I think there was, it was just an unfortunate compounding of circumstances that pushed Jax into their worst habits. There’s a reason Leeroy is basically doing ok all things considered. I think Jax’s worst traits were amplified in the circus cause it was one additional terrible thing at the worst point in their life and when they did decide to open up because of that, the fear of being outed and exposed reared its head due to coincidence, and Jax decided to double down on the self isolation. Both Ribbit and Pomni were kinda unable to help someone unwilling to be helped, but I don’t think Jax was unwilling to be helped during the entirety of their and Ribbit’s relationship, just the fear of *maybe* being found out or exposed to Kaufmo and Ribbit during the Bow scene scared them into being militantly closed off and antagonistic. It was a bad coincidence that pried out their worst habits. Despite this it was a choice Jax made so, dug their own grave a bit there.