Is it normal to not fully understand what happiness feels like?
I don't want to make this lengthy so here's the short version. I grew up without Dad, he is an asshole, no child support. Mom was never home and worked 3 jobs to take care of me and grandma, she was social inert and taught me what I once knew about social life (big mistake). Pretty horrible childhood without many good memories, and I had it really rough socially for my entire school life and a while in high school.
(Reminder, that was super condensed) Fast forward to senior prom, I bring my best friend to the dance, no slow dancing till the very end. When that happened and we danced for a small moment I felt a feeling I never truly felt before and I secretly wept a little cause I thought to myself "Is this being happy?". I know that there are happy moments in life, but that's all I know, Prom night was specifically pronounced for me and it wasn't until then when I realized what happiness really was.
Before, I just wanted to kill myself. But now I feel like I want to teach someone my mistakes so that their life won't be as bad, perhaps a child someday? In the worst case scenario, I always wish for my dad to die, because I feel like his lack of responsibility caused what I had to endure. What do you guys think? I've already met with 2 therapists but to no avail since it always just goes back to "daddy problems".
(No I'm NOT going to commit suicide anytime soon, I just got really depressed and lonely tonight while doing a research paper.)