[alecdibble]

It sounds like you have trouble being assertive. At the end of the day, you have to fight for your own interests. Assertiveness is the fine line between courtesy and self-preservation. Being assertive means you MUST stand up for yourself to protect others' interest from overriding your own. It's a tough duality that most people aren't naturally good at. Generally, though, standing up for yourself in a non-aggressive manner earns a lot of respect. I heard this great quote that really helped me dealing with issues of my own passiveness:

"People will only walk on you if you lay down on the sidewalk and let them."

[Mz]

Thanks. I actually have rather good boundries. I think my problem is a good deal more complicated than that. Given the ugly tone and assumptions of some of the replies, I strongly suspect that trying to explain further would be a bad idea.