by Sorcha Ni Dhomhnaill

Created on: February 10, 2009   Last Updated: April 20, 2010

Imagine you are unable to "turn off" your racing thoughts to get to sleep at night, and when you finally do it's almost time to wake up and face the overwhelming noise and brightness of the day and race off to work.

Imagine that you can barely concentrate on your commute every day because you are so filled with dread of arriving late again, and unpredictable traffic just makes you angry, nervous, and agitated. You almost get in an accident when someone pulls out in front of you. Then once you get to work it's hard to concentrate on one task because you feel your thoughts are constantly being interrupted by the smallest stimuli, and one bad interaction (which you are sure to have because the people you work with insist on loudly greeting you before you are barely awake, and for some reason they are always staring) can ruin your mood for the whole day. The flourescent lights cause further agitation, and your frustration with a new work policy that is clearly unfair causes you to say the wrong thing to your boss, causing serious damage to your employment future. Never mind that you are already getting paid less than others doing the same job because you are "too quiet," or "non-cooperative."

Imagine that you sit alone at break every day, either because you can find nothing to say to the people you know you should be making small talk with, even if you knew how to approach them, or because a half-hour is barely enough time to organize your thoughts, detox from the loud, agitating work environment, and digest some food, which is junk food bought from a vending machine because you were too overwhelmed to go shopping last night and too physically exhausted to get up early this morning and pack a lunch. Very likely, you don't work in the best place, and sometimes you think about talking to you coworkers about why they accept unfair labor conditions and doing something about it. Of course, you know your success will be limited, since most people you work with think you are lazy, stubborn, paranoid, strange, or on some type of drugs, especially since you started wearing your sunglasses indoors. Sometimes when you enter a room, as you are trying to recognize the faces of the people their and project your voice properly to greet them, which takes extra time, you can see them giving eachother knowing looks about you and silently scoffing.

Imagine that going to work for five days in a row every week leaves you too mentally and physically exhausted to do anything but hide

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