tertiary · Isolated

Retreating

Part of the Connection & Loneliness Wheel

What is Retreating?

Pulling back from people by choice or by exhaustion. Sometimes isolation is self-protective.

When you might feel retreating

Retreating is a specific form of withdrawn, which itself is a type of isolated. You might experience this feeling in situations where isolated is present, particularly when the circumstances align with the nuances that define retreating.

Emotional Hierarchy

IsolatedWithdrawnRetreating

Explore Retreating on the Interactive Wheel

Use our free interactive feeling wheel to explore retreating and discover related emotions.

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Related Emotions

Alone

Physically or socially without others. The absence of people around you is real,...

Excluded

Others have connection — you don't. Being on the outside looking in....

Forgotten

You've stopped being in people's thoughts. Out of sight, out of mind — and it hu...

Hiding

Present but concealed. You're around people but not really there....

Avoidant

Connection feels too risky or costly. Keeping distance as a defence....

Outsider

You don't belong to the groups around you. A stranger in the spaces you inhabit....

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