🚫 What it means to have grown up with social stigma
Growing up with social stigma meant your family was treated as "different" or "less than" because of who you were, forcing you to develop a sixth sense for detecting subtle signs of rejection or prejudice that others don't even notice.
You may have learned early that certain places and people weren't welcoming to you, creating an invisible map of where you could go and who you could be safe with. Your survival depended on detecting subtle shifts in tone, micro-expressions, and the things left unsaid. You became a master at reading rooms and people, picking up on undercurrents that others miss entirely, but this constant scanning became exhausting.
You might have learned to hide parts of your identity or change how you speak and act in different settings—wearing different masks for different worlds. To protect yourself, you became expert at spotting fellow outsiders from across the room, gravitating toward people who understand what it's like to live on the social margins. Even in friendly spaces, part of you braces for rejection, never fully trusting that you're truly welcome.