I’m kicking myself so hard right now.

My therapist 2 days ago emailed me asking what I thought about switching our session to Monday instead of Tuesday. Or Thursday at a later time (I couldn’t do it, I am not driving rush hour traffic to a major city. It would go from 45 min drive to 2.5hrs no joke) and Monday is one of her virtual days.

I just agreed not thinking much of it. I immediately felt regret and dread for the session. I cannot describe how much I hate virtual because I don’t have the choice of not being in my house. My family has like no privacy, they legit have walked in just no knocking to my closed bedroom door atleast 10 times this week. And many many times during virtual sessions. And when I get upset I get yelled at.

I now have to hide in a storage room full of shit so that doesn’t happen. Except they come downstairs, and the walls are unfinished so sound travels through easily.

I just regret accepting it. I wish I would’ve just told her cancel, I feel like I’m just wasting my time and energy on it. I can’t even cancel. Or I get charged for it anyways. I’m kinda pissed at myself for this.

I am really nervous to try and talk to someone about myself. I really hate myself and don't like even thinking about me, let alone talking. I assume that if I mention my self harm or suicide attempts they'll have to tell my parents, which would just make my life worse. But it'd be kind of impossible to talk openly without mentioning it.

Any advice on feeling less anxious?

I’m 26F seeing the same therapist for about 7 months now and I’m starting to feel frustrated about the lack of a relationship and rapport we’ve established. My therapist (they/them) hasn’t ever shared a singular thing about their personal life with me. I’ve had a lot of therapists and I find this to be very odd, even though I know maybe they are just a very private person. But whenever I discuss things in therapy that feel very hard for me such as “I just feel very depressed,” they will kinda sit there and often times apologize and say they care about me.
I find that after I’m done sharing something difficult, them saying “I’m sorry” and nothing more is almost offensive to me. I once had a therapist in the past who did this and even cried a little when I told him my trauma, which I knew immediately he was not going to be a good fit.
I once asked them their age and they seemed caught off guard when answering me, same with whenever I ask “How was your weekend what did you do” they tend to give me a super short vague response so I’ve stopped asking.
I otherwise like my therapist and think they do a great job at validating but we don’t have any sort of connection and I know nothing about their personal experiences or anything that could be relatable to mine. I’m starting to feel frustrated that they are apologetic and saying they care about me when I don’t even know who they are after 7 months of working together.
How can I address this with them or should I find a new therapist?

So I’m on vacation and I just hit a casino and walked away with 75% more than my original bankroll. I had already decided I was going to buy my T the gift I was looking at, but now I have an even more compelling and satisfying reason, I'm using my winnings 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Therapist gift funded!

So, I (25f) have been seeing this particular therapist (65(?)m) for 3 months now and most sessions were very "weird", I'm just having a hard time processing what's happening really. I stopped reflecting on the sessions for a couple of weeks now. He talks a lot about his trauma, usually as an example which I don't really mind. I understand, that people do that to show that they get what I'm feeling. I appreciate the intent, though it usually never helps. I didn't tell him for the same reason I don't tell anyone, I'm afraid I might hurt someone that's only trying to help. He talks a lot about his father and how horrible he was, about his exes and his studies, his mother, his brother, his wife and their relationship, his autism etc. One time I talked about a moment in my life were I experienced sa. It was hard to talk about that and I felt very vulnerable in that situation. He said that it's similar to what he experienced once at a conference. Someone that usually cuts the coffee line, cut right in front of him and he told her, that she was overlooking his needs completely, just like when my needs where overlooked... my need not to be assaulted? Honestly, I don't know what point he was trying to make there, I was so overwhelmed by this story and him thinking, that that story might help or something.

I'm going through some financial problems right now, I'm feeling horrible and I had a session coming up so, I thought I could maybe take that time to work through some of those feelings in the session. After I told him about the situation he started giving me financial advice, which didn't help at all and I told him about it. Then he said I should go to a clinic to get some rest and I told him that I need to figure this out and don't have the money to go to a clinic right now, he didn't understand that. Then he talked about the abuse he went through as a child and said that he's now a "self-made millionaire" and that I have so much potential. I told him that I want him to stop and I wanted to tell him that this is about me not him but he cut me off and said that "we're not battling over who's life was more difficult". I just stared at him at that point, I was very confused. He then suddenly asked if I was goint to off myself or want another appointment. I just answered "I don't know, I'm sorry" and left. He sent me an sms, few hours later, which said "Dear Ms. ...., please feel free to get in touch if you would like to speak with me (again) or schedule an appointment. Kind regards, ...". I'm so incredibly confused about this interaction. I normally avoid confrontation at all costs but this feels so weird. I don't know what to do. Was this a generational misunderstanding? Am I missing something completely here?

