I thought these same things about myself when I started back into therapy.
After all, my parents and brothers are way below poverty level. How could I just go spend money week after week on ME when I "should" be spending it on them for food or medicine? How could I take 1 or 2 hours (or more if you count time on PC) away from my S/O after already spending so much time away at work all week?

I enjoyed readying your post because it is very honest. And that is one of the things about therapy I enjoy very much!! Because of exactly what you said....

In my life, I was forced (even as a child) to always put every single other person in front of me. If I needed food because I was hungry, but my brothers wanted the remaining portion, I was guiltted into seeing them as more important than I was at the table. If I had a hard day at school and needed to talk to my mom or dad about things, I had to choke back my pain as I listened to them for hours talking about how bad work was or how poor we were and how hard it was to get ahead in the world.

For many people, those precious years of being a self-centered child who learns in a healthy way to love who they are first and learns how to use their wonderful selves to assist humanity, those years never happened. That learning never happened. This stage is a vital part of mentally maturing. Yes, it is a ME-ME-ME situation. That is exactly what those years of being a child SHOULD have been about to some extent.

This has good further info about why a teen brain is "selfish" - http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...velopment.html

"The only way to really appreciate the suffering is to experience it. If we had a complete depth of the suffering of others, with no means of relieving it or impacting the situation, we would live in total despair. Our lack of completely developed empathy insulates us and keeps us safe until we grow into adulthood. Our 'selfishness' is like the cocoon that protects us into adulthood. "

When we enter therapy, it is time to go back and allow ourselves this precious ME-ME-ME developmental stage.

The funny thing is that by allowing ourselves to "I-ndulge" in this process, we are actually enabling ourselves to be healthy, fully participating, members of society.

Thanks again for posting what you did because it prompted me to write this out and that helps me solidify this issue for myself.