Dr. Feelgood

“Bad luck? There’s no such thing as bad luck,” Penny’s father blurted out. “You make your own luck. You remember that.” Those words haunted Penny as she headed off to college. She had a difficult time with the idea of bad and good luck. She always felt she had bad luck and others had good luck, no matter the amount of work she invested.

She drove herself crazy with the whole idea. She’d even convinced herself that, given her amount of bad luck, she must have lived a previous life having nothing but good luck. It had to have been karma.

Following graduation, Penny struggled to find a job. She felt she just needed a touch of good luck. She drove herself crazier with thoughts that if every decision she made was wrong then the opposite would have to be right.

As you may have guessed, Penny became increasingly depressed over the course of a few years. Eventually, her friends and family began to suggest she seek help—therapy. A close friend of hers—who suffered from depression herself—begged Penny to seek help. In fact, her friend had suggested the same therapist she saw, Dr. Feelgood.

Penny couldn’t bring herself to pick up the phone and make the initial appointment, because the whole idea of therapy scared her. She kept thinking, there’s nothing wrong with me, I just need a bit of luck.

Penny’s friend finally dragged her to one of her sessions and together her friend and Dr. Feelgood convinced Penny to make an appointment. Following that initial consult, Penny returned a couple of more times, but she was becoming frustrated and closed off. She indicated that she wasn’t interested in further sessions, but Dr. Feelgood convinced her to return one more time. Penny obliged and returned the following week.

“Good morning, Penny,” Dr. Feelgood greeted Penny in the lobby.

“Hello, how are you?”

“Fine thank you. I’d like to switch things up this week.”

“Yeah, sure.”

They walked down the hallway and entered Dr. Feelgood’s office and stood between the desk and the couch.

“Let’s perform a test,” Dr. Feelgood stated.

“Okay, let’s,” Penny replied anxiously.

Dr. Feelgood removed a quarter from her pocket and presented it in her hand.

“This side is heads, and this side is tails,” as she turned the quarter over.

“Yeah, I know how to play.”

“I’ll toss the quarter in the air, and you call it,” Dr. Feelgood instructed. “We’ll let the quarter fall to the floor, but it must come to rest on the rug, agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Dr. Feelgood tossed the quarter into the air, flipping vigorously as it reached its pinnacle.

Penny yelled out, “Heads.”

The quarter then fell to the floor between them and came to rest.

“It’s tails, what the hell?” Penny exclaimed.

“It’s okay, Penny, it’s only a single toss. It proves nothing. Let’s continue.”

“You’re right, sorry.”

Dr. Feelgood tossed the quarter into the air a second time.

Penny yelled out, “Heads.”

The quarter then fell to the floor between them and came to rest.

“It’s tails, again,” Penny exclaimed.

“Yes, it is. Well, you’re only zero for two. Let’s keep going.”

Well, the third attempt yielded the same result. So, Penny decided to call tails on the fourth try, but the quarter came to rest with heads showing.

Penny sighed and said, “See, I told you I have bad luck.”

“Nonsense,” Dr. Feelgood replied. “We’re not done with our experiment.”

“Okay, but I’m telling you…wait, experiment?”

Dr. Feelgood tossed the quarter into the air again, and again and again with the same result. After the nineteenth toss and nineteenth consecutive incorrect call, Dr. Feelgood began to appreciate Penny’s anxiety.

“Are we done yet?” Penny begged. “I think you’ve proved the point.”

“One more time. Call it.”

Penny began yelling out before Dr. Feelgood tossed the quarter. “Heads, I mean tails. No wait…heads. Tails. Heads…”

The quarter hit the floor and Penny screamed, “Tails.”

“Heads, I knew it,” Penny cried.

“Let’s change it up,” Dr. Feelgood suggested. “Now, you toss the quarter and I’ll call it.”

“Fair enough.”

Penny tossed the quarter into the air and Dr. Feelgood called heads and the quarter landed with heads facing up. They repeated until they reached twenty tosses.

Penny blurted out, “You got ten of twenty. This ‘experiment’ has done nothing but prove my bad luck.”

“I see why you feel that way, but it is possible you get the next twenty correct,” Dr. Feelgood said optimistically.

“It’s also possible that I guess the next twenty incorrectly. Where does it end?”

Penny was visibly upset and Dr. Feelgood suggested they take a short break before continuing and slid the quarter into her pocket. Penny went off to the restroom down the hall and Dr. Feelgood made a fresh pot of coffee, while considering her next move.

Penny returned some ten minutes later and took a seat on the couch. Dr. Feelgood walked over to her and offered a cup of coffee.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. We still have twenty minutes for this session. Shall we continue?”

“I guess,” Penny said reluctantly.

“Great, let’s assume our positions on the rug.”

Dr. Feelgood had noted that Penny had made a call of heads seventy-five percent of the time in the first experiment, so she felt Penny’s ‘luck’ had to change. She pulled a quarter from her pocket and tossed it in the air.

True to form, Penny yelled out, “Heads.”

“Heads it is. See, you got one correct,” Dr. Feelgood encouraged.

Dr. Feelgood tossed it again.

“Heads.”

“Heads it is. Let’s keep going.”

“Heads.”

“Heads it is. That’s three in a row.”

On the fourth toss, Penny called tails and the quarter landed heads up.

“Dang,” Penny exclaimed.

“That’s still three of four,” Dr. Feelgood encouraged.

They continued to twenty and by the end Penny had gotten fifteen correct.

“That’s seventy-five percent, Penny. See, your luck is beginning to change.”

Penny smiled, “Perhaps, yes.”

Dr. Feelgood had to be careful not to go too far with the experiment and tipping Penny off, so she ended the experiment. Penny hadn’t figured out she’d been tricked, but she had gained hope and that was the most important thing.

Penny thanked Dr. Feelgood and reached out her hand. Dr. Feelgood shoved her ‘lucky’ double-headed quarter into her pocket—which she carried with her always—and shook Penny’s hand.

They had several more sessions, excluding coin flipping, before Dr. Feelgood decided Penny didn’t require further therapy. Penny’s outlook had changed, and she carried on with her life never again thinking of bad luck or luck at all for that matter.

Penny occasionally shared her story with friends and family, but years later, a friend of hers had caught onto the fact that the quarter had landed heads up twenty times in a row to which Penny replied, “Well, wasn’t that lucky.”