“Charlie Sheen subconsciously believes he is a loser” says Human Behavior Expert Patrick Wanis PhD.

“Listen to his TV interviews where Charlie Sheen constantly and almost obsessively keeps referring to himself being a winner and the others being a loser; Sheen is trying to convince himself that he is a winner. Sheen thinks he is a loser otherwise he wouldn’t try to convince the world that he is a winner” reveals Dr. Wanis. “In 1987, when Sheen was talking about the making of the film Wall Street,  Sheen said something revealing about his real insecurities and issues:

‘Is this success all a fluke? Had I been fooling everybody so far? Will I get caught?’”

Wanis also says Sheen has passed numerous drug tests but now needs to deal with the emotional issues – deep seated rage and anger and his victimhood – the belief that everyone has betrayed him – AA, CBS, Chuck Lorre, etc.

Watch the TV interview – Patrick Wanis PhD live from Hollywood on Australia’s national TV show – “The Morning Show with Larry and Kylie.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QSINKMcNAM

Is Charlie Sheen  a danger to his kids?  Listen to the interview Patrick Wanis PhD gave to WVRX-FM 105.9 The Edge – The Kirk McEwen & Mike O’Meara Morning Show – after Brooke Mueller filed a restraining order alleging Sheen was abusive to her and removed his kids from Sheen’s home.  Dr. Wanis had already warned that Sheen is not just a danger to himself but potentially a danger to the people around him, including his children. Sheen said “I will murder for you, love you violently, defend you violently, with absolute hatred.”  http://patrickwanis.com/RadioInterviews.asp#danger2kids

Below are various observations by Patrick Wanis PhD about Charlie Sheen following Sheen’s multiple media interviews – NBC, GMA, Radar online and the radio shows:

• “Sheen constantly talks about winning and losing
• He plays the victim accusing the TV execs of abandoning him: “They didn’t come to my aid”
• Sheen defines his success and value as ‘the car I drive and the girls in my house’
• Calls himself a rock legend, 10,000 year old brain
• Very revealing when he admits he took Ambien (sleeping pill) which tells you he has deeper problems and that’s why he can’t sleep; Jack Nicholson warned Heath Ledger against using Ambien saying it was very dangerous:
  “I almost drove off a cliff once. I don’t take sleeping pills but somebody said ‘take this, it’s mild…I got a call in the middle of the night, kind of an emergency, and I almost drove off a cliff 50 yards from my house, and I live up in the mountains in Aspen. So I warn people about it.” (Jack Nicholson)
  
• Read the transcript of the interview I gave about Lindsay Lohan and Jack Nicholson’s warning about Ambien:

http://patrickwanis.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/20/lindsay-lohans-real-issue/

• Right now Charlie Sheen sounds like a dry drunk and experiencing withdrawal from various drugs – jittery, delusional, maniacal speech and behavior, etc
• “When these wrongs have been righted then you can understand winning” says Sheen
• Charlie Sheen’s language is full of violence; he says: “I will murder for you, love you violently, defend you violently, with absolute hatred.” This is sign that his behavior could easily escalate to violence
• At a subconscious level, Sheen fears that his career is over: his body language lied when he was asked if he is a bankable star
• His delusions are exemplified by quotes from the movie “Apocalypse Now”:  “You have the right to kill me not the right to judge me”
• Charlie Sheen is a narcissist; he refers to his past affairs with women as “they will think about me every day of their life”
• Sheen is obviously suffering from sleep deprivation: “I am going to take a nap, recharge my battery because we are fighting a war”
• Indirectly admits he has been battling alcohol for 22 yrs when he refers to AA for 22 years
• Sheen says he doesn’t have enough money right now to pay other staff
• Although, he is denying it verbally, his words and actions actually reflect that Sheen is desperate and is almost begging to do the TV show again – Two and a Half Men.
• Still attacking people – calling them turds and losers.
• Charlie exhibits every sign of a crack cocaine addict or a meth and ecstasy user; These drugs produce the maniacal patterns of his speech as well as hallucinations and delusions; other prescription medication is only making things worse for him; when he was rushed to hospital with a supposed Hernia – it was actually the result of Ambien according to him.***
• During Charlie Sheen’s hiatus from Two and a Half Men, he etched a rather unusual symbol on his chest: the ink, which says ‘Death from Above’ alongside an apple and a drop of blood, is a reference to the movie “Apocalypse Now” and Sheen says it is in honor of his father Martin Sheen.”

