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@DrWendyWalsh (07/30) Hour 1

Jul 31, 202335 min
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Episode description

Do you have excess anxiety? You can manage it. There is the truth, and the story we tell ourselves. Acknowledge the story you're telling yourself and it could fix your relationship. Why are we attracted to our coworkers? There is psychology behind it. ALSO how to healthily end a workplace romance. Dr. Wendy has it all on KFIAM-640

Transcript

This is doctor Wendy Walsh and you're listening to kf I Am six forty the Doctor Wendy Walsh Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app AM six forty. You have Doctor Wendy Walsh with you. This is the Doctor Wendy Walsh Show. If you knew to my show, I have a PhD in clinical psychology. I'm not a therapist. I'm a psychology professor and I'm obsessed with the science of love. And we have Route. Oh, we have Mark, we have Kayla. I have one question I want to ask all three of you.

Let me start with raut Ule. How much anxiety do you think you have in the general? None? None. I love that he's a calm, happy person. I can see it on your face unless I'm running the board at Mark Ronner. How much anxiety do you have in your life? I've kind of dealt with anxiety for quite a number of years. Actually, yeah, See it's a thing. It's partly genetic, you know, part

it's not the way we're wired. Kayla, how about you? I thought I had none, but then I realized my high energy and NonStop talking is a form of anxiety. So I think I have a lot. Oh interesting. Yeah, had a conversation with a friend this week and he works remotely from home, and he was saying that spending too much time alone gives him more anxiety, only because he only has the sound of his own thoughts, and he worries and worries and worries. So in a minute, I want

to talk more about anxiety. Let's see what else we have coming up. How we lie to ourselves about our relationships. Oh, and do you have a work crush? Are you actually thinking of maybe letting that person know? I've got some advice for you. And if you've maybe woven a tangled web of a romantic alliance at the office and you want to get out of it, I've got some advice for you too. Plus later I'll be taking your calls and answering your social media questions. Okay, this week, Okay,

I saw Barbie again? No you didn't again? Do you love? Because I am stereotypical Barbie and I hate it being stereotypical Barbie my entire life, And now all of a sudden, I have a role model for it. I'm like, it's okay to bereotypical Barbie. But I went with if you can imagine this, two of this century's greatest feminists. I went with attorney

Lisa Bloom and her mother, attorney Gloria Allred. Oh, I love it, and we all wore pink and it was so I said, we had dinner after a nice said to Gloria, I said, you know, and to Lisa both, I said, you guys have spent decades laying the groundwork for a movie like this to be greenlit. Right it could This movie couldn't have happened in the seventies, eighties, nineties, or even two thousands.

They couldn't. We got to a place where we can talk about patriarchy, talk about feminism, and tell all the canons that you're can enough, knough. You're knough, you guys, you don't have to well. I actually teach us when I teach developmental psychology and we talk about gender stuff. I talk about the man box that so many men are trapped in, which is a very narrow bandwidth of acceptable masculinity, right, and guys have a wide

range of being a dude too. And there's this, you know, this idea that if you're a quote unquote a feminine man, you're less of a man. Or if you're a feeling man, you're less of a man. Or if you're less aggressive or competitive, you're less of a man. Or if you don't want to take all sex, any sex, at any cost, you're less of a man. And the truth is, you know, anthropologists would say we have the widest range of masculinity, male behavior, paternal

investment. We know that some guys are really really good dad's and really involved, lots of you guys, and then there's the others. So anyway, it was great to see Barbie again. And coincidentally, the night before with my twenty year old daughter, we watched this movie on Netflix called Moxie. Have you seen that one? It's at his Simi Polar wrote it, directed it, and she has a role as the mom in it. It's so

it's like you got a lot of Moxie. Yeah. It's about high school of girls who are living in the patriarchy and don't know it, and she's trying to She's an introvert and scared and trying to come up with a thesis for her college applications and ends up doing an underground magazine called Moxie that she leaves in the girl's restrooms that basically calls out all the guys because the guys were, of course doing the most. I can't even say the words on