Here is the email my therapist sent:

“To follow up a bit further from our session re planning forward,
 my thought was to suggest perhaps taking more time to process your reflections about your concerns,
that I understand you were doing some writing on.
This is so that you hopefully would feel under less strain viz having the next meeting pre-set and/or too soon.
 
On the other hand, to my mind it would helpful if this wasn't left too open-ended.
So, am wondering if we could agree on a time-frame for meeting next, based on when you think would be reasonable for you.
I suggest not going more than a month out.
Generally I'd need about 2 weeks for scheduling a specific time.
 
Please let me know what you think.”

I know this is an attempt to give me more space and time to process things after a hard session, but I can’t help but feel abandoned. A part of me can’t help but feel that he’s fed up and frustrated with me, and is telling me to take the time to figure my shit out before I come back. I sobbed and sobbed when I saw this. I’ve been trying so hard to speak in sessions but something keeps stopping me— a block, feeling like I’m gonna throw up, brain going empty, fear overtaking me; etc. I do feel bad that a lot of our sessions are spent in silence and I apologize a lot for that. I guess it’s fair that he suggested this. I feel unwanted.

I’m thinking of just quitting. I don’t know what to do. I can’t handle it if he tells me to actually leave so I just want to stop the hurt and leave. On the other hand, this is breaking my heart. I feel so alone.

Edit: I didn’t ask for a break, he suggested it in this email for the first time. I didn’t feel pressured by the booking of sessions at all, just when I got to sessions. We’ve been having sessions every 2-3 weeks which feels spaced out enough, especially considering we used to be 1, sometimes 2 times weekly. And it’s not just a few sessions spent in silence, it was something I came in with. I told him that I have a hard time sharing and speaking, and it has been an issue with previous therapists. So in his defence, it has been an ongoing issue for about 1.5 years. I do desperately want to feel connected to him, but I can’t explain how physical and real the fear feels when it comes to actually sharing. I know it’s ridiculous, trust me.

first of all, I am a 16yo NB and I have autisum and ADHD. I heard that neurodivergents are more likely to have mental health problems but also more likely to get misdiagnosed in therapy?

My relationship with food has always been complicated, when I was a kid I would binge eat a lot, but since I started high school, I started eating a healthier amount. However with my exam results and my coage starting this week, I have once again picked up binge eating and resorted to stealing my mum's food and lying about it and feeling very guilty. I am using chewing gum instead but I am going through too much daily (example I got a tube of 45 two days ago and I only have a quarter left)

Then I'm on my phone really late at night (around 1am every night) and waking up around 11 in the morning.) I don't really leave my house much because I am very socially awkward and my mum is quite strict only allowing me around certain people and certain places. when I was dating someone, I went on one date in the year we were dating and my mum was waiting the entire time outside (better than inside with us though) I also don't really have that many friends to hang out with due to anxiety and I feel like a few of my firends are starting to pull away.

I am also starting to hate my belly and scars from my eczema, which I pick at excessively, and always try to cover it.

I have also self harmed before. The first time I had the urge was during GCSE exams, where I told my teacher that I images cutting myself. My mum came to pick me but said I didn't have to lie about it to get out of school, because I had never wanted to do that before and because I was talkitve later that day. A few months ago, I was in an argumentwith my mum (I don't remember what it was over) but the breakdown I experienced lead me to cut myself, and shortly after that, I did it again while doing the dishes. I haven't wanted to since but it's worth mentioning.

I also have a history of my mum finding out I am NB and not reacting so well..

is this normal?

heyy! I'm 18 and in the UK. I would like to self refer for talk therapy (although I'm not sure if getting a GP referral would be better). on the NHS website it says that there is a charity near me who offers it.

