Some posts on here contain material that supports the proposition that distress signals often attract predators. A particularly good example of this phenomenon can be found in the article that features a predator with a pram.
It is advisable to be very wary of anyone who suddenly appears in our lives when we are in a distressed state.
The predators usually attack in person, but they sometimes sense the distress remotely.
This reminds me of yet another incident of interest; it happened many years ago.
I received an email one evening from someone who was in a bad way. He was tormented by the feeling that he hadn't tried hard enough to persuade someone not to leave him. He was convinced that she would have stayed if he had only managed to get his feelings across to her and begged her desperately not to go.
I disagreed; I said that he was wrong to blame himself. I told him I knew from experience that once someone's mind is made up in such situations there is nothing that can be said or done to change it.
We exchanged a string of messages. I became more and more affected not only by the state that I sensed he was in and the messages that he was sending but also by the distressing memories from the past that I was digging up and giving as examples for his benefit.
Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a new email message. It was from someone I didn't know who had heard on the grapevine about my freelance services and wanted to discuss the possibility of my doing some database work for their company.
All my warning bells went off! The abrupt arrival, uncanny timing and rather peremptory tone of the message gave me some bad feelings about the sender. I felt threatened; I sensed possible trouble ahead!
Although I knew that I might be turning down the chance to earn some much-needed money, I followed my instincts and replied that I was no longer available for such work. I supplied the sender with the name of a company that might be able to help.
I didn't get a response. This speaks for itself!
It is a good thing that, unlike in the case of the person with the pram where I just followed orders like a hypnotised person, my instincts were working and I immediately took defensive action. Perhaps I was able to do the right thing because the attack was remote and my distress was both second hand and caused by raking up old memories as opposed to being the result of a recent incident.
Anyway, my friend brought our email conversation to a close by saying that my examples had finally persuaded him that there was nothing he could have done to change the outcome.
So it all ended quite well for once.
