Wisdom from Scrubs?

I don't watch very much television because I don't consider it worthy of my attention. Lately, though, I've been watching Scrubs on a semi-regular basis. There's very little I dislike about the show; it's ridiculous humor is set in a usually somber or even morbid hospital atmosphere, the plot follows every character's professional and personal drama, and each episode closes with some sort of "life lesson" that boils down to a life experience that can be related to the average blue-collar worker.

In the episode "My Drama Queen," Carla's mother dies unexpectedly and she greatly mourns her loss, saying, "How can a girl live without her mother?"

I've been struggling to figure out my own answer to that question. My rocky past with my mother follows a generations-long family tradition, one that I hope to end when I become a parent. I haven't spoken to her in nearly five years, and the last time I saw her, almost two years ago, she walked right past me as if I were a stranger. I know that in a lot of ways I am better off without her; I can do without her mood swings, her denial that she needs medication, her overbearing husband, and her emotional and psychological abuse. But at the same time, I feel like without a normal mother-daughter relationship, I am missing out on a potentially life-enhancing relationship (provided she regain the ability to behave normally and maintain a healthy relationship with anyone).

This severance of ties from her--and her entire side of the family, for that matter--has been bearing down on me pretty hard lately.

In addition, I feel lately like I've been becoming more distanced from my close friends. I snapped at Derek earlier while having an initially innocent conversation about our summers, now that we're done with finals. Then it twisted into our outlooks on life, and I felt that he began to attack me, to make me feel that my outlook was dark and depressing, and I know he didn't intend to sound that way.

According to him, the fact that he had been up on Adderall for several days influenced his lack of control over sounding accusative and demanding. I found myself to the point where I thought I would cry trying to defend myself, which made me realize that my future is not at planned out as I had thought, or I would like (would I like it that predetermined?).

What I discovered can be defined as follows: my general outlook on life is that I should be happy in whatever I do; if I'm not happy, I should take the most productive corrective steps available to me (for instance, paying off debt instead of ignoring debt by, say, getting high). Though what exactly this means to me I haven't quite figured out.

Derek isn't the only friend I've been short with, either. Since I've worked in my serving job, I've grown considerably closer to Lindsey, and she has become very special to me (lame as it sounds). Lately though (and I'm not sure if the stress of finals influenced this), I have felt us growing apart, and it makes me feel...lonely, I suppose. I'm not sure.

My only solution to the way I feel right now is a long night of Pink Floyd and some good company. If either still exist. Maybe there's an episode of Scrubs that can offer me some wisdom.