Explaining polyamory, like,

It's like, we need oxygen, food, and water to survive, right? Imagine you meet someone who is water. You get plenty of water. All your water needs are abundantly met. But you're still dying because you're drowning and malnourished. You meet someone who is oxygen and you can breathe! Your water needs are abundantly met and now you are bathed in oxygen as well. You're getting PLENTY of water and oxygen. But you're still dying because you're malnourished. Then you meet someone who is food. And suddenly, you are thriving. You have water, you have oxygen, and you have food. You have it all in abundance. And you NEED all of it. Water feels awful, though, because water WANTS to meet all your needs, and definitely does meet all your WATER needs, but you can't expect water to fulfill your need for oxygen and food. That's completely illogical and deadly thinking. But all water sees is "I am not enough". But if you lose water, you'll die of dehydration even if you still have food and oxygen. You can limp along for a while without it but you NEED water to survive. But if all you have is water... the water will end up killing you. This is the best analogy I can come up with to explain how it feels to need more than one partner and how trying to be monogamous feels so awful to a polyamorous person.