The way i see him (or anyone) as more successful is that he is content with his life (from what I see) and is surrounded by family. Yes, we've talked about it. I feel a lot of envy about his relationship with his daughter especially since I never had a father. Technically I did, but functionally did not. Sarah, it's really not about them; it's about feeling content with yourself, which is a process.

I've read many posts along the same vein-people feeling envious of their Ts life whether it be husband, wife, children, etc. Maybe some will post about how they overcame that. I had not heard any stories about overcoming this but will be returning to this thread to see if any turn up. Although some don't know economic hardship, I think many, many people can relate to wanting things they can't have. Including therapists. I remember a good deal of posts written about this here though no specific ones come to mind to link.

It's not to late to make a better life for yourself. Start today. Make a plan of what you want. Just identifying what you want, writing it down, could be a step towards getting there.

Adding because I just remembered-last session I asked him what he was doing for father's day and he told me. Later I told him I was really jealous and that I don't ask him many questions about his personal life anymore as i used to because of the jealousy feelings. That's the issue with behavioral approaches-they often don't solve a thing. Not asking him about his personal life wasn't protecting myself from sabotage. Instead, it just disconnected me from him and made me feel aloneness. It can be isolating when done on a larger scale.