Hi Papioman

I think I missed out one vital piece of information, I didn’t actually go to Australia. Solely because of the advice that my friend gave me about taking my problems with me. This advice has stayed with me ever since. I know now that moving to a different country would have been the worst I could have done. Whenever I have felt things weren’t right in my life I have thought back to that advice about problems following you and instead concentrated on resolving those problems before making any big life decisions.

I’m in a similar situation right now, my relationship with my girlfriend has just ended after six years, mainly due to the pressures of having a long distance relationship. Compared to what you are going through its a small thing but it has left a big hole in my life. I need to now concentrate on becoming happy with myself again and I am doing that one day at a time. But I do feel better equipped now, I guess through the experience I had 15 years ago. As well as talking to friends I took professional advice and it helped. It didn’t fix me but it did put me on the right path. Maybe that is an option for you?

I only came across this site two days ago and the advice on here has really helped me re-focus on the most important thing in my life right now, me. Yes that is selfish but I do believe that its ok to be selfish sometimes.

I have a lot of friends and feel very blessed to have them, but there is only one that I can really confide in. That same friend that gave me the advice all those years ago. She has helped me so much, probably because she knows me almost as well as I do! You said that you have friends but they seem vague and distant. Is this because they don’t actually know how you are feeling? Are you able to talk to them openly?

Andy