In Need

I don't like the word needy. I much prefer the word crazy to needy.  Crazy can have many meanings, and not all of them are negative.  Sometimes crazy can be a compliment.  At least that's how I interpret it when I'm feeling good about myself.  Neediness, on the other hand, is never a compliment.

I admit I am sensitive to the word because I have been accused of being too needy, too demanding.  I have tried to correct for this, but I don't know how to distinguish my unreasonable demands from my needs. 

I've tried to deal with it by giving my partner the benefit of the doubt.  If he couldn't give me what I needed, then perhaps it was a demand that I mistook for a need.  How important is meaningful conversation anyway, really?  How much contact is actually necessary for the survival of the relationship? 

This approach hasn't gotten me very far.  I seem to have overshot my mark.  My therapist tells me that I cannot disavow my needs in order to make my relationships work.  Sounds good to me.  But how do you separate the needs that are necessary for survival from the ones that make people accuse you of being needy? 

Let's say that you came across a boy who you met in the woods while hiking one day, like the wild boy of Aveyron.  You feel bad for him so you invite him over for dinner.  But he's really hungry, so he eats all the food in your house and still wants more.  Obviously, you wouldn't blame the kid for this.  You wouldn't accuse him of being too hungry, because it's not his fault he was abandoned in the woods to fend for himself. 

Psychological needs are no different.  Neediness is the product of prolonged emotional starvation.  You may not be able to give the person what they need to feel satisfied, but that's not their fault.  It's not yours, either.

But it feels like it should be someone's fault, doesn't it?  Someone should take the blame!

I prefer to reframe a needy person as someone who is in need.  Perhaps their needs are so great that I can't help them.  That's OK; I don't have to be able to help everyone--although I do still try. 

I am trying to think of myself as someone in need, too.  I am just learning what these needs are, because I've spent my life focusing on other people.  There are a lot of them, and they have gone unfulfilled for a long time.  I'm not blaming anyone for this, but I'm trying not to blame myself, either. 

I'm just trying to make my way out of the woods.