The Neglect Cage

Metaphorical Narrative

As a child, someone ignored your needs. They didn’t say it out loud, but the silence wrote a sentence: “You aren’t worth care.”

That sentence hardened into bars. You grew up inside the Neglect Cage.

But a cage made of lies cannot hold you once the lie is exposed.

Core Insight

Neglect implants false beliefs about worth. You don’t fix neglect by overperforming. You erase it by naming the lie and rejecting its standard.

Saturday Experiment

1. Recall one moment today where neglect’s echo appeared.
2. Write: “I am worth care.”
3. Act kindly toward yourself once today.

Sunday Reflection

• What echoes of neglect surfaced?
• Did they catch themselves reinforcing the lie?
• How did self-kindness feel as erasure?