radio. Let's see, don't you see? I spensible? I don't know. I'm sorry. We're listing women girls at school on their sexual prowers. But let me tell you the one thing about the movie, you know, has a Rara girl power ending, of course, but the one thing about the movie that really struck a chord with me. So there's this scene and Marsha Gayharden plays the principle and she's totally colluded with the patriarchy, of course, and she comes in and there's a very attractive girl in a spaghetti straps,

you know, like a little top with spaghetti straps. But she's quite endowed, this sixteen seventeen year old girl. So she calls her to the office and she suspends her for it. And then the same point, she points to the girl sitting next to her. She goes, she's wearing the same top. It's a totally flat chested girl and so it looks very She goes, it's different on her. You come to the office, right, so it's like you're being disciplined for your own body. And I remember in

the eighth grade, mister fort Jay YEP Saint Thomas Elementary. I got called to his office because I you know, when you have one of those collared, long sleeve denim shirts and you it's eighty degrees outside and so you tie it up at the bottom and reveal one inch of white, skinny abdomen. That's what happened to me, because I was hot and the teacher said, untoie your shirt and I said, no, I'm hot, and she sent me the principal's office and I got suspended for that. Is that crazy?

That's so crazy. Pay attention to your work and not my middrift. I did say at the age of fourteen, I said, sir, are you saying that I'm responsible for another for a boy's erection? You are always meant to be doctor. And he said go home, and then he called me into his office. After I came back, like a few days later, whenever I can, probably just for a day I come back. He called

me into his office. He goes, you know, I called your mother and she told me that if we just gave you the time, you would come to my office and you would apologize all on your own and I'll never forget that moment because I looked at him and I said, well, sir, since you're an older person and you're in a different position of power than I am, I guess it is appropriate that I apologize for my tone and apologize for maybe the way I said, But I will not apologize for my

ideas or opinions fourteen years old. I said that, good for you, doctor Nding. I was ahead of my time anyway. That movie Moxy got me. All right, let's go to anxiety. Shall you wonder why I have anxiety? I was having this conversation, you know, I shoot those lawyer commercials TV commercials, right, and the makeup artist and I were chatting and and then we're talking about all kinds of things, real estate, whether

to buy a house. The cameraman was jumping in about this or that, and they started talking about the what if, Well if I do this, what if if I do that? What if? And I stopped them and I said, you guys are busy worrying about problems that don't exist. And I said, that's exactly what anxiety is. You know, we as human beings all evolved to have anxiety. If we had any ancestors, well we

don't. Our ancestors all had anxiety. But if there were any humans on the planets who did not have anxiety, they walked right up to a lion, you know, and pettit them then got eaten for lunch. So as a result, we have a very important survival instinct, which is, oh my god, am I going to die right now? Oh my god, this is dangerous? Right, Oh my god, this could be bad. Oh my god. Right, So this is going on in our heads all

the time. It's a normal amount. Now. In our history, our entire history, there were real things to be afraid of, from lions and tigers and bears back in the old old time when we were hunters and gathers to the Middle Ages where if you looked at your neighbor wrong, they clubbed you on the head, right, I mean, there was You know, people think there's so much violins in our culture right now. We actually have the safest culture we've ever had in the evolution of human history. You know

what we do have. We have a lot of media reporting on the very few incidents that do happen. Okay, I does want to say that so we live in this safe time. There's actually nothing to worry about, or very little to worry about. So we do use our anxiety, sometimes appropriately by doing cathartic things to experience fear. They would be scary movies, roller coasters, driving too fast, all that, and so we cathartically will do stuff and those are healthy places, I think, my opinion, not for

children or for adults, especially males with a lot of testosterone. Violent video games opinion only, I'm not ridden research here. Violent video games are an act of catharsis, like, just get it out with your little what is it called the control joys to head set. Don't get it out in the real world, right, act it out in that way. So we go to a scary movies, violent video games, roller coasters, bungee jumping, all that stuff. But if we don't do those things, we have an

