"The next few hours were spent washing, ironing, cleaning, surfing and other small activities which were natural diversions to take the evening to sleep time. Another meeting tomorrow and the thought of it filled him with dread- it had gotten to the point that all interaction with groups of new people was too much to bear. Three days ago he had contemplated facing his manager and explaining how he felt but as usual he swept the problem under the carpet and hoped that others had not noticed the nervousness. Despite this reluctance to face up to the issue he knew that time was limited in his current role and that a period of long term sickness would be forced on him which scared him more than anything else. Getting through the days at work and the nights at home were just so difficult but at least during the day he was away from the silence."