Dear John:

“I was afraid of failure and ending up like my father… I’ve never looked or felt more like my father. We both have ADHD and are very similar in some fundamental ways.. I feel like the spitting image of my father”.

“I really want to make a comeback. I want to fulfill my dream of getting into a good graduate school, of finding a job I like, and of living a worthy life that I feel I deserve“-

– All young children feel empathy for their parents, more for one of the two than for the other. It may be that you felt greater empathy for your father, and feeling that way, you didn’t and don’t feel that you deserve a better life than his.

When a child grows up with an unhappy parent, the child may feel that he can’t be happy unless his parent is happy first. Can this be true in your case?

anita