I would add just one thing: Get Help.

Norm, I fully echo Thane's post, been thinking about writing something similar myself the past few days. Like Thane, and you, I've been there. I went through some major changes about 4 years ago. It was hard, DAMN it was hard.

Yup, life sucks, in fact it's downright hard. Noone ever said it would be easy.

Bad things happen.

Bad things will continue to happen; To me, to you, to everyone you know.

The difference in life is how you DEAL with it. Not WHO or WHAT caused it, but how YOU deal with it.

Blame will get you nowhere. You can rant and rave about how much your past employer screwed you over, but it's not going to change ANYTHING. And change, my friend, is what you need to do. Notice I said YOU, not your previous employer, not anyone else.

Why? Quite simply, again as Thane said, because when you get right down to it, the ONLY thing you have any control over is yourself.

Here's a simple saying (originally a prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous) called the Serenity Prayer that about sums it up:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Think about it.

Finally, Norm..get some help. I'm not talking about medical help either. Stay away from psychiatrists. Find a good counselor..check with your employer, your church, your friends, heck even check online. But do find someone. A good counselor will help you to understand yourself, help you work through whatever underlying discombobulations (is that a word? If it isn't it should be :)) there are, and help you to break out of your comfort zone and make these changes.

Medicine can be a wonderful thing, and can help...hell, I was on prozac for a couple years, but need nothing now. However, the psyche cannot be ignored and unless it's fixed, all the chemicals in world won't help you.

Good luck to you, Norman King. It's my hope we've pushed you enough to start a journey that you won't regret.

Peace




aside to Thane: my wife graduates with her bachelor's in Psych in May (yay!). She currently has a 3.97 GPA (yay yay!) so she may make Summa cum Laude (yay yay yay!). I'm so proud of her! She's worked her ASS off to get there, and she's done well :) She'll be starting on her Master's in January, she wants to take a semester or two off, working full time and school full time have her quite burned out.