Just thought I would post a link so members reading can get a taste of this woman's advice.

yourtube Dr. Laura - Yahoo Video Search Results

I agree that Despair is much harder to deal with than all the other life challenges people choose to whine about. I also agree that trying to use life challenges where one can turn that around into some kind of positive purpose is helpful and it's better to have some kind of purpose than just wandering aimlessly.

The other nite I was watching a program that shown a light on Princess Diana. She was so young and naive when she fell in love with Prince Charles. She was devasted when she discovered that he really did not love her but just married her for "image" instead. What she ended up choosing to do is because the media was so obsessed with her, she used that to shine light on different areas in humanity that showed human suffering and a need for help. At one point when asked if she liked the power, she answered that by saying that she did not see herself as a power person, but instead a humanitarian. What she ended up exposing about not only Prince Charles, but also the royal family is how cold and selfish and controlling and grandiose these ROYALS could be. They did not like what she exposed and all the attention she got, the answer was in how they found ways to cut her off financially so she did not have the ability to travel and be a part of her humanitarian desires and attention she was getting. Millions of people connected to her, genuinely cared about her and felt sorry for her that Prince Charles only used her and had been secretly engaging in an affair with Camilla. She exposed how that royal family was all about control and image rather than having the humanitarian respect like she had.

I do think that how a person is raised can contribute to their personal challenges and their life choices. However, we cannot exclude the ways we can be different, can simply be born wired differently where that ends up with being punished instead of being recognized and guided to be and find out the positive aspects that someone who is wired differently can embrace about themselves in a positive productive way. So, to assume that there is only one way to be and how "that is normal" and everything else that doesn't fit into what is considered normal is bad, then a lot of suffering will take place in humanity.