Dear Shannon:

Maybe when you see your father’s face at those times it is a memory being activated, a memory of him lying in your bed, uninvited, when drunk, hugging you and breathing on you.

It is possible that the mere physical contact with your boyfriend triggers the memory of the physical contact with your father and the image of his face appears.

You clearly indicated this experience is uninvited. You dislike it, don’t want it. It is not that you are or have been physically attracted to your father. Therefore, I am thinking that perhaps it is the negative emotional experience you had with your father (not a positive emotional experience, such as a physical attraction) that fuels this uninvited interruption of his image. Is it so?

anita