Up until I was about 10, I slept in a double bed with my older sister -12.... about at 8 years old, i became frantic is the word - crying, and such... (we worn nighties made by our Grandma)

"I didn't want any piece or part of her skin touching mine"
This nightly battle went on for a couple of years.. My sister did not abuse me...

I would wake up sometimes on the thread of the stairs... I felt safe in the stairwell...

T said "perhaps it was because there was no clear cut boundaries in my home"

I just want to know if I was the only person to have a weird skin adversion....there weren't hugs or anything at my house so ...I don't know... I just remember the nightly crying....

Clearly, I don't know you...but

Ya know...if you were an anxious child, this sorta sounds a bit like an OCD-ish reaction to stress. Lots of anxious kids of bouts of OCD which pass as they grow up.

em

i think that your therapist might be onto something with his suggestion of it being a boundary thing.

as we grow up we need our own space so we can develop our own individual identity.

skin touching skin can feel very intimate.

when desired it can feel wonderful. when undesired it can feel invasive.

it could have been about fear of merger. fear that you didn't have a self, your own identity. you didn't have your own space. that when she touched you somehow you dissolved into her. that you didn't have your own existence at all.

I was both a very scared little girl all the time and anxious and had OCD..

and WOW....

my sister so dominated my personality, it was like I had none of my own... there were no boundaries...

Thank you both!!!!!