excess of anxiety that's just left over. You know. An example a comparison might be, you know, babies who are not breastfed need a pacifier more often than babies that are breastfed because babies are born with a certain amount of sucking reflex and it needs to be used very strongly and aggressively to get the milk to let down in the mother and to come out. And so if you give it a bottle and the milk just flows down, it's got to

do something with its sucking reflex. So in the same sense, we've got to do something with our healthy fear and our healthy anxiety. And here's what we should do. Focus send the problems of today, not the problems of yesterday or the problems of tomorrow. I wake up every morning this is my personal little guide for life, and I say to myself. Life is a series of problems to be solved. Hey, universe, what do you got for me today? I'm ready and I focus on what I need to in

that day. I try, you know, we plan for the future, but I try to not worry about the future. So if you are feeling a lot of anxiety, I'll tell you what works for me. Distract yourself, call a friend, listen to some music, just get it. You know, you can also schedule anxiety. Remember we had that therapist on a few weeks ago, and she was saying, if you're trying to ruminate or get over your boyfriend or your ex, you just say no, I'm going

to do it at seven am until seven fifteen every morning. That's my time. You can do that. You can schedule your anxiety. But more than anything, get together with your friends. Social support so important. All right, when we come back, let's talk about your relationship. There are some lies we tell ourselves every single day out our relationships. I just did one

to myself the other day. I'll explain. You are listening to the Doctor Wendy Walsh Show and kf I Am six forty but live everywhere on the iHeartRadio as you're listening to Doctor Wendy Walsh on demand from kf I Am six forty. Kf I Am six forty, you have Doctor Wendy Walsh with you. This is the Doctor Wendy Walsh Show. It's amazing how much is in our mind. Literally, we manufacture stuff that isn't even there, and then we

worry about it on the break. I was telling Kayla that during my whole life, not just with my current boss Robin Bertolucci, when I hear from any manager or boss a text that says, hey, can you give me a call? Whatever, all I think is I'm going to be fired. That's all I think. Sometimes I say it out loud when I get back to them. You know, it's really funny is that recently Robin sent me a text and all it said is, did you see my email of the exit? Remember that? Okay? Oh my god, my heart dropped.

I saw the word of exit, and I like, what, Well, the exit is a potential client, right, I heard who has a website that helps people divorce healthfully or whatever? That's what it was called. But immediately I'm like, that's it. That's it. It's over. So this week I imagined a couple times that my boyfriend was leaving me for no reason. I'm like, just like if he took a little too long to get back to me. Well, as it turns out, there was one day

where his location services were off, he was out of town. He didn't respond to my text for a couple hours. Now, you guys gotta understand, we've been together three years. I should have some sense of security at this point. Well, unbeknownst to me, he was getting a new iPhone at that time, and he was transferring over all his data. So one was off and one was on, you know, turning it in, that's all it was. But you know, I had two hours of worry because

that we make up these stories. At least this time you didn't. You think he was dead and called the cops. So yeah, I've done that in the past too with boyfriends. Yes, I've called the cops. So there was this great article this week in the New York Times. I tried to get the author on as a guest, but Kayle, maybe in the future we can try to get him. A family therapist named Terence Real.

He writes a lot of books about relationships. His new book is called Us Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, And in this synopsis in The New York Times, talked about this relationship sabotaging technique that people do all the time, and he calls it the story I'm making up or

the story I'm telling myself. Right now, I love that bren Brown did that toolf The story I'm telling myself is so when Julio had his phone off for a while, I'm like, the story I'm telling myself is he's preparing for the breakup all never hear from him again or whatever. Right, And so what happens is when you start to have that story, then you start to really key into it. You start to believe your own delusions, and you start to get defensive, critical, and you have problems obviously, right.

