Q. Is it my imagination, or are people acting worse right now? Even my nicer coworkers seem impatient, distracted and quick to bite. I'm starting to look forward to hanging out with my dog and avoiding people. Any ideas?

A. Yes, imagine that a thick fog of fear was being breathed in deeply by everyone around you. Realize you would stop taking people's irritability, distraction and impatience so personally. You may even accord people a fair amount of grace about their short fuses.

Comedians may light-heartedly joke that "the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." But many of us might seriously be looking for that T-shirt that reads, "Beam me up, Scotty," when it comes to our feelings about each other at work.

There is so much uncertainty in the business world right now that many people are just holding their breath waiting for the next crisis. Sociologists have done a great deal of research proving that people perform most poorly when they don't know what is going to happen.

If we know something bad is going to happen, we can adjust, grieve and make plans. If we know something good is going to happen, we can anticipate, celebrate and make plans. If we don't know what's going to happen, we live with a constant dread that doesn't allow adjusting, grieving, anticipating, celebrating or planning.

Living with dread is debilitating physically. We sleep poorly, we eat comfort foods, we drink more and we isolate ourselves. Whatever poor habits we have come flooding out of the closet while we desperately seek distraction but end up with self-destruction.

Ironically, there's a movie right now called, "The Happening," in which an invisible wind comes into New York City that causes people to go into a trance where they kill themselves. Sometimes Hollywood might be tapping into a real social problem as they create movie topics.

Although hanging out with your dog is therapeutic, your best course of action is to immunize yourself against the fog of self-destruction. Anything that enhances your peace of mind will help you.

Don't isolate. Now is the time to reach out to friends, family and coworkers. Aristotle once said, "Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods." Follow his advice. Continued...