Needing to be needed is a trap disguised as kindness. You end up keeping people broken so you stay useful.

The wish to matter is ordinary, and it can quietly organize the way you help. When your place in somebody’s life depends on them struggling, some part of you will resist their getting better without ever saying so. None of that makes you a bad person; it makes the arrangement worth seeing clearly.

Ask what you would be to the people around you if none of them needed rescuing. If the answer feels thin, that is the thing to work on rather than the helping. Build one part of your life where you are wanted rather than required.