Feeling Unwanted: how it starts

Feeling unwanted is a wretched state that is all pervasive and never leaves, making it impossible to trust and be open to relationships. But it doesn't just come from nowhere. Feeling unwanted often starts before you are born, when you get messages via your mother's stress hormones that you are making her uncomfortable. After birth, you may get signals that you cry too much, or are too fussy, won't feed or wants to much - that you are a burden and that you are interfering in the marital relationship.

In my book, Ian: From Feeling Unwanted to Wanting to Feel. Trapped by the burden to be perfect, I show you how Ian had felt unwanted all his life and how it damaged his sense of worth, interfering in his marriage and fatherhood. I take you on his journey in therapy to show how he started to feel okay and wanted for the first time - turning his life around.

copyright, Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D. 2022