Awakening - I too was touched by your post. I can't even count how many years I looked for a rescuer. Which brings me to something else about your post - I don't really see what you are looking for as sympathy, I think instead it is a rescuer and I don't find those things synonymous. I never got the feeling from your post that you wanted someone to "pity you", but instead, to be there for you when you needed help (look at your examples: being in the hospital, getting kidnapped). For me, whenever I fantasized about that person, in the fantasy they always "seemed" like a rescuer, but in retrospect, I wasn't looking for a savior, I was simply looking for someone to love me like I thought that my mother should have loved me. I hope any of that made sense to anyone else except for me.

Being there for someone does not mean feeling sorry for them.

Best,
Rachel