Obsession: Callie Douglas, Book One

Chapter Thirty

When I got to work the next morning I reviewed the day's patient list. Samantha Allan was my last patient of the day. Xavier Frankton was my first.

"How are you today?" I asked him as I shut the door to my treatment room.

"I've been better."

"Tell me about it."

"I'm getting panic attacks just as frequently as before, but the good news is the magic pills really help to keep things under control. The bad news is they make me quite tired so I'm having to use them sparingly. I really should be using them more frequently than I do."

"How do you feel right now?" I asked as Xavier started to look quite agitated.

"It's this panic. I'm thinking about work and it's just welling up. I have absolutely no control over it."

"And it's welling up right now."

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. This is a good opportunity to practice breathing. That's all you have to do right now, is breathe." I led him through the steps to practice meditative breathing. We practiced extensively throughout the rest of the hour. About ten minutes before the appointment time was up, I said, "how are you doing at work right now?"

"I'm really struggling."

"I think it's time to talk about a leave of absence for you until you develop your toolbox of coping strategies. If nothing else, not being at work will allow you to sleep after you take an antianxiety medication rather than having to tough it out because you can't rest properly afterwards. What are you thinking?"

"I don't want to go on leave, but I also think I'm not doing my job adequately right now. I'm not a good leader and I'm not a good police officer. Do you think I'll need to be on leave long?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know. But what I'm hearing is that your job is being affected. I think it would be a good idea to go on leave for a while. I'll write a letter to HR to give you leave for three weeks. In the meantime, I'd like to see you in here three times per week to develop some of the tools that you need to cope with what life throws at you."

"Why did this happen to me? Why now?"

"I don't know the answer to that either. It could be a triggering event that we have yet to talk about, or it could just be a chemical imbalance and this is how it's manifesting itself. In addition to the leave of absence and the antianxiety emergency tablets, I'd like to prescribe a general anxiety medication. This is one that you'd take once per day whether you're experiencing symptoms or not. It will take a couple of weeks to kick in, but it should reduce and hopefully even eliminate your panic attacks. Between the four prongs of our treatment approach – the leave of absence, the talk therapy, the antianxiety medication and the emergency medication – we should soon have you back on your feet. While you're on leave we'll try to develop your toolbox so you can reduce the amount of emergency medication you need to use and so that you're able to get back to work again sooner." I got up and went to my computer. I typed up a doctor's note and sent it off to the printer.

I walked out to the waiting room with him, proofread the print-off, and signed the note. "Addison, Xavier needs appointments three times per week for the next month." I handed him his doctor's note and wished him luck, then told him that I'd see him the next day.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Callie Douglas."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm David Bennett", he said as he shook my hand.

"What rank are you?" I asked as I motioned him towards the couch.

"I'm a Detective."

"I should have known by the fact that you weren't wearing a uniform, shouldn't I?" I said ruefully. "I'm still learning."