Susan Forward, author of Emotional Blackmail, talks about the “blinding FOG—Fear, Obligation, and Guilt”—that characterizes most “toxic tie” relationships. Unbridled fears that we are unlovable, that we will never find anyone to really love us, or that we will be abandoned, and therefore annihilated, by someone we desperately need, top the list of anxieties that can entice us into giving away more and more of our personal power. Often, due to an undeveloped ability to set healthy emotional boundaries, we will feel overly responsible for another’s feelings, and allow an inappropriate sense of
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