Funny that you say that youngm, I am going back to study this year and I look forward to, when meeting new people, saying, when they say "what do you do?" I can say, "I'm studying right now". Not, "I am on a Disability Pension" - firstly because of judgment - and it does come, but also because since I lost my career three years ago I HAVE felt like Human Flotsam and Jetsom. I find it hard to find a place in the world. How do I define myself now after I had been a career success for 14 years, had three qualifications under my belt for that career, had a house which I lost etc? As well as losing family and friends through it all too.

I know that what we learn in therapy, for me in AA (longtime sober member) and in spiritual contexts is that we shouldn't be defined about what we do or do not have, what we are doing or not doing. But those statements are so easy for people to trot out and very difficult to live fully. I think it would take Christ and Buddha to live them fully and I ain't either of those. LOL

But I really do want to keep moving forward on a continuum of valuing my inner strengths and values over extrernals. I do that through AA and also through ACT and Mindfullness which is a fantastic therapeutic structure to deal with all this.