As a child, Steph was “screaming ouch” at the top of her lungs. It was sometimes referred to as drama. Her son Jonah grew up expecting that people would show up for him. In this episode, Steph and Jonah ask how two generations of the same family learned such different things about trust. Jonah starts with Erik Erikson’s model of childhood development from his psychology class, then brings the question home: what happens when a child’s needs are, ignored, or mistaken for bad behavior? Steph grew up amid her mother’s severe mental illness, learning to pretend she needed nothing, and trying to give other people the care she did not know to ask for herself. She can now clearly name the shame and distrust that became her defaults. Years of therapy have helped her respond to them differently, but old wounds are still painful. Jonah’s childhood offers another side of that family story. With Steph and his father’s care, he learned to know his worth and to assume there might be a reason when someone lets him down. He has had to learn that people will not always show up—and that being able to handle a problem alone does not mean he should have to. Their conversation widens beyond what any one parent can provide. Severe illness, money, work, and community support all shape what care is possible. They also challenge the reflex to dismiss a need because someone else “has it worse.” By the end, even the boy who cried wolf sounds different: instead of asking whether he deserved to be believed, Jonah asks why nobody stopped to find out what made him cry out in the first place. Episode 14 of The Good Love with Steph & Jonah includes discussion of childhood neglect and severe mental illness. The Good Love with Steph & Jonah is hosted by Steph Campbell and her son, Jonah Swotes.