High Anxiety

I had a particularly bad day at work last week. Every job seemed to be a problem, wrapped in a fuck up, and hidden in a headache to misquote Churchill. Normally when I go home I leave the job behind and forget about it but that night I was still dwelling on it hours later. My usual antidote is a couple of cans of beer. Particularly bad days require the addition of some stodgy and shockingly bad-for-you comfort food such as pork pies or great slabs of cheese. On very bad days I have to resort to red wine to restore harmony. That night it was red wine and pork pies. Thankfully a very rare occurrence indeed. 

Stress used to be linked to 'high power' business people who throw a wobbly one day, turn into a gibbering heap and have to be nursed back to mental health over a period of months. Now everyone has it. Everyone you speak to claims to have a stressful job. It seems that just turning up for work causes intolerable pressures for some people. In fact you can be unemployed and still stressed. It's claimed that our cat could be suffering from it although I don't know how I'd tell as he sleeps twenty two hours a day.

Since the concept of stress has now been downgraded to the level of ' a pain in the arse' they have come up with a more modern and severe infliction called 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At one time you had to be a battle hardened soldier or involved in a disaster with massive loss of life to be diagnosed with it but apparently I can get it now just by answering the phone. I read an article last week saying that Americans in my occupation have been diagnosed with PTSD; hardly in the same category I feel. I have even spoken to a woman who claimed to have been diagnosed with it after being involved in several shouting matches with her partner. Soon you'll be able to contract it from getting parking ticket.

Luckily there are many prescription drugs, counsellors and alternative remedies to help people cope with the general inconveniences of life and the crooked, self-serving people in it. Personally, I think I'll stick with the red wine and bad food.