MA, I can't play games either. I don't have the energy to pretend, I don't have the energy or will to maintain personnas (having a poor memory helps, because I can't keep track of which personnas I have to play with which people!)

Do you think that all cracks and damage can be mended? Are there some wounds that go too deep into the very foundation of our being - inflicted at such an early age that the tendrils of that damage were able to grow and spread until they eventually obliterated the original "work of art"? Can we ever truly and completely untangle the complex mess of tendrils to unearth the original essence of "us" (without inflicting further NEW damage in the untangling itself)...or is the answer to acknowledge that we can never go back to being who we were before the damage occurred, that who we are "here and now" IS who we are, cracks and all...and when we come to terms with THAT, do we find the power to rise above the damage and be the best that we can be with who we are here and now?

That was a rather tangled question, wasn't it! Like Gims, I'm searching...I think the answer is not to go back and try to recover the parts of us that were damaged beyond repair, but to repair ourselves to the point where we can decide that who we are now is enough and good and worth being.