There is a concept often discussed in neurodivergent communities called the “favorite person.”
Unfortunately, the conversation usually revolves around attachment, obsession, dependency, or romantic relationships. While those topics can certainly be relevant, I rarely see people discussing what a favorite person actually feels like from the inside.
For me, a favorite person was never simply someone I loved.
They were someone my nervous system trusted.
Since I was born, I have always had a favorite person. As a child, it was my mother. During childhood and adolescence, I tried to find that sense of safety in friendships. Those connections came and went. Later, in my teenage years and adulthood, romantic partners naturally filled that role.
But looking back, I realize I was never searching for romance.
I was searching for regulation. I was searching for the feeling that someone existed in the world who made everything feel manageable.
Someone whose presence lowered the volume of life. Someone who made the world feel predictable. Someone who felt like home.
For neurodivergent people, daily life can be incredibly stimulating, unpredictable, and exhausting. We spend enormous amounts of energy processing information, navigating social expectations, managing sensory input, and adapting to environments that are not always designed with us in mind.
A favorite person can become the one place where the nervous system finally stops bracing for impact.
When that person is present, the world feels easier. Not perfect. Not effortless. Just easier.
This is why losing a favorite person can be so devastating.
The pain is not always about heartbreak.
Sometimes it is about losing the person who helped your nervous system find its way back to safety.
The most significant favorite person in my life was my last romance. Years later, despite no longer being in contact, he remains my favorite person.
That statement often confuses people.
They assume it means I am still romantically attached, still waiting, still unable to move on.
But that is not what I mean.
My favorite person remains my favorite person because my nervous system still recognizes him as the safest person it has ever known.
That does not mean I need him in my daily life. It does not mean I cannot function without him. It does not mean I am incapable of building other meaningful relationships.
What changed was not who he was to me. What changed was what I learned to do for myself.
After losing access to my favorite person, I faced one of the most difficult challenges of my life: learning how to regulate my nervous system without relying on a safe person to do it for me.
There was no replacement. No new favorite person. No magical solution.
There was only the uncomfortable process of building safety from within.
I had to learn how to comfort myself during emotional storms. I had to learn how to make decisions without seeking reassurance. I had to learn how to sit with uncertainty. I had to learn how to create routines, environments, and habits that provided stability even when nobody was there to offer it.
And perhaps most importantly, I had to learn that safety could exist without constant access to the person who once represented it.
I went through loss, injuries, new ways of understanding life, victories, moments of happiness, and moments that changed me. Every single time, he was instinctively the first person I wanted to tell. The first person I wanted to share everything with. And I had to learn how to survive without sharing.
To an outsider, that might sound small or insignificant. But when you’re living it, the urge to reach for your favorite person can feel overwhelming. You see something beautiful, achieve something you’ve worked hard for, get hurt, discover something that changes your perspective, and your first instinct is still them. The difficult part is knowing that the person you want to tell may no longer be part of your life, may no longer know who you’ve become, and may have long since forgotten you exist. Yet the urge to share remains, as strong and automatic as ever.
That process was not quick. It was not graceful. And it certainly was not linear. But over time, something shifted.
I stopped needing my favorite person in order to feel okay.
The emotion remained. The need did not.
I think this distinction is important because many neurodivergent people are taught that healing means no longer caring.
That recovery means becoming completely detached. That growth means replacing one favorite person with another.
My experience has been different.
Healing did not erase the importance of my favorite person. Healing meant learning how to carry my own nervous system through life.
The goal was never to stop loving someone.
The goal was never to convince myself they were unimportant. The goal was never to replace them. The goal was to stop requiring their presence in order to feel safe.
If you are neurodivergent and struggling with the loss or absence of a favorite person, I want you to know that there is a path forward.
It may not involve forgetting them. It may not involve finding someone new. It may simply involve learning how to become a safe place for yourself.
And while that journey can be incredibly difficult, it is also one of the most powerful forms of growth a person can experience.
Because there comes a day when you realize that the person who once held your nervous system together is no longer carrying it.
You are. And despite everything, you survived, and you came out of it stronger and independent.
And you are your favorite person now. Independent. Sovereign. And I think it’s worth it.