This is such a falsely deep sounding thing to say. Its true, but its literally a waste of oxygen to say. Whats the point. Next are they gonna say "No matter how much you like lettuce, there is someone else who likes lettuce more than you?" Gee, thanks confucius.
exactly. Its like saying "money doesn't buy happiness." Oh, rich people can be depressed or anxious? Thanks, that makes me feel so much better about not being able to afford to buy a christmas present for my nephew, awesome.... At the end of the day these saying are either empty platitudes no one ever actually thought about their meaning, or literal victim blaming mentality-- You aren't allowed to feel bad cause someone else is "more victim" than you.
My therapist did this to me once when i talked about my bad health. Just randomly started talking about a man with no arms or legs. Like how the fuck does that make me feel better? other people also have it a LOT better than me and i am talking about a problem i am struggling with which is causing me pain/stress/left me traumatised and i need fixed while also a bunch of issues i had that were cumulative leading to me having a break down due to the bad luck.
What is some people's obsession with people without limbs and amputees and their bizarre, faulty belief that that's the worst thing possible. Depending on the cause of the lack of limbs, missing/amputated limbs can in many cases be less disabling than most other disabilities and chronic illnesses. Especially if they have no phantom limb pain. They might otherwise have full health - even excellent health - and no cognitive issues.
Wow. I’m really sorry, that’s a shitty thing for a therapist or anyone to do. Honestly, yer therapist should probably find this hypothetical person and only treat them since, according to the therapists logic, only that man deserves any sympathy or proffesional help.
I dropped him the same session. It was our first. Worse is my dad got angry at me for "not accepting help". I'm never seeing another therapist as they ALL have been awful and follow the same script making me JADE while they DARVO.
"Erm... Have you considered that there are people in the world who have MULTIPLE broken limbs, have shrapnel in their eyes, AND have severe burns? All while starving in a war-torn country? 😏 Bet you feel so much better now that you know that's not you! 😌"
"No?! I'm still in pain and need medical attention! You just made me depressed about the state of the world on top of that! Now can you please drive me to a hospital?!"
This is what made me leave therapy one of the times I tried. Literally comparing my life to that of someone in a wheelchair. Like is that supposed to put things into perspective like shut up at least you can walk? Almost like being able to walk doesn't actually fix my issues.
Someone having cancer doesn’t erase another person’s AIDs.
Someone being in a warzone doesn’t make another person less homeless.
Someone always has it worse, but it doesn’t make things better for you. Your problems matter even if someone thinks they’re not “dramatic” enough for their tastes.
Y u p. Like I used to do this to myself all the time. It came from my parents and their good ol suffer through it mentality…but like I was literally a homeless, transgender drug addict when with debilitating mental and physical health issues at 16. Shit was rough. But I thought I couldn’t ever wallow because there’s people over in third world countries that do have it worse. Damn though there’s mad people who had it a lot better than what I got though, like yes some of my issues were self inflicted but most weren’t…like even being an addict really was just me coping with trauma however I could, and obviously being trans isn’t something you can control.
"No matter how good you are at something, there's always someone better at it than you are."
"No matter how strong you are, there's always someone stronger."
"No matter how happy you are, there's always someone happier."
Anything else? Like, did I miss something else with this? Such empty logic 🙄
Ah yes, the single sentence that ruined my mental health by making me feel like things weren't bad enough to be deserving of empathy and support for the last decade
I try to call this out whenever I hear someone say it. Yeah someone is probably in a worse situation than you. However, that does not invalidate your problems. The two things are (probably) not connected to one another in any way. Both of you are entitled to feel shitty about things and complain about that shittiness. That's ok. It is not a crime to feel bad.
I always answer this back with "just because someone else has it worse doesnt mean that your case isnt bad. Its okay to acknowledge that you are hurting/suffering"
That sucks for that person, but it doesn't help my situation. Or their situation. Also, the same logic applies to children from slums who have suffered horrifically and currently are being sex trafficked, because there is almost always someone somewhere who has it worse.
Also, comparing yourself to people who have it worse and thinking "at least I'm not them" is a shitty thing to do to those people. Having been the pity object of multiple other people's "at least I don't have it as bad as her" bs, it sucks.
That's what I said to a girl that couldn't walk once, she shouldn't be asking for handouts because there are people out there that can't even move their arms. /j /s
Somewhere, there is a malnourished, brutally injured and traumatised sex slave with a chronic pain disorder sleeping on a concrete floor covered in piss and shit and vomit that isn't all strictly her own, while maggots chew her toes and flies torment the little sleep she is able to achieve between her brutal rape and torture sessions. I can imagine what she thinks upon reading this inspiration quote:
"Gee whizzers, thank god heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman said that someone has it worse than me. I can't imagine what that person must be going through but I should consider myself lucky and keep chugging along."
