this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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As a guy, I never really felt comfortable saying those things to anyone irl.

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[–] 5too@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I struggle on two fronts with this - I don't want to "burden" others with how I feel, and fairly often I don't know what I feel.

Grew up in the American Midwest as a preacher's kid. My parents are awesome people, but Dad's job meant our family had to seem close to perfect for small town political reasons - we had their support for any kind of crisis, but we had to keep it inside the house so our single limited income wasn't threatened.

Between that and a family full of neurospiciness, it felt like we were always on the edge of catastrophe. I was generally able to get by day to day, so I just kept quiet so we all had room to deal with whatever else needs handled.

So, I think I got in the habit of bottling things until I couldn't even tell what I was feeling, and also developed an aversion to sharing what I could tell was bothering me. I'm open to the idea of sharing things, I just can't often tell what needs shared until it pops out unexpectedly.