*** Update: Charlie Sheen and Ambien

During his live performance in NYC (part of his Violent Torpedo of Truth Tour”,  on Friday April 8, 2011, the former Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen, discussed his infamous stay at NYC’s Plaza Hotel in 2010, in which he was hospitalized after allegedly being found intoxicated inside his trashed suite.

“This gorgeous yet overpaid [woman]…followed me up to my room. Maybe I invited her but it’s my story,” Sheen said during the show. “Next thing I know, I’m naked taking Ambien and attacking the cops. Ambien, the devil’s aspirin…Next thing I know, she locked herself in the bathroom with my watch and my wallet. Did I throw a chair at the door? Yes. I just wanted my $175,000 watch back.”

• A human-behavior expert decodes the meaning behind 10 frustrating male actions, from leaving the toilet seat up to consulting his mother for every decision.

Read the article by Natasha Burton on MSN.com and quoting Human Behavior Expert Patrick Wanis PhD:

http://glo.msn.com/relationships/what-his-bad-habit-says-about-him-6408.gallery?gt1=49006

Here are the two most controversial habits mentioned in the article “What a guy’s bad habit says about him”:

Always Calling Mom

A man who has to call his mother in order to make a decision “hasn’t found his own independence or identity,” Wanis says. This bad habit is problematic if you’d like to create a lasting union with this man. “He won’t be able to be there for you when you really need him,” Wanis says. “He won’t turn to you for his support system, because his mother is his support system. He’s still seeking Mummy’s approval.”

Leaving the Seat Up

When men do this, Wanis says, “they’re too interested in being right rather than being happy.” Wanis maintains that guys shouldn’t look at the act of putting the seat down as a loss of manhood because sometimes the toilet seat can be the sign of a power struggle. “Little things like this can reflect larger, deeper problems in the relationship,” he says.

Read the full article here:

http://glo.msn.com/relationships/what-his-bad-habit-says-about-him-6408.gallery?gt1=49006

Also read Patrick Wanis’ article/newsletter “The toilet seat – up or down?”
http://patrickwanis.com/blog/index.php/2011/01/26/the-toilet-seat-up-or-down/

**** Watch Patrick Wanis PhD The Top 10 Celebrity Meltdowns of 2010 on FOX NEWS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU4VplBHz24

Illegal guns, drugs, addictions, domestic violence, cheating, drunkenness, fake divorces, breaking into banks, and grabbing a man’s crotch are just some of the really bad, bizarre and perverse behavior of the celebrities that made the 4^th annual list of The Top 10 Celebrity Meltdowns Of 2010 by Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior Expert, Patrick Wanis PhD.

“2009 was the worst year ever for celebrity bad behavior with Tiger Woods’ multiple affairs and Chris Brown’s assault on Rihanna but I warned it would only get worse, and unfortunately, my predictions came true in 2010”, say Wanis. “Even the celebrities that didn’t make the top 10 list, still engaged in shocking meltdowns, uncontrollable behavior and violence, such as New York Mets Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez who was arrested in August for punching his father-in-law in the team’s clubhouse or NBA player Lance Stephenson who was charged with assault for allegedly throwing his girlfriend down the stairs.”

“Sadly, society continues to be obsessed with worshipping and idolizing celebrities while many of them continue to expose themselves as the worst role models possible, engaging in the worst possible behavior and revealing that fame, fortune and power don’t guarantee you happiness or normalcy but guarantee misery, pain and suffering if you are not grounded and if you have repressed or unresolved issues” reveals Wanis.

