A Kentucky man with an anxiety disorder asked his employer not to throw him a birthday party. When they did it anyway—and he had a panic attack—Kevin Berling got fired for being “angry.” Berling ended up suing the medical testing firm Gravity Diagnostics after being unceremoniously let go for “stealing his co-workers’ joy,” according to his lawyer, and was ultimately awarded $450,000 this week by a Kenton County court for “past, present and future mental pain and suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, mortification and loss of self-esteem.” Attorney Tony Bucher told the outlet that Berling is “doing well but suffered from more attacks after the incident and is still in therapy.” “This may sound cliche to say that the money was really secondary in this thing,” he said. “It was a big step for someone who doesn’t like that kind of attention to stand up in front of 12 jurors and stand up for himself.” Gravity Diagnostics, which plans to appeal, has said it stands by the decision to terminate Berling
