on Writers Helping Writers:

Life can be painful, especially for our characters. In fact, the fallout of an emotionally wounding event such as a car accident, failing to save someone’s life, infertility, or being sent away as a child can derail their life for years (or even decades!) if left unresolved. Not only that, it can change the character’s personality, damage their relationships, and seed their life with dysfunction and unfulfillment.

This is why at the start of a story the protagonist is usually dissatisfied, lost, unhappy, or yearning for something more. They are experiencing something called an unmet need.

Unmet needs are created because emotional wounds generate a FEAR of being hurt again (which can manifest in many ways).

The result? The character holds back in life. They settle. They avoid things that can lead to their happiness because being hurt again is too big of a risk.