Colleague had meltdown, said something cruel about me, I can't stop thinking about it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"...many colleagues reached out to me directly to check on me and tell me they thought the email was crazy. My director and the COO met with me several times to tell me that they don't agree with anything he said and that I'm a valued member of the team."

When you are ruminating over this incident, re-read this. Their response to the crazy guy should be the only memory you maintain.

+1. It's great that your work colleagues reached out to you personally, and let you know they're in your corner!

[Anonymous]

He probably mixed up his imagination with reality, and maybe you took up more space in his head than you realized, for whatever reason.

[Anonymous]

If you can not stop ruminating about this see a therapist. They can give you useful strategies. You aren't going to need to go a bunch of times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it keeps bugging you contact your employee assistance program to make a few appointments with a therapist to work through it.

Agreed. It sounds like your bosses are on your side -- try to take his mean remarks as the rambling of a mentally ill person and know that you are a valued employee. If you can't get past it, definitely try therapy!

[Anonymous]

You know, OP, one time when I was in the same city I live in now, I was waiting for someone to pick me up and a homeless person moved towards me looking at me with sheer hatred and then attacked me. At some point during the attack, something passed over the guy's face and it was like he suddenly saw me. It was clear at the start of the attack he had been seeing someone else in his mind.

So maybe this guy was saying these things about you but in his head he was thinking of someone else.

[Anonymous]

My cousin had a psychotic break a couple years ago. The things he was saying, the weird connections he was making in his mind…..had ZERO connection to reality. Seriously, none. The brain is a strange and crazy place

I get that it must have been upsetting to hear, but think about all the other off the wall things he was spewing out…this isn’t a case of “drunk words are sober thoughts”; his brain was literally broken and the things he said have no basis in the real world