You could be around too many depressing situations. Group homes, helping people get their lives going again, your depressed friends. You could be taking in the feelings of these people a little if you are an empath. I don’t know much about psychology, but I do know this same thing happened to me when I was volunteering and only around situations where there was little progress and little hope. I started taking on the emotions of those around me. If this is the case, you can spend more time doing the things you like (or used to like) a little bit each day. Spend time with a few very positive people to help you balance your friends who are having a hard time. Force yourself to do the positive things and work toward a goal for yourself (one that you choose…not a goal that you think you “should” do or somebody wants you to do). What have you always wanted to do? Take a tiny step towards that thing each day. You have to find something that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. It will be slow, but have patience. It will get better if you take these steps.

Okay. This sounds accurate. And I remember a few times where I didn’t want my parents to hurt. Thank you for all of your help and for getting back to me so quickly. I already can breathe better. I will take your advice. One last thing, when I become a parent, should I make sure to hide any pain or suffering from my child so they don’t feel the same way?

I like to help people be healthy because that is a strength of mine. So I taught life skills including health at that rural village. Also with my mom, I would help her with health advice. And my dad…well he had issues with this step-sis for years so he vented to me and I helped him stay positive. I was in high school when I would give the advice.

Thank you so much for this response! Yes, I’m a people pleaser. I want people happy and I don’t want to have ever hurt anybody. I’m getting better with setting boundaries because I’ve seen how people will take advantage of this – leaving me hurt. Our parents let us raise ourselves really. But gave us a lot of love. Yes, I have insecurities too. And they are getting worse because I’m allowing myself to think that if people are bad to me, it’s because I’m a bad person. Instead of KNOWING it is them and their issues. At this point, there won’t be any family therapy because the family is split – nobody wants to work on it aside from me (and now I have given up too because the step-sis has confirmed she doesn’t care). It is up to me now to move forward and refocus my energy to the positive. However, still, the letting go thing is not working for me and I am trying so hard. I am also working on not letting people get me down and just being myself and following my own path.

She isn’t related by blood. My dad’s wife’s daughter. And we were close growing up, but I always tried to avoid conflict. I guess I more have a feeling of jealousy from her behavior or the way she looks at us…so I could be wrong. She doesn’t have any blood sisters or cousins. She is the only child and the only niece in her family. All of the relatives our mine and my sisters. And my sister and I are so close so when I saw her picking on my sister too, I protected my sister. So maybe I’m feeling guilty for giving special treatment to my real sis…but it was because I felt she was innocent. So a lot of what I’m doing is speculating because I cannot get the answers from her. So what I need to do is know there is nothing I can do (because o tried everything) and forget and let go. But o still feel terrible to do that even though she was the one to break it up.

But growing up she was always spoiled a lot and treated well. She would tell our parents what to do until they did those things. I let it happen and now that we’ve said ‘no’ she is over us. However, we were good friends and she has done some many nice things for me on the past so I don’t understand the change. By the way, I left the country for a few years, came back different. My perspective had also changed after returning to the US so I saw my family dynamics differently. Does this help?