Perna...practicing good scenarios is a wonderful suggestion. I'd love to be able to do this and greatly admire my friends who are both optimistic and realistic. I guess that I could just try to do this initially as an exercise and see if it becomes more of a learned behavior. It's very hard though...I always worry that thinking on the positive side of things means that I won't catch real danger signs (i.e., "ignorance is bliss"). Unfortunately, in my childhood, I did catch the danger signs before my mother did with regard to my father's affair and she blew me off (at least externally) saying that I had a really interesting imagination...so, I'm not totally sure of my instincts on certain things

Either way though, a more optimistic attitude is called for...right now, rather than experiencing pain just once (when a negative incident actually happens), I actually experience it tenfold (each time I imagine it)...and, I know that's no real way to live!