When You Become Someone's Entire Support System

It can feel intimate to become the person someone tells everything.

You are the first call, the only confidant, the emergency contact for every emotional weather event.

At first, being indispensable can resemble closeness.

Eventually it may begin to resemble a job.

No one person can sustainably be partner, therapist, best friend, crisis team, entertainment, motivation, and entire social world for another adult.

Encourage a wider life.

Friends. Family where appropriate. Professional help when needed. Interests that do not require your attendance.

Do the same for yourself.

Interdependence is not emotional abandonment. It is what allows love to breathe without asking one relationship to provide all available oxygen.