Hi. I'm not too good at cheering people up, sorry. However I can refer you to my profile. Please take a look. I experienced something similar to what you are going thru (with additional emotional rejection and down right torture) from age 6. Understand your pain? If you read my profile you will see that, yeh, I can pretty much relate. I felt that the kids in my first grade class were uncouth and very childish. I related to adults with no problem and thought kids were supposed to act just like them. Imagine if you will the fun I had. However, point is, I survived. I know what you're thinking. Yes, I was smart enough to know that if I copied them I could fit in. Just refused to lower myself. Well, after about 12 more years of that, I had to rethink my position. I was going into the workforce and frankly I was just tired. So, I put my mask on and joined the crowd. Now, I can walk in anywhere from the Whitehouse to a crack house and fit right in. Lots of intelligent mature people like yourself have had very similar experiences. I am very sorry for your pain. This is a great site and I believe you can find a lot of people to share with and hopefully help you feel a little better. Welcome, and good luck.