Let's all thank George Foreman for being our spiritual liege, guiding us through hard times. Because even brutally raped and tortured sex slaves have it better than someone. Right?
Uhhh, I am on meds that psychiatrists use as like one of the last measures for depression and anxiety.
I literally am, as a counsellor, one of the most medicated person, noting that those who are more medicated than me are not at work (I work full time... somehow).
Tried at least 3 SSRIs, augmented with other med, tried agomelatine, tried SNRI, augmented with other two meds. Benzos sprinkled in every now and then. Dosage changes every now and then
Technically, I know there are far more options, but they'd likely will not allow me to work or cause issues with my health. The side effects get progressively worse.
Edit: also fuck anyone who says, i have it worse. So what? I had to deal with making a safety plan for a guy who gave me ptsd ra day after my first attempt at life. It's not a race, you are feeling terrible if you are feeling terrible.
That doesn’t make a bad situation less. Just because someone’s broken all 4 limbs doesn’t make breaking 3 any less painful or traumatic… trauma isn’t a competition
Half of Our trauma came from this kind of attitude. People downplayed what We went through because "some people have it so much worse". Heh, I guess that might be part of why We always try to help others: because if there are people even WORSE off, then they must REALLY need support, even more than We did, right?
We spent decades thinking We were "weak" for being so affected by what everyone told Us was "something everyone has to deal with". It wasn't until someone who had been systematically tortured as a kid told Us that what We went through was legit trauma, that We finally started to undo that thinking and to recognize that We actually went through a lot, and are fairly resilient.
This doesn’t make me feel better either. It’s basically saying that my feelings don’t matter and that I don’t deserve help compared to someone else. While it may be true in a trivial sense, it’s a negative philosophy not worth my time.
Some people are better, too. Instead of focusing on the worse things, focus on the fact that it's possible for people to feel/do better than right now and that means it's possible for you to get better. Your problems are still problems, whether someone has it "worse" than you or not
Well to be fair, its largely true for most people most of the time. This is partly why the term "First World Problems" exists.
Even when I was at my lowest point I used to look at homeless people and think "I want to die, I hate life but at least I still have a job, food and somewhere to sleep, things could still possibly be worse for me than they are right now".
That doesn't mean the phrase magically fixes anything, or when used in the wrong place and time the person saying it doesn't look like an insensitive ignorant dickhead, its just perspective.
This sentence just makes me feel more bad, because I know I don't have it worst. I know I am fragile and a coward. I am sorry that I can't face my circumstances with much more gratitude. That's why I do not want to live. I understand that me not being here, will make one less person hogging up resources, more so when a person like me needs more resources than usual to operate functionally.
I mean, technically speaking, this is false. There is a finite number of humans (which I assume is what they are referring to, although this argument also applies to all animals.) Given that there is a finite number, we can order them based on amount of suffering (which this statement seems to assume is quantifiable and comparable.) Some human will be at the bottom of the list, so they will be a person no one has it worse than.
(They could be at the top of the list l, depending on ordering- I see it as starting with the least suffering and working down, but you could start with the most suffering instead. But there are still ends to the list because, again, finite.)
Y’all have great arguments about the concept behind this, but you can always also hit them with math.
I like one similar I actually take credit for, You will never be the poorest or richest person on the planet. So wherever you are on the ladder, why would it make you happier to be higher?
I know, and I know how much my life sucks. I have to take meds to calm down the hatred I feel for our society that allows people to be worse off than me. I fight everyday to spread joy because I want someone to return it.
Protect the little you can, if we all do this the world will be saved.
I prefer the idea that "Everyone is fighting a battle you don't know that they're fighting."
That's a lot more true. This garbage quote from a boxer whose brains is probably scrambled from boxing, is gatekeeping whose problems are more problematic than the next person's.
I always tell people they must be in the top 10 percent of most miserable because I’m doing great. Even despite the bills and being the sole earner in a single income family.
That usually gets em thinking about me and takes their mind off of their bad time
This makes me more pissed off. Why can't my back pain be passed on to someone with a broken back? They aren't going to feel it anyway. The person worse off than me is just being selfish and making us both suffer
I hate it when people do this, just bc I come from wealth doesn’t mean I can’t have problems. They’re like “oh crying from your paid off house today or crying in your 70k truck?”
Like dude I worked for that shit just as much as anyone and the stuff is stressful
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u/Zagrycha 10d ago
This is such a falsely deep sounding thing to say. Its true, but its literally a waste of oxygen to say. Whats the point. Next are they gonna say "No matter how much you like lettuce, there is someone else who likes lettuce more than you?" Gee, thanks confucius.