Leave me alone!
“I want to be left alone. I want to be left alone! Don’t bother me!”
These are words that Charles continued to say each time there was a knock on his door. But was he left alone? No.
If he was at home, it was a mother or his sister. They always wanted to have him do something. Or they always gave him some misguided advice.
“You need to make friends.”
“You need to do something that helps us around the house.”
“You need to stop being so selfish.”
Then when he went to school, it was the same thing. Only this time, he was in a room filled with people. And the knock at the door was usually to allow someone to enter the classroom. And he didn’t want to be there. He was convinced they were coming to the room to see him, even when they said differently.
“I just want to be left alone!”
It reached a point where the school, and his family, had no choice, and they referred him for counseling.
This didn’t help at first, for it was just another person that wanted to get into his head. But then the counselor tried a radical new approach. Whenever Charles came into the room for a session, the counselor welcomed him and then left him alone in the room for the hour he was scheduled for. The only difference was that the counselor left a kitten in the room with him.
That kitten was one of a pair of identical kittens, the other being one that his family allowed him to keep in his room.
At first, Charles stayed in the room and did nothing, but eventually, he began to focus on the kittens. And he began to talk to the kittens.
Charles knew he was being recorded, but he was still alone, which was important to him. And the more he shared with the kittens, the more everyone learned about what was going on in Charles’ mind.
Charles revealed his fear of being different. His fear of others’ opinions of him. And the kittens just listened. In fact, the kittens comforted him. They purred when he touched them and chose to play with him unconditionally. They expected nothing from him but companionship and love. And that is what he gave them.
Understanding this, his family, counselor, and classmates changed their behavior instead of asking Charles to change his.
As time moved forward, so did Charles’s reactions to everyone. Over time, he changed also.
As kittens grow into cats, Charles grew as a person. Yes, he still liked being alone at times, but now he functioned better with others with a mutual understanding that one can be different and still be accepted.
