I read your message and I signed up so that I could reply.

I can tell a lot from the way you have framed and written your concerns and I am considering that along with what you actually say. Life is life and that is a fact - we are dealt the cards and sometimes they just seem to be stacked against us. We look at others and wonder how come they have had a better deal than us.

But the fact is that we don't know what they are going through because people deal with things in their own way. I think it would be safe to say that no one goes through life unscathed.

It is true that we should count our blessings and focus on the good things in life and be thankful for that. But it is also true that when we say such a thing to someone who is going through a low period - we diminish their pain.

Bad times will be gotten through and we all emerge stronger and wiser for the experience. But it also seems to me that you feel that your needs are not being met by the people around you. That while you are busily trying to keep them happy - nobody is paying any heed to what they might do for you.

There is a difference between being approachable and accomodating of the needs of others and being a doormat. If you place yourself as a doormat you will be walked over.

Try not being so available and shock people out of their complacency that your life is all about being there for others. You have a right to be selfish at times - so find something you really love doing and build that into your life - something that everything else has to give way to because it is what you want and need to do.

Happiness is inside you and not "out there" - feed it and it will grow. Likewise misery occupies a similar place and that needs to be starved so that it shrinks away.