Thanks for the reply. Very concise.
“This identity is threatened if you fail or if things change etc … ‘you’ don’t exist on-your-own.”
Taking it a bit further, ‘I’ don’t exist at all in actuality and ‘I’ must know this on some level which leads to defending and justifying a feeling being of the imagination which leads to further suffering. Does that sound accurate to you? Anything to add? I’m fascinated by the fact that ‘I’ know that ‘I’ am little more than mental images and fickle emotions and the denial of that fact is what ‘I’ am engaged in most of the time.