Self-abandonment is the habit of overriding your own needs, feelings, limits and preferences — usually to preserve someone else's comfort or approval — until checking in with yourself stops occurring to you at all. It is people-pleasing's deeper layer: not just saying yes outwardly, but silencing the inner no.
It rarely feels dramatic; it feels like being easy-going. The cost shows up later as resentment, numbness, or the unsettling question "I don't actually know what I want any more." The repair starts embarrassingly small: noticing you have a preference, and saying it out loud.
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