The Battle of Peer Dependency: Author's Anxiety - Part Two

Yipee!  We have a rare sunny day during the winter in Michigan!

My energy level feels a million times higher when I have access to bright sunshine instead of a uniformly gray sky.  Plus, it was my son's first day back at preschool after his winter break.  I enjoyed having him at home (especially once I found that giving him french toast in the morning greatly cut down on hangry whining before lunch), but I missed having two hours of toddler-free time a day.   I celebrated his first day back with a nice, long, cold walk.

My son is celebrating being home by trying to surreptitiously type on the keyboard and using his play stethoscope to listen to the back of my laptop's monitor. 

I'm discussing examples of Marina Sears' pre-existing anxiety disorder that she describes in "The Battle of Peer Dependency".   In the first chapter of the book, Marina Sears describes the tragic death of her husband in a freak car accident.   Traumatic life events like that can predispose a person to anxiety, but Marina also shares three stories of times where she seemed to be struggling with an anxiety disorder prior to Jeff's death.

Since the Sears daughter Camille was a year old when Jeff died, this story must have happened in the year prior to Jeff's death.  At this point, the Sears lived in a fairly remote area - hence the PO Box story in the last installment - while Jeff worked in the oil fields.

One day while Jeff was at work, the boys, Camille, and I found a scorpion in the house. I had sandals on and was afraid to step on it because even though the creature looked very small, I thought the stinger might be able to extend itself and come up over my foot and stinging me. I trapped it in a cup and ran next door to call Jeff because our phones were not yet turned on. I was trying to be calm, but when he answered the phone, I broke into hysteria and asked him to drive home the seventy miles and kill the scorpion. It took him 15 minutes to talk me into putting it on the ground then stepping on it with my sandaled foot. (pgs. 21-22)

The hardest part for people who don't have anxiety to understand is how badly an anxiety attack scrambles a person's ability to think logically about a situation.   This example demonstrates how out-of-whack a person's line of thought is when Marina decides that the ONLY solution to getting rid of a scorpion is for Jeff to drive for 1 hour and 15 minutes back home, kill the scorpion, then either miss the rest of his shift or drive 1 hour and 15 minutes back to the oil fields again.   

If I'm doing the math right, following Marina's frantic request would lead to 5 hours of driving to and from the oil fields in a day.  To kill a smallish arachnid.

For all that I'm a science person, I'm not a huge fan of insects.  I have very little experience with scorpions and I would be more than a bit freaked out if I found one.   After taking a few deep breaths, though, I can think of a few better options than making Jeff drive home.   My short list:

1. Put on shoes with heavier soles before crushing scorpion.
2. Put the cup outside tipped over and let the scorpion go free.
3. Let one of two little boys in the family put on "stomping boots" and crush the scorpion.   
4. Ask the neighbor to kill the scorpion.
5. Name it and declare it the family mascot.  

Anxiety survivor tip: If your response to a single, small arachnid is more in line with a normal person would do when presented with a house fire, please seek professional help.  This is not a good way to live.