Numbers, welcome to PsychCentral (PC). I sometimes have a lot of trouble with disappointment. I was telling my husband the other day about when I was 5 or 6 and asked for bow and arrows for Christmas (only apparently on my Christmas list wrote it as "bony arrows") I was wanting to be like an indian and kill my own food/be self-sufficient (all in the suburbs of a large city, mind you) and instead, I got a lame children's set with suction cup tips that wouldn't even stick to anything and was extremely disappointed.

I think we get expectations going in our head but don't make sure we understand where they're coming from and what we "really" want (you obviously wanted to smell/look like whatever ad or person you had seen wearing the perfume were like?) and, we make additional problems for ourselves by not giving very much information to other people. I'm sure if I had explained why I wanted the bow and arrows my mother would have explained why my fantasy couldn't happen and if you'd mentioned to your grandmother that you'd never smelled the perfume before, you just liked the "image" she might have thought twice about buying the perfume.

I don't think we're drama queens, we just haven't learned to make our actual needs known to ourselves and others. Do you have a therapist? I was helped with mine to at least understand what disappointment feels like to me so when it happens I can identify it and then look to see where it is coming from. I only got a couple of "lame" gifts from my husband this Christmas and that was a little disappointing but I didn't give him very many hints as to what I might want or even that I wanted much. He can't read my mind. I remember it took a couple of Easters before I got into his head that I require a milk chocolate rabbit on Easter :-) Now I don't have to worry about that, I get one for sure and it's even a fun joke between us.