Kaiden Caudle

“My therapist once told me that all traumatized children, and the adults they become, tend to focus exclusively on the outside world. A kind of hypervigilance, I suppose. We look outward, not inward-scanning the world for danger signs - is it safe or not? We grow up so terrified of incurring anger, for instance, or contempt, that now, as adults, if we glimpse a stifled yawn while talking to someone, a look of boredom or irritation in their eyes, we feel a horrible, frightening disintegration inside - like a frayed fabric being ripped apart - and swiftly redouble our efforts to entertain and please.
The real tragedy is, of course, by always looking outward, by focusing so intently on the other person's experience, we lose touch with our own. It's as if we live our entire life pretending to be ourselves, as impostors impersonating ourselves, rather than feeling this is really me, this is who I am.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Fury

“Fear was a poison that people mistook as protection. Making choices to stay safe could be just as treacherous.”
― Stephanie Garber, Finale

“If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“You cannot pick and choose what parts of her to love.”
― Sarah J. Maas, Heir of Fire