And then it hit me . . . Perfection!

Ever wonder where those irrational fears come from? I think I may have discovered where mine began. . .

I was with one of my kiddos today and he was given a game to play that challenged his problem solving skills, coping skills, visual and spacial perception, etc.
This game was none other than good ol' Perfection!


He had never played it before, and he was told to just put the pieces in. The teacher said nothing about any other features of the game. After he had finished putting all the shapes in place she turned the timer on and just told him to wait. That's when it started . . . The fear began to build up inside of me. I could feel the anxiety rising from my stomach into my esophagus. My view of the timer was at a strange angle, so I really didn't know when the glorious surprise was going to happen. My client started talking and distracted us all . . . POP! We all laughed and my client was totally shocked. As he was quickly putting the pieces back in so that we could pop them up one more time it dawned on me . . . I thought back to my childhood when I would play perfection with my siblings or our made up game of try to hide before the the game pops! The anticipation of that game used to make me so nervous when I was a child that the anticipation of popping sounds became a trigger for fear.

There was a time when I used to enjoy opening cans of dough. It used to be funny, just like the game Perfection was hilarious to my client today. I used to WANT to open cans of dough . . . but that gradually changed, and I bet Perfection or similar circumstances all combined contributed to my growing fear of that wretched anticipated POP!

Of course . . . this is just one theory . . .


POP!