Ellimay, I think that you an I might have different ideas about what feels validating (and that's ok). Sorry if I had a knee jerk reaction to your post. I just worry about someone's pain not getting heard loud enough. And I wanted to to be clear that abandonment is very damaging. I'm a survivor of abandonment, and I find that people tend to minimize it, or they don't understand it the same as abuse, because there isn't a list of horrible actions that the survivor can recount, that everyone will automatically see as awful. I think I may have just wanted this acknowledged for personal reasons.

But I think I understand now. You didn't want the OP to feel like they are nothing, or like they don't have any power. Fair enough. I think that may have just misunderstood your post. Thanks for caring, I'm sorry I didn't see it.