Part 3/5:
The overriding emotional experience for this person as a girl was a persistent concern: How do I keep my friends from seeing the inside of my home? This anxiety stemmed from the belief that their living environment was shameful or frightening. The home environment was not a sanctuary but a source of anxiety because it revealed a reality they desperately wanted to hide.
The imagery of a cluttered and chaotic home underscores this distress. For instance, a specific memory involves a back door, the usual entry point, which was lined with dozen packs of soda stacked precariously on the stairs. The soda, potentially frozen and burst open, created a sticky, dripping hazard that had been ignored, leaving Coca-Cola stains and an unsettling sight for anyone approaching the house.