It can reach into your physical life and destroy you, physically. Once the physical symptoms become manifest, it becomes all the more self-reinforcing. You ar

It can reach into your physical life and destroy you, physically. Once the physical symptoms become manifest, it becomes all the more self-reinforcing. You are all the more adverse to many social contacts, because you can no longer "hide" your state for periods of time while engaging in them. A bad home environment (neighbors from hell) was the start of my isolation. It's probably taken 20 years off my life, based on the state of my health, now. It was a slippery slope -- one of vulnerability. Each additional adverse event eased by the former, and more greatly exacerbating the problem. Early in life, I was forced through an extended set of circumstances where my own experience and needs were expressly discounted and I was coerced to work with and endure others' expectations, at great stress and expense to myself. I had no control. I had no agency. I learned to shut down and "wait things out". I never learned how to advocate for myself -- not in the face of adversity. As an adult, "waiting out" adversity just allowed it to grow, step by step, instance by instance. And the more your life diverges from others', and the older you get while this happens, the more alone you end up.