Now this, this was something that Ted was capable of talking to Simon about in real terms. Talking to people before and after you had money and status and whatever else. It sounded a little eerily familiar, even if the cause of the change hadn't been the same.
"It sounds like you put a lot of stake in those things. You built yourself up by them. They were what made you, you." Ted nodded. "I had a similar deal. I had a great family, I had a lot of money, a lot of status in the world because of my job and that money. Then I lost it all. I became a different person."
Ted was not going to add in that bit about prison. He didn't recall if he'd told the doctor about it when he'd been in the hospital, but he didn't want to bring it up again if he had. Or inform the guy of it if he hadn't. He just wasn't comfortable about that subject.
"I'm a different guy now. Not the same around anyone. This nervousness with females? I was never like that. I wasn't a quiet and shy guy. The Ted that I was and the Ted you see right now? You would never recognize one for the other."
He felt a little like a mentor at the moment. The elder leading the younger. Though, he did honestly hope that Simon wasn't that much younger. Or he'd feel silly.
"I have a friend named Charlie who's into all kinds of Zen stuff. I'm not really, I don't understand it mostly. But he's kinda helped me to see that I am who I am no matter what I have surrounding me. I take it to mean that I was this Ted before, but I used the money and the women to pretend that I wasn't."