When asked by FOX News Channel to explain the reasons that celebrity behavior continues to worsen, Patrick Wanis PhD revealed that morality is generally decaying and celebrities reflect that decay but at a more extreme level. “We also need to understand that today’s celebrities are often the result of bizarre behavior generated on TV reality shows and that less and less celebrities are being recognized for their artistic talent and contribution while more and more people are becoming famous for outrageous and immoral behavior such as recording sex tapes (Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, etc) or for being a mistress to a famous person (Michelle McGee with Jesse James or Rachel Uchitel with Tiger Woods.)”

Human Behavior Expert Patrick Wanis, PhD has compiled his fourth annual list of The Top Ten Celebrity Meltdowns of 2010 along with his expert insights into their antics and dangerous behavior. Can you guess the number 1 celebrity meltdown of 2010?

Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up…

10. Bad rappers – guns, girls and money

Some of the biggest rappers got more than a bad rap this year – they got prison time!

Lil Wayne was sentenced to a year for criminal possession of a weapon, JaRule pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of a gun (he could get 2 yrs in prison), D’angelo was arrested and charged with solicitation after asking a female undercover police officer for oral sex, and; Comedian/actor and rapper Katt Williams was forced by an Atlanta court to pay over half a million dollars to Merion Joseph Powers, a record producer after Williams allegedly unleashed his guard dog to attack Powers pooch to intimidate Powers as a way to get out of a debt. The poor pet suffered serious injuries and almost died.

This is the classic pattern of celebrity bad behavior – “The Fame Factor” – delusions of power, grandeur and denial – ‘I can do whatever I want and I am above the law.’

Continue reading “The Top 10 Celebrity Meltdowns of 2010” »

The following is a transcript of a newspaper reporter interviewing Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior Expert, Patrick Wanis Ph.D. for insights and analysis about Ricky Martin who sat down with Oprah for the first time to talk about his life since publicly coming out of the closet earlier this year and telling the world he is a fortunate homosexual man. And now Ricky Martin is also revealing more of his personal life in a new book called “Me.” But is Ricky really okay now with his homosexuality or is he still trying to get other people’s approval and acceptance?

Reporter: As you know, Ricky Martin came out sometime ago, but now he has come back to appear on TV shows and give interviews and I would like to know what do you think of his behavior, how is he handling his career, if he is doing it right or doing it wrong? What is your point of view about it?

Patrick: Well, I think that he waited for the right time because today is the right time for people to come out and say “I am coming out.”

Reporter: Yes.

Patrick: If he had done it when he was at the very top of his career, when he was singing La Vida Loca it would not have worked for him because back then, he was a big sex symbol for women; women were crazy for him.

Reporter: Yes.

Patrick: But if he had come out 10 or 15 years ago when he made his breakout in the Latin and the American market, that would have hurt his career a lot but he waited for the right time and I think now is probably the best time because the issue of homosexuality and acceptance is a big issue in America. Obviously it is around the world, but it’s particularly big in America. His home is here in Miami. And this is where homosexuality has been and is a big issue, and there has been a lot of events in the news about bullying and anti-gay behavior; whether it has been about beating up gay people or there has been bullying of gay people. So now the issue is at its height, and so now is the right time. I think also Ricky was waiting for another reason to say look, I also want to tell the world because I have two sons and I want to be honest in front of them and I want to be truthful. I don’t want to lie anymore.

  Continue reading “Has Ricky Martin really accepted his homosexuality?” »

The following is a transcript of Russ Morley, host of 850 WFTL radio interviewing Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior Expert, Patrick Wanis Ph.D. for insights and analysis about the Brett Favre scandal. The Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre allegedly left voicemails for Jenn Sterger and sent her naked pictures of himself in 2008 when Favre was playing for the Jets and Jenn Sterger was working for the team. Brett Favre has been reported as admitting to leaving voice mails for Jenn Sterger but has denied he sent the photos. it’s now expected that Sterger is prepared to contradict Favre’s denial that he sent inappropriate pictures to her.

