Everyone goes through periods of feeling this way – but there’s a unique flavor to it when we’re sensitive. Because we feel more deeply than most people do, we tend to respond to feeling lost or stuck in one of two ways:

1. We withdraw. It’s all too easy for us to get caught up in a cycle where our lack of clarity leads to anxiety and overwhelm, which gets worse when we’re out in the hubbub of the world. So, we curl inward. We give less than our best at work. We make up excuses not to go out. We avoid connection, even with the people we love the most.

We tell ourselves that this physical and emotional withdraw is something we need (we’re introverts, after all). But deep down, we know the truth: we’re hiding. We’re shrinking away from our lives, our loved ones, and our potential, because it’s too scary to face the vulnerability of feeling like we’re lost at sea.

2. We pretend. Having been taught that our sensitivity is a liability, we decided long ago that in order to survive, we must lock that part of ourselves deep inside, put on a mask and full-body armor, and charge full-speed-ahead into a life of pretending to be someone we’re not.

While it might look like we’re happy and successful on the outside, the truth is that all this pretending is eating us up inside. In fact, we can hardly stand it anymore. We yearn to break free from our self-created cages and be who we authentically are in the world, but we’ve spent so long faking it that we have no idea where to start. So, we don’t start. Instead, we double-down on our pseudo-selves. Self-betrayal may not feel good, but at least we know what to expect.