Dear Anita,

Its good to hear from you!

Its comforting to know that you fully understand the pain and stress of a simliar childhood. I would like to ask, if you dont mind, if escape into fantasy world continued for you into adult years? The reason that I ask is that, to some extent, I still struggle with that. I get an idea of the ‘perfect’ job for example (I can invision my desk and surrounding office, how well I dress and look, etc) but then reality sets in and I feel crushing disappointment. I realize full well that I have no right to be disappointed because ‘perfection’ was all in my head, but there’s still the thoughts of “I SHOULD have better than this”. (and yes, my parents drilled absolute perfection and second is not good enough into my head early on and used words like should, never, always and many others). I would also like to ask if you felt pressure to excel and please your family in an effort to make the peace. For me, this was/is the case.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

~Shipp