Hate that dumped with stranger thing. My father had to do that with me after my mother died and then my stepmother, who was new to me, took me to all my new "relatives" and left me with them. Took me until just a couple years ago to realize that's why I hate going to other people's houses (hated babysitting as a teen, never quite understood why), I'm afraid I'll be stuck there!

I have special "comforting" novels I re-read, often about families or relationships that are warm and where kids are safe and individuals appreciated for situations like that where I feel alone. I use to write a letter to my T at the time or think about how I was going to tell her about a situation, next time I saw her, that had been horrible and lonely, that helped too sometimes.