The best thing to do when he shifts things into his emotions is to work from a sheet with facts on it...
I do this at work all the time, people are in a conference room and they all start "he said, she said" and talk in abstracts.
I get up and start writing facts on teh board and everyone shuts up and looks at the board in seconds...
People like to see what they are dealing with, it gives them some comfort and settles their nerves...
I suspect the fact that he's panicking is because he doesn't have a lot of visibility over his lifestyle, particularly finances... I take it he doens't do accounting for a living?
