Now that you have an experience of it, I would like to characterize this pattern as I understand it, which requires a short journey up through logical levels.
Level 1
There is a situation X. X is an event in more or less sensory-based, “reality,” what Paul Watzlawick has called “first-order reality.” This is something that everyone can usually pretty much agree on, such as a “job interview,” or a “critical comment.” This level is often called “the environment,” and it is something that often we don't have too much control over. Certain unpleasant events happen to us from time to time, and we don't always have the choice of avoiding them or ignoring them.