I feel guilty for needing less from people and more from silence

Dear Delyara, There are days when I want fewer people and more quiet. And somehow that still feels like a failing. I know it shouldn’t. I know energy is real and limits are normal and solitude is sometimes care. But guilt still enters first, as if needing less contact means I am becoming colder, harder, more selfish, less loving. It is such a cruel interpretation of something so human. I wish my nervous system trusted withdrawal as restoration instead of betrayal. It still doesn’t, not fully.