I've reached for things I'm not proud of. So none of this comes from above anyone.
What worries me isn't people. It's the machine that keeps telling all of us we aren't enough yet.
Thinner. Sharper. Younger. Fixed. There is always a newer version of you for sale, and always a reason the current one falls short.
It never stops, because the pressure was never built to be satisfied. It's built to keep you buying. Keep you chasing. Keep you sure you're almost enough, but not quite.
And the real cost isn't vanity. It's people quietly deciding they'll be worth it once they've changed enough. That day never arrives. The line just moves.
I don't have a clean answer. I've fallen for it too.
But I'm certain of one thing. The pressure is the problem. Not the person trying to survive it.
You were never the thing that needed fixing.
The standard was.