Even when it feels that way.
"As a therapist, I witness people of all backgrounds coming through my door, each often feeling alone in their suffering."
Mental health challenges can be cruel to us. Depression can tell us we are useless, pathetic, or stupid -- and all of these when no one who knows and loves us would agree. Depression can tell us no one cares, it is useless to try at life, and it would perhaps even be better to die. We may haunt our dorm or a late-night venue at 3 am, hoping someone will magically see through our eyes how much we are hurting. We may cry over and over for no identifiable reason, or be unable to get out of bed in the morning.
Anxiety can take over our whole lives, causing so much stress that it is painful. We can come to believe that every single person who sees us is judging us, or that we are about to die of a heart attack in the middle of a busy grocery store. We can become true slaves to our worry, isolating ourselves from friends and family in the process.
As people of this world, we each struggle with our own unique problems and challenges, but we share common themes when we suffer, and counsellors have strategies to help with these. Know that you are not alone and reaching out can make things improve. Life can be so much better! It's true we don't hear much about other people having mental illness, but that's merely because of the stigma attached to it.
My privilege is in being one of the people that clients go to when they need to talk. But the biggest gift is actually when a client doesn't need to see me anymore.