You're so right about this, critterlady, & it's amazed me for decades how much blind trust the average person walks out with into the world each day. It's when this trust is violated, repeatedly, over time, that we become forced into becoming distrustful, and eventually--perhaps--paranoid people.

If you've become distrustful, you've probably developed ways of keeping people at a distance. Little ways of testing people, to see whether they're worthy. Some of your tests may be things that pretty nearly no one can pass. Just a suggestion: You may want to make sure an average person can pass your tests

The thing is, we so often require a person to earn our trust ... this is not the person who violated and lost our trust but we treat this person--our therapist, for example--as if they have "done us wrong" and must now prove they are worthy.

Once we've had trust issues with anyone, our standards relating to trust seem to escalate for everyone. I don't think it's fair--but I think that's the way it is.

Roadie