The Wethey Forecast

David Wethey

‘CrazyBusy’ is about the perils of Attention Deficit Disorder, and the risks we run, when we are, as Hallowell puts it: “overstretched, overbooked and about to snap”. Kellaway’s take on the book was that if you’re too busy for sex, get round it by taking your Blackberry to bed.

The Easter break is a good time to take stock – and for me a better time to make resolutions than in the aftermath of the extended Christmas/New Year holiday. I started thinking about conventional questions and predictable answers. “Are you busy?”, is up there with “How are you?”, “How was the weekend/holiday?”, and “Is everything all right with your meal?”.

“How are you?” isn’t a cue for a full medical bulletin – although I find that the older I get the more tempted I am to share a few symptoms and go for the sympathy vote. Questions about the weekend and your holiday always seem to be answered with an enthusiastic “great”. But can all weekends and holidays be that good? In restaurants I do know people who have the guts (if that’s the word) to give the waiter a truthful answer as you start masticating the first forkful of polenta, but does it make it a happier dining experience for you, and importantly your companion? And as for the “busy?” question, don’t you always hear colleagues, business friends - indeed yourself – say “Busy? We are absolutely rushed off our feet”.

When you think about it, it’s a pretty self-defeating answer. Clients, prospective clients, colleagues are not going to be encouraged. If David’s that busy they had better not make his life any worse by offering him that assignment. Family and friends are not going to react any better. They will be thinking that if Ned Hallowell isn’t available, they ought to find another psychiatrist to sort him out.

So here’s my Easter resolution: I’m not going to be CrazyBusy any more. From now on life is going to be about having plenty of empty slots in the diary, weekends off, time for golf. Thanks Lucy. Thanks Ned. No more BlackBerry under the pillow. It can sit on my bedside table beside my ‘To do’ list.