Quote Originally Posted by CILi View Post
Your quote above reminds me a lot of the quote below, a description of the DCNH (D)ominant subtype.
I'm not sure if I always have a hard time acting "not like myself." That used to be a big problem for me, and now it's less of an issue. BUT if people tell me they are my "family," and my life is set up in such a way that I have limited access to my own actual blood family (it was), it feels pretty crappy to know that I am pretending all the time. I also had moved to a small town in my ex's home state, where I felt out of sync with people owing to a preference for cities and coming from a different region with different interpersonal values.

It was the same thing with my ex's job. He had a public image to maintain, and I was part of that. So within the marriage, within my social sphere, and with his family ... in all those environments I was faced with reining in my wackiness and behaving in a somber fashion. It was exhausting.