The penny drops

Yesterday I was explaining to someone the reasons for my habit of challenging unthinking motivations ..... that is - why do we act the way we do.  I explained how for much of my adult life I have been plagued by fear ... .and I gave the example that until recent times, I could not sleep without hiding under sheets and blanket in bed.  I explained that I reached a point where I rejected my slavery to fear and sought to delve down and examine why I acted the way I did.  If the reason was fear ... then I rejected that fear and decided on a rational action.

..... however, in that example of hiding under the bed-covers, I had never connected the fear with the cause of the fear .... why did the fear exist? 

As I explained, the penny dropped!  When I was a boy and the bullying was going on at the hostel,  I would burrow down into the bed and try to protect myself by being deep in the bed.  It never worked ... but habits die hard .... and the fear remained with me for the next 40 years.