Jun 28
It’s not just about being liked.
It’s not just about being treated kindly.
It’s about the haunting silence that says:
“Even if I’m here, I don’t know if it matters.”
“Even if they love me, I don’t know if I can let it in.”
“Even when someone shows me care I feel like a burden for receiving it.”
“I feel like I should leave before they realize I don’t belong.”
And that… that is what happens to people who were never loved in a way that felt safe. It’s not that no one ever cared. It’s that you were never given permission to trust that care. And so you built this quiet survival rule inside yourself:
“Don’t expect love to stay. Don’t lean too ******* being wanted. Just be good, be funny, be useful and maybe that’ll be enough.”
But it’s never enough, is it?
Because all you really wanted maybe all you still want—is to feel like your presence means something. Not because you earned it. But because you are you.
It’s not just about being treated kindly.
It’s about the haunting silence that says:
“Even if I’m here, I don’t know if it matters.”
“Even if they love me, I don’t know if I can let it in.”
“Even when someone shows me care I feel like a burden for receiving it.”
“I feel like I should leave before they realize I don’t belong.”
And that… that is what happens to people who were never loved in a way that felt safe. It’s not that no one ever cared. It’s that you were never given permission to trust that care. And so you built this quiet survival rule inside yourself:
“Don’t expect love to stay. Don’t lean too ******* being wanted. Just be good, be funny, be useful and maybe that’ll be enough.”
But it’s never enough, is it?
Because all you really wanted maybe all you still want—is to feel like your presence means something. Not because you earned it. But because you are you.