So according to Terrence Real, author of us Getting Past You and Me to build a more loving relationship, he tells them to use something called the feedback wheel. I still want you to buy the book because it looks really good. I'm going to read it too, but I'm just gonna synopsis for you because we can also use these techniques. All of us can use these techniques. They're really great. So let's say it's time for you to express

something having to do with your frustration. And I should say, according to all the research and the data out there to people who've been studying healthy marriages for a long time, but you don't want to dismiss problems. You don't want to just hope it'll go away with time or silence. They don't. They build up under the ground to get worse. Okay, So what you want to do here are his four steps. Number one is you basically describe in a very factual way what you heard or saw. So this is what

I heard or saw. So if we're using the example of Julio with the phone off, I will say I did not see any text from you for a few hours. Let's it. There's no judgment there, just I did not see this is a behavior at I didn't see anything. That's just a fact, right, And you say it as calmly as possible and as briefly as possible, and then you say, this is what I made up about it. I imagined that you were never ever going to text me again in

your life and that it was over between us. So using the phrase this is what I made up about it, according to this therapist, is it lightens the load. In fact, you'll probably both laugh about it because some of the stuff we make up is pretty cuckoo. Okay, pretty nuts. That's a technical term, all right. But here's the important thing, the facts. This is what I this is what happened, is what I experienced, This is what I made up about it. And number three, this

is how I felt about it. Oh feelings, remember those. Yet you got to get into the insight. So my third if I were having this conversation with Julio would be I felt scared, I felt abandoned, I felt worried. Now again, at this point, you guys might be laughing your butts off over this, because it just will seem silly when you actually start to take apart those stories that you've made up. But here's the most important thing. And I've always said that this works too. This is the best

advice I think I've ever heard in my life. This is what will help me feel better. You see, we can't assume that our partners ever, ever, ever can be a mind reader or should be a mind reader. According to Terence Real, And the book again is called where's the title of it? I love the title so much us. It's called us. Where's that subtitle? I must have turned the page on it. Of course I did us getting past you and me to build a more loving relationship, he

says. I love this quote. You can't complain about not getting what you never asked for. Isn't that great? That is great? And there are people that I've heard women say, well, I shouldn't have to tell him. I mean, if I have to do all that work, then why am I in a relationship? You know what. That's the work of love, That's the work of a relationship, is tell them. So if in

our fictitious conversation with Julio that I didn't have that I should have. I would probably say, you know, I'm sorry, I made up that silly story, and I'm feeling really sad and scared but a little relieved right now. It would help me so much if you said to me right now, I love you, or something right, just something, so, just whatever it was. So you want to shift from feeling angry and ticked off to

being vulnerable, because the power position in every relationship is vulnerability. It's being able to be real, authentic, and that's not weak. That's the power position. Anyway. I love that. This is what I saw or heard, this is what I made up about it, this is how I felt about it, and here's what I'd like you to do to help me feel better. So simple, we all need to do this, all right, when we come back. Do you have a crush on a co worker?

Did you know three out of four people, according to one survey, have had a romantic relationship with somebody they work with. I've had a few in my life. I'll tell you when we come back. So should you tell them? Should you not? Should you engage in this? I've got some tips, tricks, rules, and also later, if you're in a tangled web at the office, and you want to get out of your romance. I've got some advice for you too. You are listening to the Doctor Wendy

Walsh Show and kf I Am six forty. We're live everywhere on the iHeart radio app. You're listening to Doctor Wendy Walsh on demand from kf I AM sixty six forty. You have Doctor Wendy Walsh with you. This is the Doctor Wendy Walsh Show. Kayla, have you ever had a crush at work? Oh? Yeah, how about this work now? No? Um, I try to make the mental note at I heeart to not do that because this is my career and there's not enough I candy to risk it. It

gets messy. Yeah, justn' it. Yeah yeah. But it's interesting because you and I on the break we're talking about how many people who work here met their spouse here. There's a lot of married couples, and that that we're founded in iHeart, that's for sure. I'll tell you it's always been