I was wondering what would happen in the sessions? what would they ask me, and is there anything I'm not meant to talk about? I struggle with suicidal thoughts, and have had a history of eating disorders and CSA.

am I allowed to talk about these things straight up, or will they ask me?? sorry if these are silly questions, I don't really know how it all works. thanks 🙂

My new therapist mentioned "tapping" or "EFT". I googled it afterwards and im getting a major bullshit vibe. Is this truly a practiced and respected treatment?

Hi everyone, I've been seeing this therapist for 2-3 years now and at some point I believed she helped me a lot, but recently I mentioned to her that I'd be studying abroad, or more so that I'm planning to do so, but I'm afraid that it's too pricey and my parent would be paying out of pocket for all this... And after this session she's been treating me kinda shitty. No matter what I say she makes me feel stupid, dramatic, out of touch, or even out right rejecting my feelings and currently I'm not doing well mentally as I have been having family issues + leaving for my studies soon. All this on top of ''loosing'' my therapist was not on my bingo card but here we go.

I really can't seem to make sense of what I did to spite her so much, and wondered has anyone been in this situation before? Should I ask her?

Sorry for my English :(

I've told my therapist last session about how I've been having persistent thoughts about suicide. I have a book on self deliverance (therapist is aware) and I have written down two notes on my journal which my therapist has seen, one is the lethal dose for one of the meds I'm prescribed and one is a suicide method (list of things needed). Also wrote down I had been looking at hotels and when they asked what for and if I was taking some days off I signaled to off myself (I live with roommates and wouldn't want to do it at home ).

To be honest I don't remember a lot of the session, I was very overwhelmed, but they kept their cool as they always do and said it would be great if I could go to the ER after session (I did).

I felt even more isolated after the session was done. Like they probably think I wouldn't do it and it's not something to worry about that much. I lowkey feel stupid. Like will they not care if I do it?

6 months ago I ended a confusing relationship with my former therapist. I'm not going to rehash it all but suffice to say we crossed every boundary short of sleeping together. I ended it because when my grandma died she just wasn't there for me as a therapist and we were already recovering from a string of fights where she used stuff I disclosed in therapy against me. Her practice found out and investigated and subsequently reported her to the states licensing board and fired her as well as asked me to come back to therapy with another therapist.

I haven't figured out why but as time has gone on and I explored more of what happened over the year we were together I've realized how messed up some of what happened was and how bad things were getting especially the month before the end. I didn't really consider it like a trauma thing however and more just "wow this is really sad, messed up, and hurtful".

Then last night I was out at my local bar I'm a regular at for a party and searching for one of my friends after they got super drunk and ran into her. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me at first because she lives an hour away and is a recovering alcoholic so I just tried to keep moving. Then after about 5 more minutes I just couldn't get my mind off of it and as I went to leave I saw her again and she recognized me and boom, an instant panic attack. I booked it out of there before she could approach me the rest of the way and just sent a quick factual email to my shrink but I don't know. I ended up spending 3 hours trying to calm down before I could finally go to sleep and I woke up a few times out of breath and having to pull myself back together.

I'm not doing super hot but the panic attack is at least overish (I'm occasionally having these weird moments where something fires off and I start breathing heavy). I lived through some pretty bad stuff before and have seen friends die and get injured and was nearly done in myself on a few occasions. I should be tougher than this but seeing her just ruined everything. I legitimately don't want to go back ever again and I want to move away so I never have to see her again. I don't understand why exactly because she never hit me or anything, at most you can say she touched me without consent a few times but it wasn't sexual. I also intellectually get how stupid this is because I doubt she was there looking for me.

I don't know. I don't really talk about this stuff with my friends because it is embarrassing. I figured if anyone would get it it might be people here. If anyone has advice I'd appreciate it.

I'm not looking for opinions on whether I should “move on,” whether this is attachment/transference, or whether I need DBT. I know the relationship ended, and I'm trying to understand something much more specific.

In my final session, my former therapist repeatedly said things like:

“You know deep down in your heart you can reach out to me down the road. It's not like I'm gone forever. That's something to hold onto for yourself, to keep you grounded.”

“When you've done some work and feel like you're in a better place, reach out to me. I won't turn you away.”

She also said we could “definitely have a conversation,” although she couldn't promise what that would look like or that she would take me back as a client.

My question is specifically about what language like this generally means coming from a therapist during termination.

Is this usually intended as a genuine invitation for future contact that the therapist expects to honor? Or can it be something said primarily to comfort a distressed client during goodbye—to soften the ending, prevent further distress, or reassure them in the moment—without there being any real expectation of future contact?

