That was a very humble thing to say. Giving a heartfelt apology when really it is not necessary, but you felt you needed to do that. This is where a lot of guilt consumes many of us. We feel guilty if we are not messed up enough, or traumatized enough, or abused enough to seek help.

I bring this up often with my therapist. Feeling guilty that I may be taking up her time that she could be giving to someone else who really needed it. Some people think my life as a caregiver must be very difficult to handle. It is. But I find that I constantly tell myself: "This is nothing compared to parents who are dealing with a child who has a brain tumor, or cancer, luekemia, etc..."

I belittle my pain because of comparing it to someone else. Think of this scenario. If you took a group of people who were all experiencing (or had experienced) some kind of trauma (emotional or physical) and had them write down their emotions and how they were feeling, I bet you would get the same responses no matter what the cirumstance was.

Things like: "I am afraid, angry, mad. I feel cheated. I did not deserve this. I am not good enough. I am worried. I fear being abandoned. I don't know what to do. I need help. I can't do this." The list could go on and on.

If you lined up every person in that room, and they held up a card that named why they were in therapy or what they are or have been going through, you would find that the emotions were very much the same for any of those circumstances.

The pain we feel inside is real. Everyone deserves to be healed, no matter how big or small their issues are.