The waiting game.

What is it about waiting rooms? They’re like a world of their own. You could be in a waiting room, waiting for the loveliest thing in the world and I still think it would induce an anxiety attack beforehand.

What is it about waiting rooms that is always so formulaic, structured and clinical, even outside of clinical settings?

My recent experience was however, in a clinical setting. Attending an appointment I was already rather nervous for, finding myself plunged into this waiting room world was not helpful.

The plain white walls staring back at me, adorned only with abstract art that wasn’t dissimilar from ‘The Rorschach tests’ which isn’t the most helpful thing when attending an already tenuous appointment. The floor is always lino or that horrid ridged carpet, that’s almost rough beneath your feet as you wait. It’s the eery silence that’s awkwardly filled with the low hum of a local radio station that in this case was so confidently playing Elvis’s I’m all shook up, not the most helpful of soundtracks to accompany my already nervous disposition. The way that suddenly your heartbeat intensifies and you’re aware of every thump in your chest, every inhalation and exhalation and start questioning whether that’s how you normally breathe or not. My legs starts twitching, my chewed fingernails tapping relentlessly on the arm of the most uncomfortable chair in the world. Suddenly aware of every part of your body in contact with the chair, the tapping fingers sending vibrations through it. The thoughts flooding in about what the appointment might hold, what will be said, what will be suggested, my mind in overdrive. I’m all worked up before I even go in for the reason i’m really here.

I think it’s the rooms, they’re all designed in the same way. Each place has their own way of putting you at ease before your appointment. Perhaps a thumbed copy of the House and Home or Cosmopolitan magazine, a vase of flowers in the middle of the room or a nice drinks dispenser in the corner to help distract you for a minute or two.

I’m always early for appointments, I’d much rather be there in good time. Maybe too early sometimes, this arguably makes the waiting room situation worse. I only have myself to blame for this but, there are so many things that can be done or not done to make the whole thing so much more bearable.

1.) Lets try some colour on the walls
2.) Stop with the generic, pale, ambiguous artwork
3.) Comfier chairs, in a relaxed layout. Stop it with the rows.
4.) Upgrade your reading material
5.) Eliminate those fake plants and flowers. Switch ’em for real ones.
6.) Open the windows
7.) Water
8.) Mix up the radio station, maybe a calm, non classical CD

These things alone aren’t huge but they sure would make a big difference to all of us nail biters In the waiting rooms. I feel like i’ve gone through an ordeal before the main event has even taken place.

Anybody else feel like this when they’re in the waiting room?