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♫ Too Humble ♫
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I enter the corridor never again.
After being admitted as an emergency case, the hospital sedated me with medication and diagnosed me with addiction (the experts call it “obsessive-compulsive disorder”): the constant urge to enter corridors. That’s why I was referred to a rehab clinic. Dr. A. Einrad, my attractive but very strict therapist, employs a combination of the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous and cognitive behavioral therapy to cure me of the internal compulsion to have to run uncontrollably into hallways and aisles at every opportunity.
We spend a lot of time outdoors, and under her guidance, I enter glades, groves, mushroom circles, peninsulas, quarries, and hilltops. Sometimes—a hollow way or sunken lane, for example—makes me catch my breath briefly, and I can feel the overpowering urge creeping up inside me again. But it gets better each time. Not so when I think of the list that my therapist had me create. As part of a thorough and unsparing inventory, she worked with me to bring to light all those who were harmed by me and my addiction: family members, friends, unsuspecting homeowners, museum staff, security guards, my readers …
Nonetheless, I feel in good hands here and can hope not to relapse again. In the end, it’s a relief to know that I am powerless against the corridors and only something bigger than myself can save me from falling back into them. And at the end of therapy, with God’s help, I will be able to lead a small and modest, safe, protected, and above all, corridor-free life.
Twelve-step program: 