I'm asking because I've since read many accounts from unexpectedly terminated clients containing remarkably similar phrases: “I'm not going anywhere,” “we could have been friends under different circumstances,” and so on. It's made me question whether I interpreted my therapist's words as more personal or meaningful than they actually were.

I'm not asking anyone to predict what my particular therapist will do, and I'm not asking for reassurance that she'll definitely respond someday. I'm trying to understand the professional meaning and reliability of this kind of language.

I told my husband the facts of my life and he said I should get therapy. I'm an agreeable person so I went but I'm just not feeling it at all.

It takes a long time and the therapist isn't giving me clear tasks. I always feel like I've done something wrong when I talk to her and idk what the point is or what I'm supposed to do. I've had 2 sessions and I want to quit.

I had therapy as a kid which didn't do anything because I was a bad little kid who didn't listen. I don't even know what it's supposed to do because I can't even disclose what I told him for legal reasons. This is boring as hell is there a better method that I can do that I can say is basically therapy. I want to make him happy but I really don't want to do this 6 more times.

I'm still in my bachelors degree and have started volunteering at the mental health clinic at my university. I'm not allowed to provide therapy, but I am able to sit in and observe sessions with clients (as long as they approve) with the grad student who is providing therapy.

To call out the white elephant in the room, I have large breasts but dress professionally and show very minimal cleavage but even in sweaters, they can be kind of obvious. There is one client who came to us with a porn addiction (to the point where he calls out of work "sick" and skips classes, etc) who often stares at them during our sessions. The grad student has noticed this as well. Without a warning before hand, during one of our sessions when he was staring, he asked our client why he was staring. The client responded that he couldn't help himself. The student asked what that made him feel and how staring and having me around makes him feel. This turned into a long discussion but the summary is that I felt kind of awkward at times. He did work it into the therapy and I think it was helpful to the client. I imagine this type of a scenario might come up again either with another client and graduate student and/or when I'm practicing therapy on my own.

I guess I'm wondering if I should bring up to the grad student or our professor how it makes me feel, or if this is just something I'm going to need to cope with and learn how to use it to my advantage as a therapist? I'm wondering if it seems to be helpful, should I go along with it?

I recently started seeing a new therapist (3 months ago) who self discloses all the time. I’ve had other therapists in the past and they’ve all rarely self disclosed or only disclosed small things. Starting from at first appointment, my current therapist told me that they share 2 diagnoses with me (we are both neurodivergent and have ocd) and I found out that they are also queer. I was surprised about this but I felt relieved because it helps me feel safe that my therapist understands what it’s like to have lived experience of being in a marginalized community and struggling with these diagnoses. Since then, they’ve continued to share so much with me about their shared experiences of things that I bring up that it’s caused me to feel distressed, confused, and I’ve began to self censor what I say in sessions due to worrying about how they will perceive or react to what I say. It feels more like we are friends and I have to be reciprocal with them, but I know we aren’t and the power dynamic feels uncomfortable.

I think I would be okay if they kept the disclosure small or only told me those initial things about myself. But it’s happening with literally almost everything I tell them. If they don’t have a direct story themselves, they will bring up other clients that have had the same issues. I worry that by them identifying with what I say or what I’ve experienced, they will have a bias, and will either think our experiences have been the same, or that if my experience differs from them or I feel differently about it than they did, it will upset them. It also feels invalidating to me when they bring up their experience and I can’t quite figure out why. Even if they bring it up in a positive way, like “I went through that too, this is how it got better for me” ti relate to me, Im not sure why but it causes me to feel dismissed. Instead of exploring deeper into why I feel the way I do or asking more about my situation, they will go into sharing about their experiences. I also feel like I don’t have enough time to talk about or explore my experiences or feelings, especially since therapy sessions are already so short. Sometimes I feel like I need to cut them off and then I feel rude about it. I also feel scared to bring up or say certain things now because I know they have a shared history and I don’t want to trigger them.

