Denise: thinking of you and hoping you are well.
When you can think about things, perhaps this will occur to you, as it did to Ekhart Tolle ("The Power of NOW"):
(I lent the book, so I will put it down the way I remember it)
Ekhart Tolle was tortured, miserable, barely able to keep on living. He felt life had no meaning for him, other than pain.
He had a moment, one night, where he said: "I cannot live with myself any longer!"
And it hit him: he had said: I.............cannot live with.........MYSELF.
As if he were actually two different entities. There was "I" and there was
"myself".
"I" was pure, unharmed, and without pain. "Myself" then, he thought, must be his accumulated pain from experience and this life.....his life experience...
Perhaps you will think on this.
You are not your life experience. Right NOW, YOU are pure, lovable and loving. Yesterday was now, but no longer is. The future is not NOW either, and when it becomes now, it will instantly become past. Right at this moment, (not ten minutes from now, not next weekend, not 20 years ago, or even 2 minutes ago) YOU are fine....you are loved. Focus on this, and maybe, in your pain, you can step into this very moment of NOW and you will see what Ekhart Tolle was able to see.
The REAL you is NOT what happened to you, what you think about, what tortures you still. That is your life experience self. Perhaps looking at things this way may help you detach from this pain, and find your true essence again. YOU are love.
Bless you, Denise.