Thanks for sharing this. I had to smile when you mentioned sounding like you're 80-something because, although I'm not 80-something yet either, I'm a whale of a lot closer to it than you are. I can relate to a lot of what you wrote. Of course, for me, it's all mostly in the past now except for the residual effects... which are surprisingly still strong. (I'll spare both of us the details... to the extent I can even remember a lot of them!)

There are articles, in PC's archives, on the subject of healing one's inner child. Here are links to 5 of them just in case you're not already familiar:

Healing Your Inner Child

6 Steps to Help Heal Your Inner Child

How I Healed My Inner Child

Healing My Inner Child

3 Therapies to Heal Your Wounded Inner Child