The Labels No One Said Out Loud

Blog Series - Beyond the Labels, Who Am I

But We Heard Anyway

Some labels are spoken directly.

Others are delivered through silence, sighs, eye rolls, or the way someone withdraws when we show emotion.

Those are the ones that stay the longest.

No one had to say the words for us to understand what they meant.

• Too emotional.

• Dramatic.

• Difficult.

• Attention-seeking.

• Broken.

• Weak.

They were never printed on paper, but somehow they became etched into the way we saw ourselves.

When we cried, when we set boundaries, when we needed reassurance, when we were overwhelmed people didn’t say “You’re too much.”

But their reactions did.

So we adjusted, quietly.

We swallowed feelings before they reached the surface.

We made ourselves agreeable, low-maintenance, easy to handle.

We became experts at not needing anything, at not asking for too much, at apologising for taking up space.

And without realising it, we started repeating the labels to ourselves.