I'm very closed too. It's quite hard to get out of it. As I am striving to find some people whom I can call friends, I have realized that since my problems with depressin are such a relevant part of my personality (an awful idea, yet a truth), the only ones who can really know me are those who share the same or similar problems. Other ones may be so kind and caring to try to understand, but there is no way. My mother doesn't understand mood disorders (she is too practical). And so we have become just like people living together. The blood link is irrelevant when mental illness traces the boundary.
Awful, yet true

UH, and of course the pets! They are just perfect