a mess for me the few times that I've had in my life. I've had a long life, Okay, so I've had lots of time to make mistakes and uh, let me tell you it's never worked out for me, So I regrets though, right like I ha fun, I don't regret any of it, No, yeah, yeah, because I wanted to. I should have just focused on the job. That's okay, You're right, it makes it exciting. So the data three and four people supposedly I have had

a romantic relationship with someone they work with. Let's see what else I got. Seventy percent of people have flirted with a colleague. According to a Google Customer Surveys data report, eighteen percent of couples in America met at work, and that apparently is more than via Tinder and social media. And then let's stop froze frees that for a little minute. So all those dms on Instagram, all those matches on Tinder and everywhere else is not even adding up to

twenty percent of marriages that work placed us. Why because those apps are get you caught in the trap of paradox of choice. Apps do not make money if you find a mate and get married. They make money by your eyeballs being clued there, thinking that there's a bigger bet or deal, so you

better keep swiping right. So it's often not the best. According to one survey, seventy eight percent of respondents believe that you could find true love in the workplace, and about ninety percent of people in this study said that right now they feel attracted to somebody at work. I don't know, I'd have

to think that one through. So, you know, well, that aligns with that idea that doctor David buss Out of the University of Texas said that we all keep backup mats, right, so maybe there's like some little work person you think, well, you know, if it didn't work out with my partner, maybe there'd be a backup mate there. And if you're working in your career, they have similar interest to you. So that's also a nice little spark. Well, yeah, let's talk about the psychology of why

we fall in love at the workplace. First, of all, FaceTime time, you're just spending time with someone. The research says it takes about two hundred hours to become best friends with somebody two hundred hours, and most adults spend a minimum of about sixteen seventeen one hundred hours a year at the office, so they're likely to spend more time with their coworkers than anyone else, including their spouse and that's why you get affairs. Think of it. Okay,

So let's say their at work for eight hours a day. Then they got drive time, they come home, they eat, they do their hobby, they netflix and chill whatever, they deal with the kids, whatever. They got four or five hours with their spouse, but eight hours with the coworker. Ooh, that's how affairs happen. Also, here's another interesting thing

about coworkers. When you meet somebody on a dating site, they are putting on their very best behavior because they know you are judging them to be a potential long term mate or short term make whatever, to be a mate, and not at work. You can vet somebody without them even knowing. There's no pressure, right. You get to see how they respond to problems, how they act when the pressure gets hot, how they interact with other people. Are they so you can just sit there watching them all day long and

go, oh, that's a good person or that's not right. Now, here's another psychological thing about workplace friendships. Everybody commiserates. Everybody hates their job, by the way, you should know that everybody does. That's how they bond over, you know, so that they all get around the water cooler and they complain about bosses, they complain about all kinds of things. Well, as soon as you start commiserating with somebody, you start to share personal

information. You start to share personal information, and you start to talk about that over lunch or drinks after work, and before you know it, there's that slippery slope to emotional intimacy. Another reason why people fall in love with work is because it might be forbidden. Maybe your HR has a very strict no love, no dating policy at work. And sex researchers have long known that the perfect way to have hot, hot, hot sex combination is attraction

plus obstacle. Think about it. Think about the hottest sex you ever had in your life. Was that? Was it intergenerational? Was it interracial? Was it intersocial? Somebody living on the other side of the tracks, there was some reason that you weren't supposed to really be doing it with this person made it better? It does. And another reason where you might be falling for people at work is because they are unavailable. Oh maybe you have a

little anxious attachment style. I'm talking about me here, and maybe maybe you're always attracted to people who can't love you back. And if you're not allowed to have a workplace relationship, then throwing your longing there might work, all right. I have a few Doctor Wendy rules for dating at work in the post me Too era. This should go without saying, date someone on your

same level, not a direct report. The power dynamic, if anybody has any control over anybody's career or paycheck is too dangerous, and it's best if they're not even in your department. Maybe you ran into them at a larger company function that makes sense, you're around the same level, they're in a different department, no problem. Also, I want you to ask yourself if the feelings that you're having are actually real or they only belong in the workplace.

