cahn: (Default)
cahn ([personal profile] cahn) wrote 2019-11-15 06:00 pm (UTC)

Re: Emotional isolation

Hmm, interesting! I'm of course projecting my own experience as well, with one parent who veeeeeery much gave my sister and me the idea we needed to please other people (especially her). A lot. (Our other parent did not do it to as great an extent, but he certainly did not promulgate the idea that we didn't need to please them.)

Me: *learns how to slither out of situations, and worries some about pleasing people until I turn 30 or so (at which point I get too busy to care) but other than that doesn't really get all that good at pleasing people or at bonding*
Sister: *worries about pleasing people to an almost pathological degree and is only starting to hesitantly get over it with years of therapy*

I mean, there is definitely a case to be made that my sister and I had different early childhood experiences; I had a personality that was really unlike Fritz very conflict-adverse and also I was very good at many things my parents valued (academics, music, competitions), which meant I had less conflict with them. And also I'm certain our mom was less stressed out with one child than with two (now having lived that). But on the other hand I think a large part of what seems to have happened with the two of us is that I didn't need parental validation the same way that she did/does.

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