Russ Morley: Joining us this morning is Dr. Patrick Wanis – Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior Expert.  Dr. Wanis good morning. How are you?

Patrick Wanis PhD: Good morning, Russ.

Russ Morley: Good to have you on. I haven’t talked to you in a while.

Patrick Wanis PhD: Thank you. Well, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling.

Russ Morley: Where have you been?

Patrick Wanis PhD: I was in LA, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, LA.

[Laughter]

Russ Morley: Building up those frequent flyer miles, huh?

Patrick Wanis PhD: Yes. I’m going to make sure I use them.

Russ Morley: Alright. Let’s talk about Brett’s addiction or do you see this as an addiction. We know Tiger Woods had a sex addiction. Do you see this with Brett or just maybe a slip, a poor – a poor taste experience?

Patrick Wanis PhD: Well, let’s begin with the first question, sex addiction and I think because you and I have spoken many times before about this, you know very clearly that I don’t believe or subscribe to this sex addiction diagnosis for many reasons.

First, there’s no real neurological way to prove that someone has an addiction. Second, how many times a day, do you need to have sex to equal an addiction? Number three, Tiger Woods is able to play golf quite easily. He didn’t go hiding behind the bushes or go running behind the bushes for a quickie. Number four, most rock stars and athletes would fall into the category of sex addiction if there was one.

Meaning, that they love to have lots of sex with lots of different women but we might say that someone has destroyed their life because of the fact that they chose or are not able to control their behavior but that can apply to anything. It can be work, it can be drinking, it can be gambling. Not everything is always an addiction.

And I think that a lot of people use that excuse, and notice I use the word excuse, as a way to either, you know, hold on to endorsements or to make more money. It always comes down to the bottom line, Russ. You know, managers, the entourage, agents, publicists, assistants all work together to find a way out to protect someone, to protect their image, and protect their endorsements. Basically, they protect their celebrities so that they can keep making money.

Russ Morley: You know what? I listened to the phone calls that – do we have any of the phone calls here, Rick? Can you play one of those Brett Favre phone calls? You don’t really hear the kind of the behavior that we got from Tiger Woods. I mean it sounds almost benign. Play a little bit of that phone call that ones that Brett left for the young lady, Jenn Sterger.

Continue reading “Brett Favre – end of a career, end of a marriage?” »

The following is a transcript of an interview that Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior & Relationship Expert, Patrick Wanis Ph.D. gave to a reporter about Charlie Sheen who was hospitalized after allegedly being high on cocaine, hiring a prostitute, and becoming enraged and trashing the suite at the Plaza hotel in New York.

Patrick Wanis PhD: I’m not at all surprised by Charlie Sheen’s behavior. Yes, I heard that apparently his hotel was trashed plus he came back with an alleged escort.

Reporter: Right.

Patrick Wanis PhD: I also heard that police described him as “emotionally disturbed”, he had been our partying, that he was intoxicated and that he allegedly admitted the use of cocaine. It was reported that Sheen, who only recently was in rehab, also tested positive for cocaine after the incident.
Reporter: He has had these problems, you know, going back to 1990 when he shot his girlfriend in the leg and got in trouble for that. He has had other instances where he has attacked women that he has been married to or lived with and he has gone through the judicial system and each case, he was sent to rehab instead of jail and kind of came out and maintained his successful career. You know, movies and television. I’m just curious why someone who seems like he has everything going for him, you know, good looks, money, successful career continue to getting these types of problems…

Patrick Wanis PhD: Well, the answer is very, very simple and that is that what you’re seeing is simply the symptoms and the results of a much deeper issue. That issue is some emotional pain that will go all the way back and usually, what we find is that when a man tends to use a lot of prostitutes or a lot of escorts, and when he seems to display clear cases of violence against women, what we’re seeing is clearly misogyny. This is a guy who obviously for some reason doesn’t like women. When you are paying women, it means that you don’t respect them. One cannot argue that ‘oh, I respect her and that’s why I’m paying her so she’ll do as I say when I say and so that I’m in control and I have the power.’ We’ve also had numerous instances, whether it was Denise Richards or Brooke Mueller where Charlie Sheen was very violent.

