Oh, and one other thing - Gawd I talk too much sometimes - But, this is important.

About 10 years after I started therapy, a cat I'd rescued died unexpectedly after our 7 years together, and OMG! I was racked with grief and sobbed like all get out for about six months.

I told my therapist it wasn't right to grieve over a beloved pet like that.

She told me that my beloved pet had helped me to tap into all the sorrow and grief and losses I'd incurred and repressed over all those years of abuse I'd lived in.

It made a lot of sense, because I'd never cried like that before that I could remember.