I have a top panel that normally autohides. Today I decided to add a drawer
to this panel. When I moused back into the panel (not into the drawer, but
another part of the panel) after creating the drawer, the drawer popped out
automatically. 

However, when I moused out without choosing to launch an item within the
drawer, the drawer remained out and the panel refused to autohide.
Launching either no items or an item not in the drawer caused this behavior.

If I closed the drawer manually before leaving, the panel would autohide. 

This behavior is counterintuitive since I didn't choose to open the drawer;
it seems to default to popping out automatically like that.

I was unable to correct this behavior by editing any settings in the
configuration editor which would seem to be related (e.g. autohide status
and values). I did accidentally evoke some very strange behavior with the
drawer flying off to attach to the left side of the screen, but the major
problem is as stated.