Reporter: Yes, yes.

Patrick Wanis PhD: When you’re violent towards women, that means you have deep-seated rage and anger and the deep-seated rage and anger doesn’t seem to be at the world; it’s often directed at women.

  Continue reading “Charlie Sheen – a misogynist?” »

This article by Hollie McKay was originally published by FoxNews.com:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/10/25/glee-diana-agron-school-girl-sexualization-britney/#content 

To read the full press release on this topic, by Patrick Wanis, click here:
http://patrickwanis.com/blog/index.php/2010/10/21/americas-obsession-with-young-girls/

- – -

By Hollie McKay

Published October 25, 2010 | FoxNews.com

What is it with photo shoots about sexy schoolgirls?

“Glee” stars Dianna Agron and Lea Michele got down and dirty for a GQ magazine spread released last week, set in high school, sucking lollipops, with their legs wide open.

Earlier this year supermodel Miranda Kerr posed topless in school girl clothes in French fashion magazine “Numero.” 

In 2001, “Lolita” star Dominque Swain posed naked in a classroom in a campaign for animal rights activists PETA.

And in 1999, Britney Spears burst onto the scene donning pig tails and a sexy school uniform in the video for “(Hit Me) Baby One More Time,” and appeared in a bra and panties on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Experts tell Pop Tarts that these instances of young women posing suggestively as school girls impact all women by promoting the ideal that the younger the woman, the more appealing she is.

“Although the actresses [in the 'Glee' shoot] are adults, they are dressed as schoolgirls. This promotes and drives the male obsession and desire for younger and younger women,” explained relationship expert Patrick Wanis, PhD. “The GQ ‘Glee’ photo shoot also sends the message to women that if you want to be attractive and appealing to men, then you need to be really young – a teenager – and sexual.”

Continue reading “Sexualization of School-Aged Girls Harms Women of All Ages, Expert Says” »

Lucia:                         Hello and welcome to the Art of Love. My name is Lucia. I’m your host and a dating and relationship expert and I’m here to entertain, educate, and enlighten you about love, dating, and relationships, take your live calls, answer your e-mails, and speak to authors of books which I find interesting.

                                    As usual, I’ve done it again if I may say so myself. I have yet another interesting guest and he is calling in all the way from Australia so we get to hear a lovely Australian accent today, and the book is called Get the Man You Want. So this book is for all women and for gay men. Just kidding. [Laughter] Oh, maybe it is. I don’t know. All right.

                                    Hey, Patrick. How are you doing?

Patrick Wanis PhD: Oh, I’m doing great. Thank you, Lucia. How are you?

Lucia:                         Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you for calling in all the way from Melbourne, Australia. How’s the weather?

Patrick Wanis PhD: It’s windy here so it’s the opposite season so it’s quite cold actually.

Lucia:                         Oh, it’s winter still there?

Patrick Wanis PhD: Yeah. Australia – Down Under is the opposite in seasons. So I just left L.A. about a week ago where it was close to 100 degrees and now I’ve come down here, Down Under, where it’s almost minus 100 – in the sense that it’s very cold for me.

