Originally Posted by
Justinian
As some here may know, when I recently 'retired' due to ill-health I began volunteering in my local community. It was good, then OK, and now horrible. I mean my behaviour has become horrible. I have become withdrawn and uncommunicative. When a colleague approaches me, I PANIC: my heart races, my breathing becomes shallow, my mind races and I can no longer control it to think about what to say, the whole world ceases to exist and only my colleague and I exist and I am like prey and my colleague is the predator (it's like the movie Alien Vs Predator). I can't enter the staff room because it makes me nervous and it is very small and there are always people in there talking and eating lunch. Visitors scare me. No one has given me an Xmas card and if they did I wouldn't know how to react.