Therapy can be life-changing. It can help you make sense of the past, embrace your complex feelings, and give you a fresh new perspective centered on growth. However, just because you walk into a mental health professional’s office does not mean that they’ll ‘solve’ all of your issues in a week. Therapy is an involved process that requires a lot of heavy emotional work.
One internet user recently sparked a very important discussion on the r/AskWomen subreddit, after they asked everyone to share the ‘ugly truths’ they struggled to come to terms with in therapy. Many users found this vulnerability to be empowering. Read on for their most open and honest stories.
#21
Medication will not make me better, it is just there to help me keep going.
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38points
#22
When my mom died, I realized through therapy, that I wasn't mourning the loss of my mother, but the realization that she had never been one, and her death made that definite. I'm honestly still taken aback by that one, years later.
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38points
#23
That I was not a "low effort kid". My parents raised me in such a way that i just, stopped having needs because it was easier than expecting them to meet them. It's still hard for me to admit that I have needs sometimes, and to admit that I feel pain because I feel they weren't met.
I'm still working on the part where I'm ugly and unlikeable and nobody will ever really love me. That one is tough.
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37points
#24
That I have developed codependency and it has pretty much wrecked how I view my relationships and how I act towards myself.
Oh and also, how trauma has affected the way I view people’s tones of voice and facial expression. This has caused me to be hyper aware of body language. It can be a good and bad thing depending on how you look at it. I can easily pick up when someone is uncomfortable, not saying everything they mean to, are keeping a secret, lying, etc. But it also makes me overthink and over analyze HAHA.
35points
#25
The reason my mean friends from 13 still effect me today isn’t just because I struggled to get over it, but because everyone in my support circle (family, other friends, etc) didn’t believe me or made it feel like it was my fault for not telling them until after I left that friendship
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34points
#26
Someone who is emotionally unavailable can often make someone who is emotionally available feel like their basic needs are too much.
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33points
#27
that if I want to heal I have to stop seeing myself as a victim. yeah some bad s**t happened but I can’t carry that and let it affect other people because ive victimized myself and am waiting for someone to come to my rescue
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29points
#28
It doesn't matter why someone did something, what matters is they did and how I feel about it.
I spent too much time agonizing over whether certain people realized they were being abusive at the time or if they were too stupid/imbalanced to realize it. Doesn't matter. Nothing excuses being abusive to another person, especially if that person is a child in your care. Having your own mental health issues isn't an excuse to abuse others.
Also my therapist wanted me to reparent my inner child and I have zero concept of how a good parent would treat a child and the idea of treating my inner child kindly freaks me the f**k out. I never got to be a kid and the idea of letting myself act childish is very upsetting.
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26points
#29
That my parents (mostly my mother) were/are emotionally immature and abusive. It was so normalised my whole childhood, I knew they weren't great parents but I didn't realise the amount of trauma I experienced until it surfaced in therapy.
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24points
#30
That my father in fact did not love me and actually committed real crimes against me. I'm not sure which was harder to accept.
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24points
