I still feel guilty for wanting less contact when I’m overwhelmed

Dear Delyara, As if needing quiet means I love people less. As if reducing access to me means I am becoming selfish or cold. I know that isn’t true logically. Emotionally, the guilt still arrives. It is so old and so automatic that some days it feels like part of the structure of being me. I’m trying to learn that boundaries are not proof of reduced love. Some days I believe that more than others.