I recently realized that I'd been adopting certain values purely to fit in with the people I was living around -- part of my "chameleon" strategy for coping socially in my pre-identification years. Now I'm going through my values and trying to decide what I do and don't truly believe in. It's not always easy when you factor in the impact of "survival mode" and trauma making certain ideas "stick", even when you don't truly believe in them. Has anyone here ever experienced anything similar?

Share questions:

• Have you ever adopted a value (consciously or unconsciously) for the sake of masking or fitting in, or just "being a normal person"? What was it? 
• How did you realize that it wasn't your true value? 
• Did the experience help you get closer to your real values? How? 
• Did feeling unsafe ever keep you from relinquishing values that you would have otherwise rejected? Similarly, did feeling safe ever allow you to give up values that weren't yours? 
• If you ever acted on a value that wasn't truly yours, were you able to make amends or get closure another way? Please describe.
• Any tools, strategies, or resources that helped you with this topic? 
• Anything else to share?