I know my current T grew up in a broken family that was blue collar labor and higher lower class income to lower middle class income. He worked very hard to get to where he is. I know he has had some struggles but they are not at all like mine (in type I do not know about severity). He is currently comfortably upper middle class. He is male, I am female. I am middle class blue collar but our income is about to drop by about half. His wife is retired and my husband is working 60-80hrs a week. I grew up with basically a single mom and lower income with middle class grandparents. I was lucky enough to get a very good education but have been limited in what I have been able to achieve with it. So, in many ways T and I are opposites.
His empathy is absolutely genuine and while he may not be able to understand my experiences from having lived them he certainly understands the impact they have on me. I don’t know if I will ever live a lifestyle like he does but his lifestyle has more to do with being emotionally healthy than the ammout of his financial resources. That emotionally healthy space where I can find my own success, however I design it, is where he is helping me to get to.