Dear Andrea Brayton:

The phone conversation you described went very well, pleasant, polite. The fear following the conversation is probably an old experience activated and re-experienced.

In my case, I feared people harming me for no apparent reason, trying to hurt me, punish me. What was activated (and re-experienced) in my case was my experience with my mother: often enough, out of nowhere, she attacked me. I didn’t know when it was coming or why, where or how. I tried to predict it best I could, but failed.

I was never safe. So even something nice and pleasant felt threatening to me, because… I didn’t know when or why… or where or how.

anita