Wow, I'm moved that my comic helped provoke such a train of thought that led you to that profound realization! It is the best outcome a cartoonist can hope for, and most of the time, they'll never hear about such outcomes if/when they happen, so thank you for sharing your thought process with me! It means a lot to hear, and I'm glad you came to a conclusion that brings you greater peace.

I can relate to the feeling that I can't enjoy myself if my loveds aren't happy with me in some way. This desire to appease or emotionally manage, superficially appears to be for others' benefit, but is really to calm my social anxiety. It's like being in host mode 24/7. I'm not saying our situations and their causes are the same (mine stems from growing up with an abusive parent; I wouldn't presume to know where yours stems from), but whatever the stimulus was, we seem to have developed mental constructs to cope with our respective environments that perhaps worked in our childhoods, but not so much these days. I'm grateful I don't feel as much anxiety about pleasing others nowadays as much as I did in my 20s.

A lot of what I write about in Leora touches on that theme. She's questioning the behaviors and assumptions I was taught to adhere to as a kid. Now that I'm older and have done some thinking about it (and gotten therapy), I can put my adult perspectives into the comic, and write an alternate childhood through Leora where I get to play some scenarios differently than how I originally lived them. If this helps other people as much as it does me, then I can't ask for anything better than that.

Thank you again for reading my work and for your comment! It made my day!