It’s kind of a neutral thing to say be honest. This advice is usually good to give young people or people who are legitimately in a situation where it will get better like grief of a recent loss that you have mutually experienced but to a lot of people this comes across as minimizing their pain, offering an ultimately empty platitude that doesn’t co-relate to their situation or as naive because sometimes things really won’t get better. Sometimes you really need to find a way to survive knowing you do so under permanent duress and that requires support rather than generic advice to grit your teeth.
Therapy is a great thing to recommend but anecdotes of how one person got through depressive episodes by sheer force of will and by doing something that can seem a monumental task depending on circumstances can actually make someone feel worse.
Not saying you should feel bad here. This is a very common thing people say particularly due to mental health campaigns targeted at teens but if you are looking for overwhelming positive feedback this might not be the way.
You are right, this was 30 years ago for me. I do remember the absolute feeling of helplessness, hearing someone else’s positive experience is less than helpful. But I stand by my advice to communicate, I had no idea at the time just that one thing can turn it around
It’s kind of a neutral thing to say be honest. This advice is usually good to give young people or people who are legitimately in a situation where it will get better like grief of a recent loss that you have mutually experienced but to a lot of people this comes across as minimizing their pain, offering an ultimately empty platitude that doesn’t co-relate to their situation or as naive because sometimes things really won’t get better. Sometimes you really need to find a way to survive knowing you do so under permanent duress and that requires support rather than generic advice to grit your teeth.
Therapy is a great thing to recommend but anecdotes of how one person got through depressive episodes by sheer force of will and by doing something that can seem a monumental task depending on circumstances can actually make someone feel worse.
Not saying you should feel bad here. This is a very common thing people say particularly due to mental health campaigns targeted at teens but if you are looking for overwhelming positive feedback this might not be the way.
You are right, this was 30 years ago for me. I do remember the absolute feeling of helplessness, hearing someone else’s positive experience is less than helpful. But I stand by my advice to communicate, I had no idea at the time just that one thing can turn it around