Depression sometimes results from pleasing others at the expense of yourself; by trying to be someone else in order to make others happy; by defining yourself through your actions for others. As a kid, if you felt you were unlovable or unacceptable in some way, you hid those unsavory parts about yourself and doubled-down on the parts that received validation. All that time spent seeking approval from others and trying to make them happy probably led to years of hiding and self-loathing. But you were good at hiding the self-loathing too, putting on a happy face so you wouldn’t be found out.

Refusing to be who someone else wants and choosing to be fully yourself is HARD because you have to love and accept all those disowned parts of yourself. The truth of who you are matters… even if no one else agrees. Let’s say you go on a single date with someone who you’ve decided you really like and then tells you they want a partner of the same religion—no compromise and you’re not that religion. Already thinking about how you might have to sacrifice your own belief on the first date, would keep you from the truth of the situation. What is actually happening here with a complete stranger? Fear of loss and being alone is probably what holds you back, but taking off the clown make-up and letting the real you show up everywhere in your life is the greatest gift you can give yourself.