Is it just because you've been spending so much time together, Like would this person really work out in the real world, Like you get them out of the office and you're suddenly like they don't fit in with white people. Usually the answers no, yeah, right, it is. And from the beginning, I want you to think about the consequences of a breakup, because

workplace relationships are never the problem. Workplace breakups are the problem. Also, find out if your workplace has a romance policy and you might need to ask

human resources if necessary. Many employers are getting people to sign what's called a love contract to try to make sure that they don't get in trouble for things, and that might include a love contract might say things like you state that the relationships voluntary and consensual, that you both parties have read and know and understand the company's policy on has harassment and discrimination, That both parties are free to leave the relationship at any time. You know, lawyers wrote these.

These are not like wedding vows. This is what a lawyer wrote. That the parties will keep their workplace interactions professional. Yeah, we don't need cuddle bunnies at the office, right, And that you will inform your employer if the relationship ends. Yeah, a lot of companies are making you sign contracts like that these days. I know it's not romantic, is it, kayas like crunching up her face like yeack, yeah, and that on one my

employers involved in my love life. That's weird. Yeah, But they're getting sued so much. That makes that workplaces, so they've got to protect them at their bottom line. All right, when we come back, maybe you're already in a workplace relationship and maybe you're like, oh my goodness, I want to get out of this, But how do you get out of it when you're working with the person all day every day. I've got some tips for you when we come back. You are listening to the Doctor Wendy Walsh

showing kf I AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio apunue. You're listening to Doctor Wendy Walsh on demand from kf I AM sixty kf I AM six forty. You have Doctor Wendy Walsh with you. This is the Doctor Wendy Wealsh Show talking about workplace love, workplace relationships. You know, there are some workplace relationships that I would call completely forbidden fruit. And that's if the power dynamic is just too great. Dating the boss d We had

a call once a few months ago, Kayla, I don't remember. A listener called in and he was saying that he's having a relationship with his boss, a woman, and she's making his life miserable for some reason, and he feels he can't break up with her now. And it was just a tangled rough Yeah, it was not good. So again, if the power dynamic is too wide, you shouldn't be dating bosses underlings, it's not good. And also a married co worker. You know. I'm gonna tell you

a story my first job. When my first job was at the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Belle's Corners. Anyway, I was fourteen. I made I think it was two dollars and ten cents an hour as a bus girl. And then I got an upgrade. I got a job at the Canadian Tire, which, folks, is like the Pep Boys. It's basically a big automotive store but giant, but a kind of hardware store, and where I learned that people buy too much cocking. I don't know what it is. They'd buy

tubes and tubes and two. I'd be like, dad, I'm a cashier. I rang in like four hundred things of cocking today. What do people use it for? Well, now I know, and I'm very good at cocking. Anyway, So I was up in the break room. I was fifteen years old. I'm making two dollars and thirty seven cents an hour or something, and this dude walks in, who's like old. He must have been like thirty two, like old when you're fifteen, that's like grandfather.

Right, maybe it was thirty three and totally married to only married, and he started really hardcore flirting with me and wanting to take me out to lungement in the break room from the break rooming one. And I was just shocked because I was just in my parents nest. I was a baby, I was a virgin. I was a baby, and then here's this like grown man flirting with me and married. I didn't. I was just being kind of like, I felt uncomfortable. But at the time, you know,

girl didn't have voices back then. But you know, that was just weird. So don't do it with a married that's so weird. And then I can see how girls fall for it all the time though, the charm and itself, especially if the dude has power because of patriarchy. Oh yeah, remember what the Barbie movie says. A lot of girls are brainwashed by patriarchy. All those kids out there are manipulating them anyway. So just don't do

it with a married co worker, and don't express your feelings. Don't bring it up because it's leading them on to say, well, you know, we shouldn't be in the same room together because I have feelings for you. That's flirting. They're they're gonna turn it up. They're gonna try to turn it up. You should privately acknowledge your own little feelings and then go distract yourself. Distract yourself with a romantic potential of somebody who's not a colleague.

