkeeper’s friend, who had been there the whole time. The three of them started arguing and freaking out, and Mom was sure that the whole thing was just a scam to steal credit cards from tourists.
I, on the other hand, immediately thought of my bank account card—on the back of which was the bank’s toll-free emergency number. (I always had that card with me, despite this being pre-Interac days, and the fact that my balance was usually less than $50, and on that day was only $3.) I asked to use the shop’s phone, and I called the bank collect. I explained the situation, and said that I was reporting a stolen MasterCard to them, since I didn’t have the MasterCard emergency number. The bank person took down my mom’s name, address, phone number, time & place of theft, etc., then said, “I guess you don’t have the card number.”
I said, “Oh, I have it memorized”—which I did, since I was the one who always booked theatre tickets for my parents, and this involved giving the MasterCard number over the phone. The bank person took down the information, and said, “We’ll cancel this card immediately, and a new one will be waiting when you get home.” I thanked her and hung up.
It’s a funny thing, but during all this, the shopkeeper and her friend were looking DAGGERS at me. And as Mom and I left the shop, they continued to give us the evil eye. So I suspect that Mom was right about it being a scam to steal tourists’ credit cards. No wonder they were so pissed-off. After all that effort to work the scam, they didn’t even get to use the stolen card once. But how were they to know that this time, the victim would have a kid who memorized credit card numbers, and knew exactly how to report a stolen card? In that crisis, I’d been cool as a cucumber.
And yet, “normal” office jobs make me so anxious—as I struggle to ensure I don’t miss any little details, while making sure I keep my creative, bubbly personality and “alternative methods and thought processes” completely under-wraps, lest anyone discover just how square this little peg is that’s trying so hard to fit into that round hole of the corporate world—that I simply can’t do them any more. The last one I tried was a temp job doing data entry. It lasted 2 days. That was 3 years ago.
Today, I do a mix of freelance voice work, acting, & singing; costume & clothing design; and (my “real” job) ushering in a theatre. I’m making WAY less money, but I’m a hell of a lot happier than I ever was in an office. And my “alternative methods and thought processes” that were such a hindrance in an office, are a positive boon in the theatre!
But I’m terrified of roller coasters and any other wild rides, because of the feeling of not being in control and having no escape. And it’s not just wild rides. The last time I went on a merry-go-round, I had a panic attack and had to keep my eyes closed as the horsey went up and down. I was only 37.
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