Dear Matthew:

Your answer regarding your parents possibly teaching you that the world is hostile and the only safe place for you is home, is clear: your parents didn’t teach you that and they encouraged (and financed) you to travel the world and meet new people.

Regarding you forgetting that a girl genuinely loved you, the forgetting is not in the absence of sharing about it. The forgetting is in what you did share: “(I) never felt genuinely respected or loved”. On second thought, there is no contradiction between: I never felt genuinely loved and she genuinely loved me: one of your girlfriend genuinely loved you, but you didn’t feel loved by her.

At home, with your parents, you do feel loved, don’t you? Will you tell me how does it feel, to feel loved, and will you describe a few interaction with any of your parents where you feel loved?

anita