"Support" is a really fuzzy word that has become extremely popular. I say "fuzzy," because the meaning of that word is very hard to pin down. That's exactly why it has become so popular.

If I say Bill lied to me, that is a testable statement. It means Bill told me something that was untrue. If I want another person to agree with me, then I point out how what Bill said did not correspond to the facts. If I can show that, then most people will be able to see that Bill lied, or was misinformed himself. Either he deliberately lied, or he relied upon information that he should not have relied upon. However, if I say that Bill "failed to support me," that could mean a million different things. It's not really testable. Bill left me feeling "unsupported," and no one can really argue with that. How I feel is how I feel. However, if I feel unsupported, does that prove that Bill was neglectful of me? No, it most certainly doesn't. Maybe he was, and maybe he wasn't. No one has the right to condemn Bill because I say he didn't make me feel the way I wanted to feel. Bill is not in control of how I feel. (Nor am I, for that matter. Feelings simply are what they are.)

We see commercials on TV for nutritional supplements that the manufacturers claim "support" this and "support" that. They will say this pill supports brain health and this other product supports heart health. At the bottom of the screen, in tiny letters, is a statement that "the FDA has not tested this product." I like to take supplements that will be good for my brain or heart, so I Google the product. Usually, I find articles saying that there is no evidence that the product does anyone any good. Now, it is illegal to make false claims for a product. So how do these manufacturers get away with saying their products "support" good health? They get away with it because the word "support" has no precise meaning that anyone can pin down. If I say that eating crushed, dehydrated dandelion leaves "supports" kidney function, no one can prove I'm wrong. My point is that "support" is what I would call a sneaky word. It really has no meaning, other than what I want it to mean. No one can really pin me down on what it should mean. Support is a word that gets thrown around very loosely because it's practically impossible to argue with anyone's use of the term.

I don't doubt for one minute that you have felt "unsupported" by your case manager. You know how you have felt. However, I think you are making an error in logic. You seem to believe that, if you feel unsupported, it means you were not given support. That may be true, but it is not necessarily true. You kind of know that yourself because you are intelligent, so you offer up examples to bolster your claim. I'm afraid your examples sound like you're grasping at straws.

What I totally believe is that you have a huge, unmet need. You sound isolated, lonely and hungry for the warmth of satisfying human connectedness. My heart goes out to you because I know, first hand, how awful that can feel. That is a legitimate need. Until you can get that need met, you are going to suffer terribly. I think you've been trying to extract out of your case manager more than she can ever provide to meet your need. I don't blame you for wanting more of what you need and are not getting enough of. But I think you are trying to get it from a source that will never deliver it. That will keep you perpetually disappointed and eternally frustrated. I will say one more thing: You are not alone in this predicament. Among consumers of psych services, this is an extremely common circumstance. We get paired up with a professional. That relationship becomes one of the very few that we have, so we focus on it very intently. Inevitably, it disappoints. You will never be as important to this woman, as she is to you. That's not her fault, nor your fault, nor the fault of anyone else. It's a simple reality. Reality will never adjust to us. We must adjust to it. That can be awfully hard. We have no guarantee of success. When the reality is that we are living without what we need emotionally, then failure to adjust happens very easily. I completely empathize with how painful that is.