I was accused of being a people-pleaser once, but that’s actually too mild a description of my internal dialog. My internal dialog is more a persistent, pervasive terror that people will hate me despite any objective evidence. Which is a problem, for example, when the person you’re partnered with needs their space.

I’ve gotten better at self-regulating and reflecting, but still, when I came across this quote in my feed, it was a bit on the nose:

“Straight men believe that they are competing with the top 10% of other men for women’s affection, but really what they’re competing with is the peace that women feel in solitude.”

Or as Oscar Wilde might have said:

You deprive me of solitude without affording me company

Maybe it’s just a variation of the man-versus-bear thought experiment?