A pressure cooker makes tough things tender. Hard times don’t have to make you hard.

Pressure and heat change whatever they are applied to, and the direction of that change is not fixed. The same conditions can soften a person or harden them, depending largely on what they do with the experience and who is nearby while it happens. Difficulty does not automatically produce bitterness. Assuming that it does is what makes it likely.

Decide what you want this period to leave you with, since that choice is more available than it feels. Stay in contact with people who are gentle. Watch for the moment you start treating everyone as a threat, and question it then.