All right, let's say you are already tangled in a workplace romance and you want to get out of it. First of all, do not waste any time. It's not going to just you. See, everyone has this dream that the relationship will just wean away. It will just slowly die. If you just call them less, text them less, be less available, it'll just gently go away. Kayla, has that ever happened to you in your

life? No? No, no, it gets angry. One person gets mad, and the more you think you could just wean them off, the angrier they will. Yet, so do not waste time. As soon as you sense that the ship is sinking, then you need to have the conversation. And where do you have the break up? Not at the office,

thank you very much, Find a neutral place nowhere during business hours. I assume if you're in a relationship, you're together somewhere outside of the I mean I hope you're not consummating things at the office, although some people have done that. That's a fantasy somewhere. Yeah, I know somebody shall go unnamed who recently witnesses working at an ice cream shop recently opened the freezer and saw two co workers like, Okay, how do you do it in the freezer?

You make it? Hat? Oh you melt the ice cream. Yeah. Anyway, So pick a neutral spot off campus and just be very clear, now, be compassionate. You know, here's the problem. If you're breaking up from like a normal relationship, you switch coffee shops, you switch dry cleaners, you switch grocery stores, you defriend them and follow them, you know, you block them, you just go somewhere else. You can't do that if you're going to see them at the office every single day.

So you have to know that this is going to take way more more time than the average breakup, okay, which means that they are going to come back often and want to hash it out again. Like you know, Okay, So when you've gone through a normal breakup and you're feeling sad and you're out, Let's say we're out with our girlfriends and we're drinking whatever, and they're like, no, don't drunk text damn, don't do it, and you're just like, yeah, but I want to know about that night that

we were doing and what happened. Then like we're like overprocessing everything I've actually had And don't blame this women on this. I've actually had ex boyfriend guys who call me like, you know, two months later, going, can you tell me about that timing? What was really happening there? Right? And the problem is when you're seeing the person every day, you don't get

the luxury of completely you know, blocking them and going no contact. You have to still have contact, so they're gonna want to hash it out. And again, you can't just shut them down. You got to allow them that space. Kind of good in a way, everyone gets to process their feelings right now. You should also avoid them at the office. That's one hundred percent sure, Like, try as hard as you can to go no

contact. But if you're actually working together and you're on projects together and you've got to be in meetings together, oh you know who, it's most uncomfortable for everybody else in the room because they all know what's going on, even if you haven't told them everything. Changed from where you sit to where your eye contact is, and everybody knows, and it just makes everybody feel uncomfortable.

So just know it's going to take a long time for closure to happen, and both of you might have to go and hash it out a few different times. But here's your job. Just hold your head high and don't lose it right, have composure. What you want to do is conduct yourself with class, with dignity. You know, the rest of them can gossip about you, guys. Your other person can be in the bathroom crying about what happened. Don't get into it. Okay, you take the high road

and go into total professional mode. Now, as a very last resort, you might have to go to HR. When I was young, I had a girlfriend and she was having a relationship with someone at the office, and when they broke up, he got weird and stalkish and at the office no less, you know, like just hovering like Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton when she was talking, just sort of there in the background, hovering, and it just felt so uncomfortable. So she had to go to HR and they

actually moved her to a whole other floor. You know, they know how to do these things, but that's kind of a last resort. I'm all about keep your head high. You know. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit about something that social media and the internet is a twitter about trauma bonds. Oh boy, people love the term trauma bonds. Let me come back. Let's talk about if your relationship might need a trauma therapist or whether you're just pulling words from the Internet. You are listening

to the Doctor Wendy Walls Show on KFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to Doctor Wendy Walls. You can always hear us live on kf I am six forty from seven to nine pm on Sunday and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

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