@roadriverrail I'm not sure what changed. I don't know quite how I rescued the trip after Aerie broke me, because I could feel the spiral starting, and I can't usually stop it at that point. And I don't know what changed in F21, because it completely broke the spiral instead of just stopping it. I'll take it, but I wish I understood it better.
It may be that this was a "new experience" plus "feeling emotional" thing, and that once I could see how it wasn't actually new, that helped.