The potential thing has to be one of the most damaging things you can say to someone. Not many things instill quite as much self-doubt.
I’m nearly 24 and recently I realised that the fact I heard that sentence seemingly on loop my entire life is perhaps the most contributing factor in my self doubt and anxiety :) I hate it, I’m trying so hard to unlearn it
I got almost a decade on you, I got diagnosed at the end of 2021, it’s taken years of therapy to unlearn some of those behaviours. Seriously don’t beat yourself up over it
I know I shouldn’t- but you know it’s not something easy. Most of the time it’s subconscious too, so to even have a chance at fighting against it I need to be calm enough to realise my body’s been getting more tense recently, and it’s often a subtle rise