Much like anything else, having that strong foundation of physical, emotional, and spiritual health within yourself is going to make adding outside relationships much easier.

It's not like you have to be anywhere near perfect; you just needs to know your strengths and limitations. Having a personal handicap in common with someone can be a bond, or having complementary quirks can sometimes strengthen things for both of you if you are healthy about it. Like someone that knows they spend too much but has poor impulse control and someone that is too restrictive and needs some to say it's ok to reward yourself occasionally.

We all just want happiness, and we think getting a girl, a fancy house/car, a pet, a child, whatever it is will fill that hole inside. But the problem is within, and that is where the solution needs to come from.

When you rely on someone outside to complete you, you end up being that person that's drowning, and your struggle ends up taking your would-be rescuer down with you instead. Other people don't deserve suffering to try to fix you. Some may try, but that is seldom very successful, and you'll often just hurt those you care about. I've lost many friends and girlfriends that way.

I think it's important to talk about these things, especially with other men. I grew up around selfish parents and never got to spend much time with people my own age, learning how to interact, and looking out only for me was a survival instinct. I felt it was weak to rely on others, to get help, to feel sad, etc. It was all really self destructive things, and I still have to fight constantly with myself trying to break free of it and enjoy my life. It makes it therapeutic to talk about it whenever it comes up, because it shows me in a good way my situation wasn't unique and others are in the same position. We can help each other get through it, and I'm not the type to pull the ladder up behind me and leave you to your own fate.

As I said, I will never shake all the shitty things inside to people I cared about, and I can't fix most of those broken bonds of trust, but I can talk myself through my emotional scars with you all, and hopefully help you do less damage to yourselves. Trying to prevent some of this from repeating to someone else is about the only way to make up to myself for things I've done.