this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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Mental Health

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Before everything, why do I not go to a therapist? Money. I want to though.

I observed that whenever I get to like someone, I am beginning to copy their traits. This happens with anyone, friends, lover or even a random youtuber. I believe it is affecting me at the core, making it harder to tell myself who I really am.

The first occurrence of this is when I told my mom in 2nd grade that I wanted to be “cool” like the other classmates. It was something small at the time and no one questioned why was that.

This evolved over time, slowly. I’ve learnt things I see others I liked did. I wouldn’t have learnt because I found curiosity in the specific object, I learnt because they did it.

Years later, in high school I found myself with a best friend. Subconsciously I began copying his traits, way of speaking, mannerisms, even clothing style. It’s like I was a copy of him. I was blending with him.

Then we had a fight and friendship ended. I was devastated, I did not know who I was anymore. I spent a large amount of time alone, dwelling into spirituality and meditation.

A year later, I get into a relationship. It started alright, until one triggering experience. She went into a trip with her friends. Irrationally enough, even if I was invited but didn’t want to go, I felt fear of abandonment. That triggered a part of me which made me develop a severe anxious attachment towards the other person. I started checking up on her 24/7, talk with her 24/7. I wanted for us to “become 1”.

This was too demanding for her and we broke up. I was devastated again. It felt like a part of me was tore apart.

Now, 2 years later, I’m observing a pattern.

There’s clearly a fear of abandonment, which may came from multiple sources, I’ll shortly brief some here

spoilerEmotionally neglected by both parents. Bullied by my uncle at age 5, would get physically and emotionally abused for no reason, bullied in high school for my looks: beaten up, etc.

As lost as I am, I think there’s some signs of BPD. I read some posts and I relate to them.

Thanks for reading.

I feel dumb writing this, my mom would tell me to quit thinking like this ;-;

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[–] RiderExMachina@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

This is pretty common for people on the Autistic spectrum. We don't get the guide on how to properly act around people, so we mask by emulating the people we like and want to relate to.

I'm not a doctor or a therapist, but I wouldn't worry too much about the social chameleon thing unless it's actively causing rifts in your friendships. Instead, it sounds like you need to work on your willingness to look for and respect other people's boundaries so as not to appear clingy. I do want to recognize that doing that will be much harder than just speaking it aloud–it's something I'm working on myself–but it sounds like you've already kind of come to that conclusion yourself already.