Hi Nowhere,
Just thought I'd let you know that I'm following this thread too, and it is interesting. I'm learning a lot. Maybe people see the problems slightly differently. You have your dragon and September has her inner child. I've got my cloud, which seems more like an external influence (and real clouds are and they do make me feel like that), but it is actually an internalized cloud that sometimes takes over my life.

The "realization" concept is interesting too. I was trying to think of when that was for me, and keep going back to when I was about 5 years old. When I got really upset I bit my arm, hard enough that it bled and formed scabs and the marks lasted for 2-3 weeks. My mother was so embarassed about those marks, and I felt bad about it when I noticed that. It was about then that I also started to notice other things like that I was clingy and socially awkward, and in school I got distracted and off-task a lot and the teachers were frustrated with me because I didn't pay attention or finish assignments. It took me a little while to see your point, but now I understand - realizing these differences (and noticing people's reactions to them) was part of the damage.

No, you can't change the past, really, but what you can do is re-write your story and change your perceptions of it.

<font color=blue>Life is filled with tragedy; if you let it overwhelm you, you cannot enjoy life's innocent pleasures. -Robert Heinlein</font color=blue>