I still become the old version of me there

Dear Delyara, No matter how much progress I make elsewhere, family can still pull older versions of me to the surface very quickly. More careful. More apologetic. More tuned to tone than content. More aware of what might cause friction. Less spontaneous. Less fully adult inside myself, even when the practical reality says I am. That regression is subtle, but it is real. And exhausting. I think family doesn’t just know your history. It activates it.