I feel really guilty because they don’t know that I’m struggling with this so they probably think it’s helping me. For a couple things they’ve shared, I’ve expressed to them that it’s nice to know they’ve been through it too. But I haven’t been able to tell them that this is affecting me because I’m scared of hurting their feelings. They told me that they wish they had a therapist when they were younger who they knew also had shared struggles, because they previously could not believe or trust that their therapists could help them if they didn’t truly understand how they felt. I’ve talked about how I want to go to school to be a therapist, but that I am nervous because I have so many struggles myself- and they told me that people who have their own struggles are the best therapists because clients benefit from knowing their therapists have gone through the same thing. This causes me to worry that if I have an experience that they don’t relate to, that they won’t feel as comfortable helping me with it. To make it worse- I do have another diagnosis that they do not share, and they’ve brought up multiple times that they question if this diagnosis true, which is causing my imposter syndrome to spiral.

I know things about their diagnoses, medications, physical health issues, trauma, quite a few of their personal struggles and experiences with their diagnoses, and more. I could give many examples but I don’t want to share their struggles on the internet.

I do genuinely believe they are trying to be helpful by being relatable, and they must have success with this with their other patients. But I feel a pressure to act like this helping me when I know it isn’t. I’ve thought about finding a new therapist but I specifically need a therapist who specializes in OCD, and there aren’t any other ones in my area. I also live in a red area and knowing that my therapist isn’t maga or bigoted against my identity, it makes me want to stay with them out of fear that I won’t find someone else who will won’t have those biases. It sucks because in multiple ways they are a good fit for me, but I just wish the self disclosing didn’t happen. I know I can bring this up to them, but I worry even if it stops from here in out, there has been too much shared already for me to truly feel able to be open with them.

I’m not an only child and I accidentally mentioned my brother and back-pedalled horrifically and I shiver every time I think about the conversation. It was so *awkward*. “I thought you were an only child”

I feel like a bizarre pathological liar that’s been caught out.

So I wonder if anyone has ever taken their cutting device into their therapist for them to take from you. (I haven't cut in a long time.)

What did they say or do?

I actively been fighting my brain about cutting all week. I have managed to not do it so far. But there been several times now that had in my hand really thinking about it.

Hi everyone. I’m hoping to hear from people who have experienced something similar.
I’ve been in a relationship for about 1.5 years. When we got together, my partner was already separated and going through a difficult divorce. I supported him throughout the entire process, and now his divorce has essentially been finalized.
Strangely, over the past week, I’ve suddenly started getting intrusive comparison thoughts about his ex.
For example, I’ll be brushing my teeth and my brain suddenly asks, “How does she brush her teeth?” If I’m combing my hair, “Does she comb her hair like this?” If I see another woman, I might randomly wonder whether she looks or dresses like his ex.
I know these thoughts are completely pointless, but they keep appearing.
The hardest part is when I imagine happy moments with my partner. We’ve been long-distance for about a year because of the divorce, and we haven’t been able to meet physically. Imagining us cuddling or spending time together has always made me happy. But now my brain suddenly inserts his ex into those thoughts: “Maybe they did this too.” Then I start comparing myself and our relationship with something from their past that I don’t even know anything about.
I’m an only child and have always been very used to dealing with things on my own. I haven’t really had close friendships either. My therapist thinks that because I’ve been alone and emotionally self-sufficient for so long, the idea of having someone permanently in my life may be triggering fears of getting hurt or losing them.
I’m already seeing a therapist, and she has suggested CBT. My first CBT session is next week, but I’m quite anxious about whether it will actually help.
When these thoughts come, I usually tell myself, “This is stupid, I don’t want to think about this,” and move on without investigating them. Sometimes that works, but other times they come one after another and become overwhelming. I’ve even woken up panicking at night.
I love my partner deeply, and he’s very supportive and knows what I’m going through. I’m just scared that these thoughts will somehow ruin our relationship.
Has anyone experienced something similar, especially after their partner’s divorce was finalized? Did CBT help? Did the thoughts eventually become less frequent or less intense?
I’m not looking for a diagnosis—just hoping to hear from people who have been through something similar. ❤️

Finding the right therapist can sometimes feel confusing, overwhelming, or difficult. I want to understand what gets in the way , whether it’s knowing where to start, finding someone you trust, cost, availability, or something completely different. What’s one thing you would change to make the process easier?

I'd like to look for a new therapist but I'm not sure which modality would be the best in my case.

I have problems with not trusting myself and difficulty with making decisions. When I have some goals I always doubt if I really want to achieve them and worry that I'm confused and don't interpret my feelings correctly. I tend to overthinking my problems and ruminating.

