Status Updates From Running on Empty: Overcome ...

Webb noticed that the words emotion and neglect often appear in scientific literature together, but in the form of “emotional abuse and neglect,” an emotional act of commission and a physical act of omission. She chose to study emotional neglect, an emotional act of omission.

She likens an adult who was emotionally neglected to a dry sponge, unable to take anything in or let anything out.

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Apparently psychology has a word for a trait I’ve spent decades cultivating: counterdependence.

Signs you too might be counterdependent:

You think nobody should need anything. Food, water, other people: embarrassing, all of it.

You’re reluctant to seek help the way other people are reluctant to touch a hot stove.

Your brain when someone gets vulnerable: “Error 404: Empathy not found. Detach immediately.”