"All her life, Caffrey had assumed she was a bad person, not a lovable person, not a likable person. Her parents separated when she was 10, and at that point, some voice in me said, Nothing's ever gonna work.' She grew up in California, and at school she was bright, but very shy I would read during recess. Or I would play hopscotch by myself."
"After university, she tried graduate school, and hated it. She had a string of jobs filing computer keypunch cards, as an administrative assistant, a data-processor, technical writing and editing, checking hospital databases for duplicate records but couldn't build a career. I just did not know how to do the schmoozing and teamwork. I was stuck in this mindset of, There's something wrong with me.' And I just couldn't break out of that."
"Caffrey didn't start drinking till she was 21, and then it became problematic only gradually. She went to her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in her 30s and has been sober for 42 years, but experienced depression for decades. After retiring with repetitive strain injuries in her mid-50s, she says, I must have spent 10 or 12 hours a day lying on my back watching television. I kept thinking, I can't do anything.'"
Cathleen Caffrey experienced early family separation at age ten, which triggered a belief that nothing would work and deep shyness. She excelled academically but remained socially isolated, often playing alone. Post-university attempts at graduate study failed, and she cycled through clerical and technical jobs without building a career due to discomfort with schmoozing and teamwork. Romantic relationships were unstable and sometimes obsessive. Alcohol use began at 21 and gradually became problematic; she attended Alcoholics Anonymous in her 30s and has maintained sobriety for 42 years. She endured decades of depression and prolonged inactivity after retiring with repetitive strain injuries in her mid-50s.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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