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Original plate · 01 of 07 · Artwork preserved
✦ A field note on energy vampire
Energy Vampire
Appears ordinary. Leaves you empty.
Harvests your attention, emotional bandwidth, and critical thinking while treating your availability as endlessly renewable.
Recognize
- You leave the exchange carrying more than you arrived with.
- Contact mainly arrives with a need for reassurance, analysis, or rescue.
- A limit is repeatedly treated as unkind.
Protect
- Name the time you can offer.
- Leave responsibility with its owner.
- Let caring have a closing time.
WORDS TO TRY“I can listen for ten minutes. I cannot take responsibility for solving this.”
A possible response, not a promise of cooperation. A boundary describes your next action.
✦ An ordinary example
The exchange
A brief check-in repeatedly expands into hours, even after you have said you need to leave.
What repair could look like
Acknowledge the limit, ask whether another time works, and make a plan that does not depend on unlimited access.
✦ The mirror belongs here, too
Did I ask whether the other person had room before I began?
Receiving care, being distressed, or disagreeing with an account does not by itself establish this pattern. Look for the specific agreement, repeated conduct, and the response to a reasonable limit.
Possible Playbook connections
These are examples of overlapping moves, not predictions about a person.