Of course! Not just as a saftey thing, but interacting with people not as a possible extension of my own life so to speak really changed my outlook.

It may seems kinda obvious on the surface, but so much of our lifes (at least in my experience) we’re trained to always be looking at people as potential partners and when you do that as a default its almost viewing people through a lens of “what can they do for me” and if they are the puzzle piece you’re looking for. When that happens you don’t really engage with people on a deeper level since you’re not approaching them as complex, complete, independant lifes outside of your own, but rather as a “character in your story”. And when society trains us to be that way it happens subconciously, even when you may not realize it.

It took time, but deprogramming that part of myself has helped me connect with people on so much of a more personal and respectful level. And in turn being able to do that made me someone more worth being around. Which eventually that did lead to my current long term relationship funny enough, and we plan to get married. Though we were friends for around 3 years before we started dating, and that has helped in its own way. Your partner should be your best friend after all, they’re the teammate you choose. So being someone worth being friends with helps a lot.