Lonely describes longing for human companionship. Needy means ha-ving significant discomforts. Have you ever felt really lonely and/or needy? Do you know a "high maintenance" person who seems dominated by these traits? Such people may be controlled by a young personality subself who causes these normal feelings. Excessive loneliness and/or neediness may mean that the person is a wounded survivor of a low-nurturance childhood, and has a disabled true Self. Criticizing wounded people for excessive personality traits ("Jenny is just too needy and childish. She needs to grow up!") is undeserved, be-cause they're unaware of their subselves and how to comfort and harmo-nize them. Often the young Lonely / Needy subself is activated by a Shamed Child, Lost Child, Scared Child, and/or a Guilty Child, and their devoted Guardian subselves. These inner kids often don't trust their resident Mana-ger subselves to reliably care for and protect them, so they urge their host person to depend on and expect other people to do that. Lesson 1 in this nonprofit Web site offers practical ways to assess for "false self" wounds, fill the needs of over-active subselves, and grow internal harmony and teamwork under the wise guidance of the resident true Self. |