Doctor: This is really quite serious. Your anxiety is now causing physical symptoms.
\nMe: I see. Will it break free all those emotions I jailed inside a cardboard box all those years ago?
\nDoctor: Perhaps. Wait, you did what?
\nMe: Confined all my emotions to a cardboard box and taped it up.
\nDoctor: I\u2019m pretty sure you\u2019re never supposed to do that.
\nMe: Yes, cardboard was a very poor choice. But, in my defense, it held a lot longer than you would think.
\nDoctor: When you look outside the window do you see something resembling Edvard Munch\u2019s painting The Scream?
\nMe: Yes. Yes, that is exactly what I see. Isn’t that what everybody sees when they look outside the window?
\nDoctor: No.
\nMe: I also see a pack of wolves attacking a clown.
\nDoctor: Oh, I’m afraid that is very real. Wolves have to eat.<\/p>\n
Doctor: I’m going to put you on an anti- anxiety drug.
\nMe: My fear is that I need my anxiety. I mean, what if an anti-anxiety drug dulls my ability to fight off a confrontation with a bear?
\nDoctor: When was the last time you had a confrontation with a bear?
\nMe: Oh Doctor, you know so little about bears. It is the readiness, at all times, to deal with a bear incursion that wards off bears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doctor: This is really quite serious. Your anxiety is now causing physical symptoms. Me: I see. Will it break free all those emotions I jailed inside a cardboard box all those years ago? Doctor: Perhaps. Wait, you did what? Me: Confined all my emotions to a cardboard box and taped it up. Doctor: I\u2019m pretty sure you\u2019re never supposed to do that. Me: Yes, cardboard was a very poor choice. But, in my defense, it held a lot longer than you would think. Doctor: When you look outside the window do you see something resembling Edvard Munch\u2019s painting The Scream?...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-books","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3u13S-aw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1280,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/universal-robotics\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":0},"title":"Universal robotics","author":"David Raffin","date":"April 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u202a\"But I don't think I need to be reprogrammed,\" said the robot.\u202c\u202a\"That is exactly the kind of thing we all say when we need reprogrammed,\" said the robot doctor. \u202c \u202a\"That does not compute,\" said the robot.\u202c \u202a\"Hey, who's the robot doctor here?\" said the robot doctor. Then she laughed.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My books"","block_context":{"text":"My books","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":280,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/the-state-of-healthcare\/","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":1},"title":"The state of healthcare","author":"David Raffin","date":"August 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"IMG_0348, a photo by Raffin.David on Flickr. The good news is that I have neither the rocking' pneumonia or the boogie woogie blues. 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