Feelings of pressure and expectations getting to me, again. Again again. Sometimes i really want a time-out button for this existence; just a day or two, where i can laze in the couch or bed for the ENTIRE GODDAMN DAY and not have anyone bother me and not have it affect me negatively due to all the things that are expected to be done by me. I know studying is important; likewise is it important to not come off as an apathetic couch potato to everyone, but it just feels like everything is running ahead, while i'm struggling to keep up and catch my breath.
Perhaps even worse than this feeling is the feeling that i really have to behave in a specific way to not be rejected by those near me; this specific way being what is tried and true and what worked the first time around. While it is obviously perfectly normal to not behave identically in front of every different group of people you hang around with, i get the feeling that if i suddenly break the mold, bad things will happen. This includes my parents and my brother. Although my brother has the possibly slightly dubious honour of experiencing the closest there is to a true me in person, there are still perceived "dirty secrets" in my mind. As i've undoubtably rambled about before, coming out to my family as a budding artist was a terrifying ordeal to me. My usually goofy personality is obviously quite clear to them, and mom knows that i do have some difficulties from time to time, but... It's just incredibly difficult to put words to this apprehension, this... Fear, that i'm struggling with every day. The fear that if i suddenly turn out to be different than what people were expecting, they'd reject me instantly. I'm fearing this because if it did happen within my close relatives, i'd break down, hard.
But it hasn't happened, and with me being more adult and sensible (a little bit, anyways), i know that if people were to reject me due to such trivialities, they wouldn't be worth hanging around anyways, and objectively speaking it wouldn't be a big deal. Surely, this knowledge conquers the fear? Nope, not by a long shot. This is a DEEP scar, and it's a huge hindrance in my life. I'm afraid to start drawing, i'm afraid to talk to (new) people, i'm afraid to reveal finer details about myself... In general, i'm terrified of rejection, and i'm terrified of putting myself in situations where i could be rejected. I'm also really, really bothered by failing, regardless of whether others see it or not. People always say "FAILURE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN", and i really wish i could live by that mentality, but every time i fail at something i want to do, it feels like post-it note delivered via a punch in the gut. Sure, i have the note saying what went wrong, but i also have the mental connotation of failure resulting in a gut punch, ON TOP OF the fear of rejection. Naturally, as i am fairly cautious, this makes me very reluctant to put myself in situations where that can happen, since i could just stay right here and do nothing and not risk a vast amount of badness when trying to get a bit of goodness. See the classical conditioning at work here? :I
At least all this introspection has made me realize the core issue of many of my problems.