I went though a lot of shite in high school like way more than I was able to cope with honestly but like one of the things I’ve learned not only from that but from being around people freshman year of college that had relatively easy lives or really fucking hard ones is that invalidating someone’s emotions is so fucking shitty.
You have no idea what is really going on in someone’s life, you have no idea if you’re getting the full story or if there’s a whole other fucked up part they’re too scared to talk about, you have no idea if they have some sort of mental disorder that makes a situation seems worse than it is, you have no idea if this is just the last straw on the camels back
Even if somebody is losing their mind and declaring their life over because of some trivial thing that wouldn’t bother you, if you’re response is to invalidate the emotions of somebody possibly experiencing the worst event of their life so far you’re a really fucking shitty person
Don’t contextualise what other people are dealing with in the conditions of your life and what you’ve been through. Don’t act like you have it so much worse than everyone else around you because you really have no way of knowing Don’t ask someone what they have to be upset about or blow their emotions off, the fact that somebody is breaking down and coming to you for comfort is an action of trust and invalidating their feelings is literally so fucking shitty
I used to think I had it so much harder then everyone else around me and nobody could relate to what I was going through and I hate how immature and petty that was of me because I honestly had no way of knowing, and it took me seeing this in people around me to realise what a shitty character trait it is but literally so many people do it
There’s always going to be somebody who has it harder than you and somebody who has it easier and that’s just something you’re going to have to accept.
Empathy is like such a fucking important thing and it isn’t just “I know what that situations like” it’s also “I have never dealt with that/I’ve been through that and it didn’t effect me in the slightest but who fucking cares because I still know what it’s like to feel like your life is falling apart or whatever” like yeah