“Detaching with love” has absolutely saved my life. The ability to know where we end and others begin is harder won than people want to believe. I know I was thoroughly enmeshed and invested in the actions and feelings of others my entire life.

To realize this and learn how to love my fellow man while allowing others to make and be accountable for their own mistakes and not get entangled, without becoming aloof or uninterested, has been perhaps my greatest accomplishment as a daughter, a mother, a wife (and ex-wife) and a friend.

I believe that if I had continued to feel guilty and responsible for everyone else’s bad decisions, I would not still be here. It was just too much.

Thank you for bringing up this important point.