I don't think that my case mirrors yours, and I can think of at least three tangible differences between the most recent situations I've been in that are even close.

Good. I was worried by the "It saddens me to think..." sentence that you were taking it to heart.

Like, when you ignored the e-mail, did you think, "I don't care that much about that stuff, and I'd really rather not deal with all that." then close it and never open it again? (Underlying assumption: do you usually have verbal thought processes? Or even explicit thought processes about these things?)

Yes, I have an inner monologue, and yes, I did have more or less that reaction.