Hi Eric! Thank you for the honesty in your post. I too have recently recognized so much of what you share... the effects of being overprotected, the frustration of not making progress and the awareness of isolating... needing to do it alone. This has all been very much the landscape I am exploring. There is a lot I want to write but I am also really tired... so I will just say that emptiness has been calling me... don’t know if it resonates or if it means anything to you, but the sense that I am spinning in circles in a cloud of my conditioning around the central feeling of emptiness.. which no external connection, support, meaningful occupation, sense of external freedom can or needs to fill... it all feels like a million ways to dance around the edge sometimes (referring to my own way of being in it- not yours) .... and what if I just allow all that’s experienced to carry me into this place? Also sharing my authentic reality is very healing at the moment ....old learned ways of coping with intense feelings “I’ve got this, no problem!” ... seeing it in my child ... the way unacknowledged pain comes to the surface however it can... thank you for sharing the struggles and I look forward to the reflections as I relate so much to what you shared. ❤️