I leave family conversations carrying more than I brought in

Dear Delyara, Even when nothing openly bad happens, I often leave family interactions with more emotional weight than I entered with. I think that’s because family conversations are never just about what is being said in the present. They are full of old roles, unfinished tensions, familiar assumptions, tiny defensivenesses, and the pressure of history sitting in the room whether anyone names it or not. Love is there. So is effort. So is fatigue. I don’t think people outside a family system understand how tiring that combination can be.