Shrink'd

The lesson I learned today is no one's pain is greater or lesser than anyone elses.  I was having a conversation with my friend about therapy. We were in a debate about whether therapy helps or hurts the people who choose to pursue the option. My friend said and I quote
"I mean, I have issues, but I think therapy should be for people who really need it. My issues are not big enough for therapy"
To which I replied,
" What exactly do you mean by 'not big enough'?"
He expounded by stating
"Therapy is for people who go through severely life-altering things and need assistance recovering from the trauma."
  He stopped talking  so I asked him to  elaborate further, he went on to say,
"Sometimes, I feel like an orphan. Everyone in my immediate family has passed. Noone in my extended family checks on me, unless I hit them up first. But I wouldn't go to therapy about it, because I should be grateful to have any family at all. Some people dont."
So I said to him
" I appreciate the fact that you are grateful for what you have. I appreciate the fact that you recognize that things could always be worse. However, just because they are people out there who are indeed wards of the state because they have no next of kin, does not mean you don't have a right to be sad about losing part of your family. Anything that hurts, anything that's rough, anything that seems like it can be overwhelming at times is enough to go to therapy and talk about."
I could sense he was uncomfortable with what I said, so I threw him a bone and changed subject. Nonetheless, the conversation stayed with me all day. Enough to write about it, obviously. If a person doesn't want to go to therapy because that's not the way they choose to deal with their issues, that's perfectly fine. What's not fine is not going to therapy because you think whatever it  may be that is bringing you down in life is not worth discussing. Simply because there's a possibility that someone, somewhere has it worse than you. Not to say that the notion isn't plausible, but no amount of suffering that someone else does takes away from the pain you feel, individually. Never,ever be ashamed of that. It is our right as human beings to feel what we want to feel and grow from it as we see fit. Always.