It was “miles” just to get from the house to the sidewalk. And who knew was hiding in the bushes along the way.

The loud voices might not have been aimed at you but you didn’t know that then. The whole world seemed to revolve around you so, of course, they were yelling at you. Any raising of voices now makes you cringe, thinking someone is mad at you. You did something wrong.

You were told not to trust people. Now someone is being nice to you. You wonder why? What is it that they want from you?

What other thoughts, feelings and behaviors of yours can you see have come from your past? Once you can identify the source, there’s a way to correct that. It takes some work and I recommend IFS (internal family systems) as it’s the easiest way I’ve found. But there are other ways for you to respond in the present, not the past.