Rant: It took me 4 months of weekly therapy to realize I was lying to my therapist the whole time

I kept telling her about surface level stuff like workplace stress or arguments with my partner because I was too embarrassed to talk about the real thing (my crippling fear of being average, which sounds dramatic but it's ruining my life). She caught me last Tuesday when she asked why I kept steering conversations away from my childhood and I finally broke down. Anyone else ever catch yourself building a fake version of your problems just so they sound more normal?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellyg143h ago

Have you read that article from The Atlantic about how people often build "safe stories" for their therapists before they're ready to share the real stuff? I saw it a few months ago and it made me think. I did the same thing for about a year until my therapist basically said "I feel like you're giving me a report instead of talking to me." It's hard to admit we're scared of being judged even by the one person who's paid not to judge us.

craig.grant3h ago

Yeah, my buddy did that for six months before his therapist called him out on it.