Lucia:                         Right, right, exactly. Well, let me give you an introduction and then we’ll get started. So anointed the woman expert by WGN Chicago, Patrick Wanis, PhD is a renowned celebrity life coach, human behavior and relationship expert, clinical hypnotherapist, and author with extensive credits worldwide. Wanis is the first person ever to do hypnotherapy on national television on the Montel Williams Show. He is the human behavior and relationship expert for Playboy Radio’s Afternoon Advice show, a regular contributor to Cosmo Magazine, my Bible, the featured Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior Expert for the Canadian TV series “Six Degrees of TV”, and is the relationship expert to the movie The Putt Putt Syndrome.. So that is quite a resume.
Who is your book, Get the Man You Want, who is that for?  http://patrickwanis.com/GetTheManYouWant.asp

Patrick Wanis PhD: It’s really for women that want to not just find a man but have a great relationship with a man. Even a woman that’s in a relationship can learn a lot from this book because what I teach is ultimately that whatever you want in life – it’s not about changing the external, it’s about changing yourself. It’s about making changes internally. So whether you want a better job or whether there’s something you want to achieve or you want to make more money or have greater success in any area in your life, you start with yourself. And the same applies with relationships so I teach that every relationship begins with you. That means the more you like, love, and respect yourself then the more that others will like, love, and respect you. If you don’t love, like, and respect yourself then the love you’d give is needy love; a desperate attempt to fill in inner emptiness. So any woman really will benefit from this book ’cause she learns more about herself and more about men.

Lucia:                         Right. And do you think probably in a lot of the cases in romantic situations there is a lot of this needy love going on?

Patrick Wanis PhD: Well, needy love occurs in, not just in romantic situations but, even in some familial relationships. The problem is that we’re often thinking in romantic relationships about ‘What can the other person do for me?’ rather than ‘How much can I love this person? Can I get to the place of unconditional love?’

Lucia:                         Yes, that is the goal but it seems so elusive for everyone ’cause everyone is obviously, of course, thinking, well, what can I get out of this?

Patrick Wanis PhD: Exactly. And that’s the very point that I’m making here: that often when we enter into relationships we’re only thinking about what can I get out of this and how can I feel, and what can you, the other person, do for me? Then we’re no longer coming from an authentic place. We’re not expressing love from our heart. We’re almost playing a tactical game.

Continue reading “Fear of commitment” »

The following is a transcript of Sue McGarvie, host of Ottawa’s EZ Rock 99.7 “Love & Lipstick” interviewing Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior & Relationship Expert, Patrick Wanis Ph.D. about the art of flirting – from the male perspective

Sue McGarvie:          Hey, this is Sue on Love and Lipstick, and we are joined right now by Dr. Patrick Wanis Ph.D. who is joining us from California. He is a human behavior and relationship expert and he’s talking to us about flirting tonight. Patrick, how are you?

Patrick Wanis Ph.D.:           I’m doing great. Thank you, Sue.

Sue McGarvie:          All right. You have this interesting insight as to – from a male perspective what women need to do in order to catch your eye?

Patrick Wanis Ph.D.:           Yeah, often what we hear about flirting is always from the girls’ perspective, “Oh, this is what you should do.” But coming from a male perspective, then, I’m standing on the other side and saying, “Here’s what I really want. Here’s what I really need. Here’s what I would like.”

Sue McGarvie:          Okay. Well, I’ve just watched The Ugly Truth. They’re saying that all men are sort of Neanderthals. They’re all really looking for sort of what we look like in that hourglass figure and it really isn’t about engaging. But if you’re looking at how to meet somebody initially, how do you want to be approached?

Patrick Wanis Ph.D.:           Yes. You said something really interesting, Sue. You talked about the Neanderthal, and I think there are two layers to every man. There’s the Neanderthal and then there’s hopefully the evolved brain, but there is actually three parts to our brain. So yes, the thing that gets our attention is the physicality or something that’s really in our face. So men are not about being subtle. They really want you or I should say we really want you to get our attention.

                                    Now, you can get our attention by the physicality in terms of what you’re wearing or how you look and what body shape you have, but you can also get our attention by really doing something that’s going to – I don’t want to use the word “startle” but something that’s a little out of the usual, that’s going to be a little bit different. Now, what I mean by that is it’s very, very old but we talked about winking.

