What it felt like to them is different, and while we never know what is in another person's head, from what I have heard from therapists and also those who have come through it, is that they felt trapped, constrained, a failure, that their life was over without them having lived it, and so on. When they disengaged they were fleeing for their life, or that is how it felt.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Yup, Bea. You've captured the essence of the MLCer mind quite well. That was me right there.