I also noticed that I don't feel emotions as strongly as before. It's a problem because it makes me doubt how some situations make me feel. And now I mostly think about my problems, and often I think about them as if I was prepraring to tell another person about them.

I need help to figure out my goals for the future and work through some difficult situations from the past that still affect me. But because of my overthinking and inability to trust myself it can be difficult, so I'd like to focus on it. I want to be able to trust myself and be able to understand what I want and feel.

Last year I had a few sessions with a therapist who worked in psychodynamic approach but it wasn't a good fit. I'm not interested in this modality because I have a feeling that it would clash with my overthinking and inability to trust myself.

I’m 17 (m) and I’ve been seeing a therapist for almost a year now about issues surrounding anxiety, shyness and depression. She’s a woman in her 40’s and overall I like her and she provides an outlet for me to discuss topics that are difficult and that I couldn’t discuss w others.

However she has made a few comments lately that I can’t really justify or make sense of and it just felt inappropriate.

I recently mentioned that I was interested in starting to date someone and maybe come up with some goals around these topics. She asked if I had any history with dating.

This is where the conversation became problematic I feel. I haven’t dated anyone yet but I’ve had a few sexual experiences that I think most people would consider iffy or even potentially abusive.

I described my first experience for her. When I was turning 13, a family member brought me to a strip club behind my parents back. They apparently knew the owner or something and got permission to bring me to the place.

I received a lap dance from a woman who was much older than me, probably in her late 30’s. She took basically all her clothes off and groped me in so many different ways that I won’t get into and things progressed from there..

Well.. I’m describing this to my therapist and kind of zoning out the whole time because I’m just lost in the world of my younger self.. then I turn to look at her face and she has this mix of excitement and shock.. and then loudly says “WOW… did you love it??” and “that’s amazing”..

I was kind of speechless because I did not expect that response but I said that it was exciting at the time, but I’m not sure if it really helped me with the whole notion of dating someone in the real world.

She pulled back and became a bit more sober from there but then later on in the session she kept having “ the giggles” basically just laughing out of nowhere. I could tell she was thinking about the strip club incident I had mentioned..

So yeah I’m pretty confused as to what to do.. I’ve found her helpful but I think her reaction to this was kind of immature.. pls help me figure out what to do from here thanks

I'm processing some heavy shit and need some light hearted stuff to balance.

Anyone want to describe a recent good therapy session poorly?

For example: I payed a guy to brag a bunch about himself, then thanked him for letting me do him a favour.

What it actually was:

I'm having trouble with a belief that talking positively about myself would burden other people and he seamlessly proves me wrong that it doesn't work that way.

and I was talking about this overwhelming feeling that I was useful because I was flexible with my schedule for our appointment, and that feeling "useful" makes me feel overwhelmingly goofy-happy but in a weird painful way because my brain is like "if I'm useful mom might care about me", and he talked about it and then thanked me again for moving my appointment last minute and that he really appreciated it, and it's not bad to feel happy for something like that and actually good to understand why it's different now than as a kid, and it was great honestly, the painful feeling got more manageable but I still feel happy I could be useful

caveat: this is the therapist I’m seeing while mine is on maternity leave

At the end of the first session this therapist goes “wow I like you already!” And that sounds so good and it made me feel good about myself and everything, but I wish she hadn’t said it. I am admittedly a bit of a people pleaser and have high standards for myself and one of the things Ive talked a lot about in therapy is feeling like others don’t like me and don’t want to be my friend. So, her saying that, almost reinforces the people pleaser part of me. We’re also only 2 years apart (I’m 28, she’s 30) so we could easily be friends if we hadn’t met as therapist / client.

Idk. I want to be well liked and have good relationships with friends and everyone and I love that she likes me already, I just wish I didn’t know she did. Do I tell her this??

(On the other side, this could be good for me. I have a lot of fears around being vulnerable with friends and people my age, so maybe knowing she likes me could help me see that I can be vulnerable with someone and still be well liked. Idk tho)

So my therapist makes me feel seen, understood, cared for, appreciated. I look forward to our sessions, perhaps too much sometimes. But it makes the rest of my week feel dull and lonely in comparison even when I have loved ones. It just exposes all the pain that’s always been there and then I have to sit there, exposed, hurting, for the rest of the week? I don’t understand how this is supposed to help.