Reply #4: my only advice would be to try to make your own life...

[laura888]

...recently, I also had to confront my father, whom I thought was a very negligent father, who did not really care about me. My mother abandoned the family when I was 10.

I had to confront the question that faced me head on: what if my father did't really care about me? how does that affect the rest of my life?

The answer I came up with was that he was just as much a wounded child as I felt I was - due to his circumstances in life.

To move forward in life, I would need to come up with my own definition of what is important in this world. To try to understand, in my own way : how do I relate to the world and the people in it? How do I make close connections to others? what am I meant to do in this life?

Not so easy to do... but after 25+ years of beating my head against the wall, I feel this is a solid recourse.

You didn't say how old you were... surely in time, a solution will become clearer...