Dear Annie:

I learned that when a child experiences a very lonely childhood, the child grows up to be an adult re-experiencing the same lonely childhood. Just as the lonely child sometimes had company and experienced joy in that company, the lonely adult also enjoys company sometimes, getting a break from the usual, ongoing experience of loneliness.

You wrote: “my family doesn’t understand how I feel and I would feel lonely”- it is very difficult for a child to be alone with her feelings. Every unpleasant feeling becomes way more intense when she is alone with that feeling, unseen and misunderstood.

I imagine you were angry then, and probably still, angry at your family for not seeing you and not understanding you. Am I correct?

anita