                                    Now, I’m not saying that a girl should wink at a guy but making eye contact is what really gets a guy going. Now, if a girl makes eye contact with a guy and then sort of looks down, gets him intrigued and that’s much stronger and more impactful than say trying to get someone to go up to the guy and say, “Oh, my friend is interested in you.” That doesn’t work. It’s better if a girl is actually making a direct contact with the guy.

Sue McGarvie:          Okay. So this works in not just in bars but in bookstores, in coffee shops, I would say, in the wine tasting classes that we take around here. They are really big. Do you suggest those for all of that?

Patrick Wanis Ph.D.:           All of the places are applicable with the exception, of course, of the church which you can do after the church, but not while you’re in service, while in church, synagogue, et cetera. But my point is what you want to do is let the man know that there’s some interest on your part in him, then you sort of turn away so that he comes chasing after you.

  Continue reading “The art of flirting” »

The following is a transcript of the responses, analysis and insights by Celebrity Life Coach and Human Behavior Expert, Patrick Wanis Ph.D. to a Chicago Tribune reporter’s questions about Steven Slater, The JetBlue flight attendant who became so fed up with an argument with a passenger, that he flipped out, cursing the passenger over the intercom, grabbing a beer and then deploying the emergency slide at New York’s Kennedy Airport. Patrick Wanis Ph.D. reveals the link between Slater’s actions, rampant stress in society, frustration with rude people, a backlash against big corporations and increasingly decaying work conditions and pressure.

Reporter:                    Steven Slater, a flight attendant on JetBlue, just got fed up with a passenger, grabbed a beer off the cart and went out the emergency chute. So, what do you think is going on there? That’s kind of snapping in the workplace, isn’t it?

Patrick Wanis:          Well, most of us would equate it to snapping in the workplace except fortunately, he didn’t engage in any acts of violence. I mean, it wasn’t a situation where he had any weapons or he had access to weapons fortunately. Yes, he did respond in a verbally violent manner from what I understand in terms of grabbing the intercom, I think, and either cussing out all of the passengers or cussing out that particular passenger. I also understand that when this passenger was taking the bag down, he apparently hit Mr. Slater in the head which would obviously also trigger Mr. Slater’s anger.

I think the first key point here is to say that any time that a person snaps in a workplace or loses it or responds in a manner that doesn’t seem to make immediate sense, we know that they’re under a lot of stress and that stress usually has little to do with the workplace and it’s usually stress from outside of the home. When I’m leading training programs for companies and corporations, the first thing I say is understand that your employees and we as humans cannot separate our personal life from our business life. That means we bring from home all of our stuff to work.

Now, having said that, it’s interesting because now, reports are coming out that his mother is dying from lung cancer and there have been other problems within his own personal life. So what happens is we completely change as human beings in a workplace setting when our stress level skyrockets.

So here is a man that probably was already under a lot of stress and all he needed was the trigger to do as what you would call to ‘snap’, and that trigger was this passenger not following the rules, standing up and trying to reach for his bags when he’s not meant to, et cetera. The effects of stress cannot be overstated here; we completely change personality, temperament and even control of our emotions when the stress becomes too much. At that point, we can engage in all sorts of strange and erratic behavior that can include violent behavior.  [For a detailed explanation and list of the effects of stress and a list of the symptoms of stress, read Patrick Wanis Ph.D.’s article “You’re not crazy” from August 2008. Click here: http://patrickwanis.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/19/youre-not-crazy/]

We also don’t know if Steven Slater was on any sort of medication? Because medication can also lead to acts of violence or to the possibility that he wasn’t in fully control of his emotions. Having said that, maybe he snapped when he cussed the person out and at that point, he said okay, this is all too much for me. I am out of here. So he grabs a beer and he opens the emergency chute and he literally gets out of here.

The next question you’re going to ask I’m guessing is, “Why is so much of the public on his side? Correct?

Continue reading “JetBlue attendant – a symbol of rampant stress” »