People Are Sharing The Most Memorable Things Their Therapists Have Said To Them

14. “‘That’s not normal.’ That might sound like a routine thing to say, but I’d spent so many years driving myself wild because I was so unhappy with my abnormal, lonely life. I was surrounded by relatives saying that I was normal and everything would just sort itself out, so hearing those words from my therapist felt like a huge relief. I’m not crazy, just fucked.”

15. “I told my doctor I was happy but didn’t have any reason to be. I wasn’t looking forward to anything, nor was I in a relationship, and he said, ‘Do you need a reason to be happy?’ I don’t know why, but it blew my mind realizing that it was possible to just BE happy.”

16. “What really changed my perspective on myself and my behavior as a child was when my therapist said, ‘I think you acted quite clever. You did what you had to do to get what you needed from your parents.’ I made up many illnesses as a kid to get my parents’ attention, yet at the same time, I always felt a lot of shame for lying to them. My therapist helped me see this behavior as a strategy to cope with the emotional neglect I’d experienced.”

17. “My therapist told me that there shouldn’t be any pressure when it comes to sex, and I should never have sex unless I want to. I shouldn’t have sex to be nice and I shouldn’t have sex only because my partner wants to have it — only if I want to. It turns out that when I got rid of that pressure, I realized that I actually really do like sex. I have other issues to work through, but that alone made a huge difference.”